France Blog

Hello Hello. Are we in trouble or what? Have had a few people ask - WHEN are you going to blog? So sorry, time has just passed by so quickly.
At this moment in time I have no idea where we last left off in our blog and I don't have an internet connection right now so I can't check so I am going to go back as far as I can remember and that's to Bournemouth, our last stop before leaving the U.K.For those of you who don't know, we found a church to visit called Wessex Christian Centre. Went to both morning and evening service and really loved it. A lovely couple (ex South Africans) invited us to dinner on the Monday night. It was really nice to not have to sit in a "box"and eat supper. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and plan on visiting them in a few weeks time.
We then made our way to Dover to catch the ferry to Calais. This ferry cost us a third of the price of when we first caught the ferry from Calais to Dover. Why, I just don't know. It was the same shipping line just a different time that we sailed. The first trip was done at midnight which we were told was the cheapest! This time round we caught the ferry at 4:30pm.
We arrived in Calais, originally planning to have driven straight to Paris, Eurodisney but we discovered that the drive was about 2 more hours than we thought so we decided to find a place to camp for the night. We camped next to a small river quite near the port. The next morning, Dean realised that his credit car was missing. So off we went back to the petrol station that we had been to the night before where for the first time I had to speak French to someone - Either my French is really bad or he just chose to not listen to me. I tried in every way possible to explain that my husband had lost his credit card, showed him mine so he knew what I was saying, but to no avail. He eventually called his assistant, who was not their the night before, and I explained to her. She understood me, opened the draw and there was Dean's card. Well did we breathe a sigh of relief.Dean informs me, that he was in absolute awe of the French babe the night before who he paid for the petrol so that's why he forgot his card.HELLO Dean, I'm a French babe, I had to remind him!Anyway thank goodness we had made the decision to not drive to Paris the night before as we would not have been able to get the card back.
That morning we began our trip to Paris. It was a long drive with us eventually finding the Aire that we found in the Camperstop book. It was just a parking at a petrol garage but we were quite happy to park and not pay anything.
The next day we headed towards Eurodisney. 13 Euros we discovered, is what we had to pay to park and sleep over but this did not include electricity. Well after all we had spent on the Eurodisney tickets this seemed like a drop in the Ocean.
To cut a very long story short about Eurodisney or Mickey "House" land as Jetan calls it..... It was just fun all the way. Very exciting for the kids. Very tiring as well. They were like bulls in a china shop. We barely ate for 4 days and that's no lie. We had cereal in the morning, left the van at about 10am (that's when the park opens), then it is about a 1.5km walk to the gates and then of course we walked the entire day until 10pm the first night and 7pm for the 3 nights after that and then we had to walk back at the end of the day. Thank goodness, during part of the way, there are those flat escalators that you can just stand on BUT NOOOO not my boys, they think it's fun to run along the one going in the opposite direction!
After the 1st day at Eurodisney, we decided to go into Paris to see the Eiffel Tower (good tourists that we are). Well it only took 35 minutes to get there, we found a parking easily right under the tower. Were told by one of the locals that it should be okay to park as it was a Sunday (never mind it was the coach bus parking) however there wasn't one coach in site.
So off we went, to discover that going up the tower was just too expensive so decided the walk under was just as good. After about an hour we see in the distance a couple of coaches, well did Dean run or what. By the time we got back to our van there were about 4 coaches waiting to park. Thank goodness we did not get a ticket. Enough of this we thought and headed back for the short drive back to the park. Well that was wishful thinking. It took 3,5 hrs to get back. I have discovered that Paris streets are worse than London streets. The French just do not believe in obeying traffic lights and the traffic cops (no matter how cute they are :) are just no help either. Dean and I can definitely say that we have seen the street life of Paris.
The next day we pounded the Walt Disney Park Studios pavements, had lots of fun. On the 3rd day, Dean had an idea. I must take Jesse and Tanner into the park for the day. He will go and sit at the one hotel and check mail and clean up the van and keep Jetan. Although I hated being apart from him, I decided to go with the plan. At 2pm, Dean did meet us and brought us sandwiches to eat. The food at Eurodisney is just so expensive. A hotdog costs 4 Euros 70. There was just no way we could buy anything let alone any souvenirs. Well I was exhausted by the end of the day. Jesse and Tanner insisted on staying to the very last minute to watch the same end of evening celebration that they had already watched twice...When I got back to the van, Dean was doing his nut with Jetan. Jetan hadn't slept all day and had talked all day long.
The next day, sly Dean that he is, says okay it's his turn to go into the park (I knew this was coming) but I landed up having all 3 boys in the van for hours. Did I get the raw end of the deal or what!!!!
Leaving Eurodisney was bitter sweet to say the least.
Now that we had left the "safe haven"of Eurodisney where Dean at least knew he could connect to the internet, we decided it was time to venture into France. Both of us very nervous, him because of work and me because I knew the pressure was on to communicate.
We headed towards Beaune. For no particular reason except that it was on route to Lyon and then to Marseille. Well we landed up spending about 4 nights at the parking lot. We had electricity if we needed it and paid for it, and the wireless signal that Dean was receiving was the hotel next door so he didn't even have to leave the van to connect.
While going to the laundromat one day, I met a lady and we got chatting. Thank goodness in English. I told her we were staying in a camper van etc... A few hours later, she came to invite us to watch the Rugby Final. Now how could us patriotic South Africans say no to that!!! It was so nice to be warm, as we had been going through a very cold spell with the wind being really cold. I think I've sent most of you photos showing us all bundled up.
