P****leen rengasrikko! Oh no! Flat tire!

Säälittääkö sinuakin aina kaikki tyypit, joilta puhkeaa rengas moottoritien varteen ja bonuksena mahdollinen vesisade? Yep, niin meitäkin ja pääsimme tämän omakohtaisesti kokemaan. Ilmeni, että renkaamme eivät kestä tarvittavia rengaspaineita lämpimän maiden oloissa, joten venttiilit alkoivat vuotamaan ja rengas tyhjeni parissa sekunnissa motarilla. Ei muuta kuin tien sivuun ja vararengasta esiin. Rengas oli niin tiukilla kiinni renkaanvaihdon jälkeen emmekä saaneet pultteja auki edes muutaman p****leen jälkeen. Jouduimme siis soittamaan hätänumeroon 112 ja kas kas, kun Ranskassa ollaan, niin edes hätänumerossa kukaan ei puhu englantia. Pomo joutui taas käyttämään ruosteessa olevaa ranskantaitoaan (joka muuten on nyt jonkinlaisessa terässä!) ja apu saatiin parin tunnin kuluttua. Tunnin päästä toinen rengas teki saman jutun, mutta silloin olimme jo pienellä tiellä ja ehdimme pysähtyä ajoissa ja saimme suljettua venttiilin. Majapaikka löytyi pian ja seuraavana päivänä rengasliikettä etsimään. Liike löytyi ja saimme erittäin hyvää palvelua ja kaikki venttiilit menivät vaihtoon. Koko show vei meiltä pari päivää…

Do you also always pity those guys who get a flat tire in a busy highway and as a bonus still a possible rain? Yes, we do too and unfortunaly we got this experience, but now we are driving again after all the troubles!

In France with our doggy / Ranskassa koiramme kanssa

Today´s ferry

This chapter is dedicated to all our dog´s friends as there came a wish to see pictures from her (and no, I am not jealous!)

Today we went with a boat from Royan to Le Verdon. It took less than half an hour. Not much driving today, we went to a camping in Montalivet and planning to stay here a day or two…

Playing and beeing "a little Dutchess"

Me and her Quality time with the "big boss" inside of the camper

MY BED!

As our dog´s basquet is not fitting inside of the camper, she always gets a chance to lay in it in outdoors. As soon as she is seeing it she jumps in it, takes relax and lays all feet up to the sky (she looks very funny indeed!). She has had so much fun in this trip and the amount of attention she gets, oh lá lá! It is amazing how she makes contacts to other people. She takes a very intensive look and starts steering. If that has no effect she starts to make this small sound and her tail starts to wave. If still nothing happens, she really starts to talk! And mostly yes, it works! She gets food from other people in campings. The other day she got a huge plate full of meat and some other leftover food from the neighbor women. Was biggest portion in her life! She really knows the way of charming and she takes all advantage out of it, what a clever little thing she is!

OH MY, OH MY!

My family hanged already in Finland this skull with “keep out” text in the back of the camper. Later on they were adding these smiling skull stickers top of the both doors and now they see people pointing us and laughing (if you ask me, I say these stickers are awful!).

Doggy sends her special regards to Ella, her dog friend. Much licks also to all her dog friends in Tapola, Rekola, Mikkeli, Leppävaara and Rajasaari!
Btw – today was first time that someone said after noticing that we come from Finland, – Hey, you are the people from Lord´s country! So far only comments we have heard are that you must have very cold there!

Belgian kautta Ranskaan / Through Belgium to France

The Brewery

I have seen now something from Belgium too. Since Belgium is known from its great beers, I was brought to see a brewery. In Belgium are still today hundreds of brewerys and most of them are very local. You can find beers brewed in monasteries, beers brewed in farms or middle of a city, beers with cherries, mangos, bananas etc, so you can find almost all kind of combinations over there!

