Friday 01 July 2011: Port-en-Bessin-Huppain -> Les Essarts
The guy at the campsite pointed us in the direction of Bayeux and the mobile phone shops so we could sort out our mobile and internet access. Hmm this turned out to be a debacle. We don’t have a French bank account and therefore can’t get an account, so we bought a prepaid card. You have to pay for the sim card, then for the prepaid card and we get the grand total of 8 hours in 30 days access to the internet, although we can top up so more. There is no unlimited internet and no mi-fi for our 3 modem. The solution according to both Orange and SFR is to use MacDonald’s! We pottered around Bayeux for a bit, which is a lovely old town and again great parking before heading off to Les Essarts. We followed the main motorway which isn’t a toll motorway and was in fantastic condition, so fast and easy. In fact the whole journey was extremely easy, apart from some roadwork’s in Nantes where we just couldn’t work out where they went, so after a couple of goes around in a circle decided to head to somewhere in the general direction of where we are going and picked up the road again.
On arriving in Les Essarts we find a huge fluorescent sign saying camping-cars, so when going past the municipal camping site which is complet, we find a field with quite a few other camping cars. It is very self sufficient, so we head back to the municipal camping site to ask if we can top up our water there and are pointed to a motorhome service point in the adjacent park, so for the grand price of 2Eur we fill up with water and head back to the camping car site, this time deciding not to traverse the hill field and stay near the entrance.
After parking and setting up Vinnie, we come across the only other GB van in the field and chat to the British couple who had also done the Tour before and who gave us some good advice. We wandered into town and had a drink at the local Tabac / Bar, finally finding a relatively decent white wine. They serve them in the smallest wine glasses here, so you think you have had heaps.
Saturday 02 July 2011: in Les Essarts
We had a nice quiet night in the camping field. The plan was to have a lazy day and a bit of a potter around town, seeing what there was to see and watching the Tour de France “machine” setting up. After breakfast, we walked the short distance into town. The village itself is unremarkable and many of the businesses were shut for the weekend. The bakery was open and was doing a roaring trade; the cliché appearance of people walking down the road carrying their baguette was well and truly alive! We walked around in circles for a little while (it doesn’t take long to walk the entire village) and then stopped in at the TIC. We were greeted in English by a girl who gave us a handful of maps and brochures, then apologised they weren’t in English. C’est la vie. One of the brochures showed we could get into the Chateau on the outskirts of the village, so we headed in that direction. We found an entrance gate and stepped through into the grounds behind a large, old stone wall to be greeted by an old man who informed us the Chateau was closed to visitors because it hosting some of the Tour machine.
We left what looked like an interesting old building and grounds, and then headed back into the village, stopping at the local butcher for some sausages and the market for some other provisions. We slowly wandered through the convoys of arriving visitors and motorhomes back to the campsite to catch up with a few chores and a general lazy day sitting under the awning on a fine, sunny day. Another English couple came over and asked about the campsite etc, they had snatched a campsite on the road, so if they got moved on they would come into the field. All afternoon the motorhomes rolled into the van and each time we wandered around the town, there were just more and more people – although I would say about 99% were French. We headed back to the van and had dinner. Dinner was started on the small portable BBQ, but unfortunately the wind came up just at the wrong time so dinner was finished inside on the hob. Scott said the local sausages and chorizo were excellent, even though they were washed down with one of the remaining cans of Guinness left over from Ireland.
After dinner we headed back out to the local square where there is a food festival with some jazz music. We meet some Australians who are following the tour for a few days and have a chat. My glass of wine was unachievable, so I was given a bottle which Scott and I shared – it wasn’t the best, but we are in France, it is hot and sunny – even at 9pm at night and the atmosphere is great. We then snagged a spot closer to the band and were joined for a French group who could speak some English and they gave us their contact details if we are in their region and we had a great time.
Eventually staggering back very late. It is still relatively light, and the nice council has put toilets near the entrance to the campsite along with rubbish bins, very organised. Although now there seems like thousands of camping-cars everywhere you look.
The fireworks start at about 11pm, but there wasn’t many and it didn’t seem to last long which was good.
Sunday 03 July 2011: in Les Essarts (Tour de France, Stage 2)
Overnight, Le Tour “machine” had almost completed all the changes to the town, so in the morning they were just adding a few finishing touches and erecting some barricades. The small town had started heaving under the weight of the machine and the visitors. After brekkie, we wandered into town to have a look around and were hoping to locate a vantage point or two from where to view the racing. It was just after 10:00 and people had already established their camps along the barricades, so we decided we had better find our spot and stay there too.