Our stay in Beane enabled us to recharge our energy batteries a bit. It was also so nice not to have to pay to stay somewhere each night. The night before we left, Tanner, bumped his tooth (he had injured himself a few days before while him and Jesse were kickboxing in a supermarket!). The poor little guy was really sore and the blood was gushing out. This left Dean and I in a predicament as the tooth that is currently hanging loose is not coming out naturally with a tooth behind it. It is actually bruised and hanging on. Now, our travel policy says that only in the event of an emergency can we claim back from them if we take him to the dentist but even to do this we have to pay the first R2000.00 and we can't claim that back. The next morning we had to make the decision whether or not to take him to the dentist. Tanner assured us that he was okay. We were nervous to not take him because we had already reported this event to the emergency helpline which means that if he now has a problem, days later, they most definitely won't cover his expenses. So the question I ask is:NOW WHY CAN'T THESE KIDS JUST HOLD ONTO THE JOLLY TROLLY WHEN WE SHOP!
We eventually left and made our way to another stop - Bourge-en-brasse. Found a place to stay, parked next to a beautiful church. Dean decided to leave at about 6am that morning and drive while the kids were sleeping. Good move!
We arrived in a place called Annecy. Now for those of you who are really good in Georgraphy or bother to actually look where Annecy is, it's not en-route to Marseille! Change of Plans again! We have decided to make our way to Switzerland for the weekend. We spent a good part of today looking for a place to sleep and looking for a hotel that had a wifi signal for Dean. We have found both and what must be one of the most beautiful places I have been. We are still in France but we are only 30 minutes from Switzerland and this part of France definitely has the flavours of Switzerland. I even saw a cow with a bell around it's neck early this morning. For those of you who know me, this is the one thing I wanted to see in Switzerland so I can't wait to see a whole bunch of cows! We will then come back to Annecy on Sunday night and spend the weekend here and then back to Switzerland next weekend.
The wifi hotspot is about a 3 minute walk from where we are camped so that's good for us. We spent the later part of this afternoon sitting near a lake (we are parked directly opposite from it) while the kids rode their bikes/scooters. Tanner, my crazy son, decided it would be fun to walk in the water. I don't know how he did it, it was freezing. I had my feet in for about 10 seconds and they cramped up.
It is now 9pm and Dean left the van about an hour ago to walk around the town. Jesse and Tanner are still awake and it's time for me to log off this computer because it is plugged into the campervan inverter at the moment. Oh here comes Dean and he is complaining that it is too hot in the van. I have only just switched off the gas heater.
Bye for now. I'm sure Dean will have a few things to say...

Latest update from Dean....
Hello everybody, sorry I haven't blogged but M has beaten me to it a few times. Personally I think Annecy has to be on par with the fjords of Norway in beauty. Clear crystal water lapping from the lake and mountains. In Paris, we decided to buy a generator for the camper. Unlike the U.K. where we were staying at C.L's (Farmer's land) with 220 volts to plug in, France is the complete opposite and finding power to charge the leisure battery of the van is a real challenge. So besides finding a tap to refill the camper water supplies on a daily basis, the responsibility has fallen on me to make sure that the pump which pumps the water for Marielle's shower NEVER should die at the most inconvenient moment. An error which would be held against me for the rest of my life. I therefore find myself filling up so-called generator on a daily basis with the french favourite unleaded petrol mixed with 2% generator oil sourced from a French"hypermarket"after peering at a bottle with french instructions on it for over 20 minutes. For all I know, I could be putting a mixture of rasberry juice syrup into the favourable generator for charging pump for showers for the queen. Please pray! If it sounds like I don't know what the hell I am doing, you have no idea! As it is, I haven't quite figured out how the "Queen"can use her hairdryer or hair straightener yet. Upon connecting the generator to the van, I found that a french generator plug does not suit a dutch van and went desperately in search for that little piece of cable that the camper dealer had given to me which I had stashed 4 months ago in the gas cylinder compartment.
Oh ja!!!! Since our little van has now travelled between continents and over 8000 Kms, it is important to share this piece of advice with future travellers. In Holland, they provide you with beige gas cylinders with Type A hose plugs which do not work when refilling gas in the U.K, where we were lucky enough to be lent a 15K bottle by friends. I then stored the old Dutch bottles alongside the new larger U.K. bottle which we then used while travelling around the U.K and on entering France.However, as "Queen"was having her daily shower powered by above-mentioned pump and generator the steam which normally is associated with the hot water powered by English gas abruptly began to disapate leading to screams of "where is the hot water? (expetives deleted)". I rushed to check what could be tweaked in this moment of despair, only to find that we were running out of U.K. gas and had no French gas to replace it, which led to an urgent visit to a gas shop the next morning. After much searching and stressful map reading (GPS did not know where the gas shope was and kept on taking us down a narrow cobbled street), I finally ditched M and the kids parked on the side of the road and sprinted to the shop reaching the shop at 11:59am (Please note all shops close at 12 each day in France). I walked into the shop and said "Do you speak English"and was met with the official "NO!". "Bonjour" I said while holding up my U.K. gas cylinder fitting. "Propane"he asked, shaking his head. In my best hand signalled French I explain to him that I needed a Butane Gas cylinder fitting to stick on the newly acquired french bottle for heating for water for "Queen"now sitting in van with glum look on face.
Well it's now 2 days later and Dean never got to finish his update but I think it's time we upload this blog otherwise we'll be back in S.A. before we do it.
We have tons more to write of events in the last 2 days but that will come in another blog.