Veurne - village in Belgium

Coast in Belgium

Belgium is known from french fries too, if you thought that the French people invented them, no no, you are all wrong! So I needed to taste the original “pommes frites” from Belgium, very tasty and so greasy.
I saw the coast of Belgium, kilometer after kilometer sand beaches. My family found already years ago this picturesque small village called Veurne near coast and they wanted to see it back. Small town square surrounded with small bars and few shops. Behind the square was a very old church to see. We were walking around and had one of my boss favorite beers on a terrace, how refreshing, cheers! Proost! Salut! Kippis!

Arrived in France, hmmmm, very tasty :)

Cayeux-Sur-Mer and the message in the bottle!

On the left picture you can see this same cross on the top of the rocks very small

After seen a little of Belgium we started to drive towards France. We were passing Calais and felt a bit sad to not have the possibility to go in England. To bring a dog there is almost impossible… Well we have to go there back one time! Our first night we were spending in a small village, Cayeux-Sur-Mer, straight next to a sea as the name is telling. There was a place which was meant only for campers to use free of charge. No facilities, but view could have almost not been better (this place we found because we got a tip, thanks Piet!). In the village were big rocks, probably 100 meter high. We walked top of the rocks and enjoyed the scenery. My boss found “ a message in the bottle “ there. It was done in a champagne bottle and we gave a closer look to it. Message was obviously made by a young girl from England. She was telling in this note in French that her name was Lucy and that she was on holiday in France. There was also a drawing from her family on it. Behind the message was their phone number and number was telling that they came from England. Pity that there was no email address or mobile number that we could have sent just a message that the bottle was found!

Beatiful Entretat at day and night

Next stop and night to stay, was in village called Entretat. There were already more tourists to see. In the center was a nice boulevard to walk, beautiful old buildings, terraces to sit outside. And once again, high rocks! We slept next to police station in a parking place, so felt very much safe :). In Entretat we saw this chap from Portugal with his bicycle. He left from Portugal in 2003 and has been cycling all over since then, even in Finland! (And hey (!) to our Norwegian friends, you have still a lot to catch, this mate was really crazy!)

Normandy, the D-Day 6 June 1944

First house which got free from the Germans

One of the D-Day beaches

St. Mere-Eglise, see the American parashooter!

Next morning we continued to Normandy. We wanted to see things from the Second World War, landing places from the D-Day 6 June 1944. Natural starting point for a tour around the sights and memorials is this first French house which was liberated. We saw some monuments too. Weather was bad, non-stop rain. We were staying first time a night in camping called Canadian Scottish. Stepped in and asked if they could speak English (thought so because of the name!), but no, only French which meant that boss needed to practice her French. Manage to book the place, got electricity to load stuff and shower was very welcome too!
We stayed 4 days in Normandy and it was impressive. Very touching was to see those thousands of graves from the American soldiers. This place brings you quiet. We visited airborne museum in St. Mere-Eglise, Omaha beach were was one of the biggest battles, Longues-Sur-Mer battlefield and many other interesting places trough all along Normandy.

Hey, looks like me! A French cider cup, how nice!

Mont-Saint-Michel

View up from Mont-St.Michel

Special regards to our beer supplier in Mook, hahahaaa :)!

We bought cider from a cidrerie, Normandy is known from its cider production and there are many small local producers. They produce also Calvados and fresh apple juice. Our last night we stayed in Mont-Saint-Michel. I have never seen so many campers in one place! We arrived there already in good time that we could visit the place in peace. It is such a beautiful place, but as you can imagine, it is very crowded in august. Campers were allowed to stay in their parking spot over night, so did we!

We continued direction Bretagne and had few nights over there near beach. Huge difference comparing the weather in Normandy or Bretagne, even they are so close each other! Normandy was around 20 c and Bretagne 30 c and sunny, even hot! In Bretagne we took easy few days on camping, not doing too much of anything.

At the moment we are staying in a parking place in west coast of France, near Royan and tomorrow we head direction Bordeaux. Someone told me that there might be some good wine producers...

This place had a cool name :)