We found a suitable place just near the start point, far away enough from the loudspeakers but close enough to the action. There were company reps (some dressed in costumes) giving away trinkets and freebies; a family next to us had the collection of these gifts finely tuned and managed to amass several bags of promotional material (most of it useless junk). We did get a few snacks and a couple of hats, but as we don’t speak French we weren’t able to shout at the gift-distributors to pay us some attention.
At 12:30 the Tour Caravan started their procession along the race route. As they came passed they were also throwing freebies into the crowds, which attracted even more crowds to the already filled barricades. A small French boy continuously kept pushing at Scott and made himself a general nuisance trying to get some of the freebies; had he been smarter than he was he would have noticed that just about all of the freebies were thrown over the heads of the people at the front so that people could scramble for the pickings some way behind the barricades. Eventually all of the floats and oddly decorated motorcade passed and most of the crowds left, including the annoying little boy. (It seems the interest in the le Tour is mostly about getting “stuff” and not the cycling?)
At 14:30 the first team headed off on the Team Time Trial. We didn’t have a programme of events and of course we couldn’t understand the announcements, so we only knew which team was rolling off next when they arrived at the start line. The spectacle of the teams whizzing by obviously grew thin for many spectators (it was quite hot after all) so by the halfway stage, most of the crowds had left from near us and headed off for cooler climes or off to the finishing area. The penultimate team to depart was Team BMC with Cadel Evans, so we cheered them off.
As soon as soon as he came by, we too headed for the finishing area. To say it was packed there was an understatement. We tried to find a vantage to see the presentations but only the press had access and the spectators had to resort to pushing and shoving and climbing all over each other (Who said the French were rude and arrogant?) We couldn’t see anything of interest so started making our way back to the campsite, along with the thousands of others heading in every different direction. The French have some strange inability to walk in a straight line at a constant speed?
By the time we made it back to Vinnie, the field was starting to empty as a convoy of motorhomes started making their way to the next stage. We had a quiet dinner and a cold shower and packed up early in preparation for a fast getaway tomorrow.
Monday 04 July 2011: Les Essarts -> Lorient (Tour de France, Stage 3)
Le Tour stage today is Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon (198km). Having done most our preparations to travel, we got up early for brekkie and a coffee then headed out of town making towards the Tour, intending to find a place on the roadside in the vicinity of the feeding station mid-point during today’s leg. There wasn’t much traffic on the road (thankfully) and we ended up driving down some of the roads the riders will use, to find a spot a little further down track than we had anticipated, or so we thought. We pulled off the road into a mown field where a few other motorhomes had already set up and we got set up too.
We walked into the local village of Saint-Mars-De-Coutais and found the bakery. We did the usual French thing of queuing for to be served only to find they had already run out of baguettes, so we settled for another “ordinary” loaf. We popped next door to the small supermarket and grabbed some salami and cheese too. By the time we got back to the motorhome, a few more motorhomes and cars had parked near us in the field. Everyone is flying flags and setting up picnics; the kids keep clapping as anyone on a bicycle who comes past.
At about 13:30 the Tour Caravan came past. Yesterday, in town, the entourage set a sedate pace but today it was whistling through, throwing small packages of marketing material to those lining the roadside; some pieces flew very fast but I suppose they have been doing this long enough, we haven’t heard of any injuries! Through the middle of the Caravan came the team cars, jostling for positions on the limited space by the road – we discovered we are AT the feeding station.
We had a bit of a wait until 15:00 when the first riders were expected so we had some roadside lunch, how very French of us!
Afterwards, we went for a wander up the road a bit to see if we could find the Team BMC feed-station car, it was a long way up the road, so obviously they didn’t want to talk to us! We started heading back towards a better looking site than where we parked and before we knew it, the first 5 breakaway riders came through the feeding station, escorted overhead by five helicopters, ahead by a plethora of police, press and officials and then from behind by it seemed every man and his dog! We only had to wait a few more minutes until the peloton came through the station, collecting their feed bags and ditching what they didn’t want onto the roadside. We managed to get a Team Katusha and Team Lampre bidons (we later swapped the Lampre bidon for a BMC bidon with the Belgian couple who had parked their motorhome next to us). Kids (and adults) scrambled into the roadside ditches to collect every piece of paraphernalia, and people came through after the car convoys on bicycles scouring for any last remnants they could souvenir. By the time the last truck came through, there was not one piece of litter or Tour debris to be found; recycling at its best?
We wandered back to Vinnie and hatched a plan to get to the next stage that night, so started moving on as soon as we could. Within just a few kilometres we were stopped at a roadblock by the Gendarme who were directing traffic onto a small side lane where the cars were doing u-turns then waiting for the roads to open, but as we could barely fit into the lane, the chances of a u-turn were very slim so we just kept going deeper into very rural France. Eventually we found ourselves detouring the roadblocks and emerged at one of the main roads we needed, and ahead of the traffic that was probably still sitting in some side lane somewhere. We stopped to grab some (cheap) fuel (and of course a few km later we saw even cheaper fuel!) and changed the plan to head towards Lorient tonight.
