I'm writing this looking out over Bigbury Bay from our static caravan in Devon. The sun is shining, and it's really warm. The wedding went off splendidly, and although the weather was quixotic to say the least, it was dry and sunny when it needed to be - going into and coming out of church, and for the photographs outside church and at the reception venue.
My daughter picked us up from the campsite to go to the church, and then we dropped the car off and shared a taxi to the reception, so we could have a drink without worrying about driving. Of course, because I could drink, I didn't really want to, but I bet if I'd have chauffered a few people to the reception, I'd have sold my soul for a vodka or several. Such is life!
We drove up through Spain and France, because it's just too expensive in the motor home to go both ways on Brittany Ferries. Even allowing for extra fuel, and overnight stops on campsites, it still comes out at around half the cost of the shorter crossing. In any case, we enjoy it, because we keep off the toll roads and go through some fantastic scenery.
One thing that's really been brought home to me on this trip is that mainland Europe is much more motor home friendly than the UK. On our last night in France, we stayed on a lovely campsite on the banks of the River Loire in Vendome. It had a fantastic shower block and laundry room, and it was just a few minutes walk into the town. When we arrived, the warden had gone home, but another visitor gave us the code to raise the barrier, and said we could pay in the morning, before leaving. Apparently that's the usual routine there.
Come the morning, the barrier was raised, and if we'd have been so inclined, we could have just driven off without paying, because the warden didn't come knocking for his money. We had to go and find him to pay our dues. Our night on this beautiful site cost us 12 Euro including electric - just a few pence over £10.
When we arrived at Dunkirk in the early afternoon for the ferry to Dover, we couldn't travel until 10.00pm, because there'd been fog in the English Channel on the Calais route. This meant the ferries had been cancelled until lunch time, and people had been piling on the Dunkirk ferries. As we hadn't booked - we never do on that crossing - we had to settle for the 6.00pm Calais crossing. This was also late, because they were still playing catch up, and we finally got into the UK at around 7.30pm, which was several hours later than we planned.
We had a 4 hour journey to our campsite in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, so we decided to ask if we could stay the night on Oxford Services rather than have to do the drive in the dark, and risk the campsite being closed by the time we arrived. Yes we could, as long as we paid £10 for the privilege. I started to provide our vehicle registration, but was told they had it, as we'd been captured on CCTV as we drove in. If we hadn't have paid the £10, we'd have been fined £100 for unauthorised parking, even though the area designated for lorries and caravans was almost empty.
We couldn't even have a shower in the morning, and there were signs telling us not to cook or make drinks in the motor home, as it could be dangerous. The only danger I could see was to the service station's profits, so I brewed a much-needed pot of tea and felt very anarchic doing it.
On the odd occasion, we've had to park on a truck stop on a French or Spanish motorway, because we haven't been able to find a campsite, and I've been too tired to drive any further. That's the problem when there's only one driver. There's no charge, and showers are provided. They don't even expect you to buy anything, but we always make a point of having breakfast there before we leave, as a small 'thank you' for their hospitality.
You can also park for the night in lay bys or on the beach or in parks and forests in France and Spain, but not in the UK. We've always said the UK was not motor home friendly, but it was really brought home to us on this trip, when we paid the same to park on a car park with no facilities as we paid to park on a fully serviced site in a beautiful location. It's just one more reason why we prefer Spain to the UK these days.