A few hours of motorway driving later and we arrived in Lorient; which is much bigger city than we thought. There were some Tour-no-parking signs around but we didn’t see any down near the marina and the TIC so pulled up. The guy at the TIC did speak reasonable English, but wasn’t actually that helpful; he sort of knew something about the Tour being in Lorient but not much more. We grabbed some maps and glossy brochures and went for a walk through town.
Lorient is a nice city (although parts did look a little dishevelled and disused, especially down by the docks) but the central section was good. We found a restaurant in a main-square and decided to have a meal and a beer/wine. The local seafood was flogged as the special of the day, but Scott preferred a steak with “homemade” sauces and chips, whilst Tracy in her “best” French managed to order a pizza-like dish with the world’s thinnest crust. Both dishes were good, so we had a cheese platter too.
On the way back to Vinnie, we stopped by a car park where Rabobank mechanics and Garmin mechanics were going through their end-of-day rituals of washing everything and checking all of the bikes, then storing everything in the massive trailers. There was a small crowd of interested onlookers; Tracy was bemused they allowed people to get so close to the machines. We wandered back to Vinnie to grab the camera and when we left we were the solitary campervan and now there are six of us, including another GB van – safety in numbers we always say. Anyway by the time we got back to the team vans, only a few bikes were left to be scrutinized, including Thor Hushovdt which Scott got a photo –
we weren’t sure if they would appreciate anybody actually getting on it! We decided we should have one more drink and found, of all things, an Irish bar just across the road from where the mechanics were working. On the footpath next door was the portable kitchen for one of the teams ; we nosed around to see what was on the menu, all we saw was a tomato salad being prepared (without any “special” additives!) We had a beer and wine, exploited the free Wi-Fi to get our emails for the first time since arriving in France and then headed back to where we parked.
Tuesday 05 July 2011: Lorient -> Plouha (Tour de France, Stage 4)
Today is Stage 4 of the Tour, starting in Lorient and going 172.5km to Mur-de-Bretagne. We had a plan to see the start and then try to leap-frog the Tour to get to just before the finishing line, to see the start of the ascent and hopefully the start of the attacks.
We woke up to discover the Lorient volunteer workforce had already started blocking off the roads for the Tour; each worker in their issued safety vest, carrying a plastic bag with a drink and some Tour souvenir goodies! Before retiring last night, we spoke a British bloke and his son who had seen the Tour before and they suggested if we went to the start area early there might be a chance to see some of the riders as they begin their warm up routines. We headed towards the port area where the Tour machine was located but took a wrong turn somewhere and found ourselves in the very much less attractive port operations area. Fortunately, we weren’t the only ones to have this detour so we followed the string of people ahead and eventually found the intended destination.
The start area was already filling up with onlookers and freebie-hunters; there was no sign of any Tour cyclists, a fact confirmed when we re-met the English bloke and his son (from the previous night). Around the back of the starting marquee was a marina filled with some VERY expensive racing yachts, so we took a look there and then headed further down to the old WWII German U-Boat pens. This is where part of the ending sequence of Das Boot was filmed? Anyway, the concrete structures were massive and still standing, even after the continual Allied bombing campaigns. Very impressive, but the museum and tours weren’t available today because the Tour was in town!
Back at the starting area, we watched as the freebie giveaway continued, and then decided to watch the Caravan from near where we parked. The weather was starting to turn as we walked back into town; it was drizzling by the time we arrived. We threw some stuff we didn’t need back into the motorhome and grabbed some wet weather gear and umbrellas and staked out our spot on the small bridge near one of the many Lorient marinas. We had our Australian flag on display and that drew a few cheers and even a g’day or two; one French guy even offered to buy the flag. As we were standing there in the rain, a French man walked up and introduced himself to us; Eric was an teacher of English and asked if we would like to have a chat in English with one of his students at the very nearby cafe (he’d be shouting the coffee!) We went to meet Bernard (age 62, had been learning English part time for 4 years, retired 5 years after working in BNP Paribas for 43 years!) We had a great chat with Bernard whose English was more than acceptable (and certainly better than any pathetic efforts we make at speaking in French). Our chat was briefly interrupted to watch the Caravan come through town and to collect some obligatory freebies as they were thrown from the moving vehicles (today moving much slower than in the countryside, and many of the smiles were more grimace-like as the rain was now pouring down). We said goodbye to Bernard and Eric then went back to our spot to watch the Tour on the rolling start. We were interrupted by another Frenchman asking if he could interview us for the local newspaper and taking some information about our trip and what we were there to do as well as our tip for the winner of the race. The rain continued and eventually the riders came into sight. Today, Scott caught glimpses of Cadel Evans, Thor Hushovdt and a few other “names”, but didn’t get to see any of the other Aussies in the peloton, but we gave a general cheer for them all to do well. As the Team cars came passed after the riders, BMC gave us a toot and the HTC Team Manager waved at our Aussie flag.
We grabbed a couple of the marker signs (a favourite souvenir) and headed out of town. We plugged the destination of Plouha into the GPS and got onto the motorway. A couple of hours later and we arrive in the lovely village and found a parking spot behind the TIC. The lady in the TIC was very helpful and gave us some directions and maps. We went for a short walk through the village looking for someone to serve us lunch at 16:30! Needless to say, the only places open were bakeries and bars. Deciding we had some lunch-worthy food in the fridge, we started heading back to Vinnie when we chanced upon a Cave de vin (wine merchant). The lady in there spoke very good English, although she said her German was better; she managed to tell us enough about the area etc that we bought a couple of bottles of wine and some locally produced beers.
We drove out of the village onto the road the Tour will use tomorrow in search of a spot to camp for the night, hopefully near the feeding station for Stage 5. We crossed a narrow causeway over the roadside ditch into a field. We didn’t survey the site well enough before pulling into the field and in the attempt manage to drop the rear-left wheel off the top of a small anthill into a sufficiently deep hole, well camouflaged by the surrounding grass. With the recent rains making things slippery, we were stuck with three wheels on the flat, wet, long grass and no traction, and one wheel in a deep hole! We tried in vain to un-stuck ourselves, until eventually Scott flagged down a bloke on a tractor as he was driving down the road. He didn’t speak any English, but with enough hand signals and pointing he understood our predicament. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any rope or chains on his tractor so couldn’t immediately help, but he did call someone on his mobile and eventually another bloke showed up in a car with some chains. Of course, as a Murphy’s Law would dictate the chain hooks were too large to fit in the towing eye, but with a bit of ferreting he managed to get it “close enough”. A gentle pull from the large tractor was all that was required to free Vinnie’s wheel from the hole; we paid the fellows handsomely for their generous help with a bottle of red and large bottle of locally brewed beer (purchased only an hour earlier from the Plouha Cave de Vin!)
Whilst working to free Vinnie’s wheel from the hole, Scott was constantly under attack from the ants whose nest he had disturbed. Their bites were painful and were causing a very irritating and painful rash on his legs and arms. As soon as Vinnie was free, a wash with some warm soapy water, a few anti-histamines and a painkiller slightly improved the situation; drinking the sole remaining locally brewed and purchased stubby bottle of beer made things just a little better again.
We settled in for dinner and another night in the rough, waiting for the next stage of the Tour.
Wednesday 06 July 2011: Plouha -> Dinan (Tour de France, Stage 5)
Camping rough on the side of the road has its benefits; it’s cheap, but it’s also very noisy. The traffic wasn’t heavy at any particular time but it was constants all during the night, and our bed is just a metre or two from the road. Already being in the place where we need to be has its benefits too; we didn’t have to get up early and rush anywhere.
We eventually pulled ourselves out of bed and had some coffee and muesli for breakfast. We are just 2.5km outside Plouha, so Tracy decided to walk into town to get some provisions; some fruit, ham and cheese, and of course the obligatory baguette. Scott went for a run, initially in the opposite direction and then back into town to meet up with Tracy in the village and then run back to Vinnie with Tracy walking, arriving a few minutes later. Shortly after the caravan went through we found ourselves blocked in by the Leopard Trek feed car, so yet again we found the feed station all by mistake. This turned out to be a good idea when the Saxobank feed person dropped all their bags and we managed to score a complete feedbag consisting of 1 bottle of water, 1 bottle of powerade, 1 small can of coke, two power bars, two power gels and a Panini of nutella and banana.
After the race had been through we decided to head into Dinan where the tour was starting tomorrow, so joined the queue of people that also had the same idea. We headed for the Municipal camp ground of Chateaubriand and got a spot, no idea why this was not absolutely packed as it was perfectly situated for everything plus had the luxury of hot showers.
We left Vinnie and walked into town and past the tour village being set up and followed the medieval steps and walls into the main cobblestone streets. This is a beautiful town and full of interesting buildings and streets. We wandered around following part of the tour route and found a pizzeria for a pizza and wine. Dinan was originally founded in the 11th century and is famous for its half timbered houses. Although these now appear to be falling down it is still interesting. The town is also surrounded by Ramparts which extend for nearly two miles and include a Keep, 10 watch-towers and four monumental gateways which give you views of the city and surrounding countryside.
