Summer 2017 Seventh Post - Home!

14th September 2017 - Sereilhac
7299 miles

Having tried to escape wet weather fronts by moving down to virtually as far as one can go in south west France, close to Biarritz on the Spanish border, the wet chilly weather caught up with me again. Spells of warm sunny weather alternating with wet and chilly. So decided to call it a day and head back to the UK. Made a booking for Dunkerque to Dover on the 18th September, and headed that way. Followed a quiet route through the Lands and the Dordogne to end up in a place I had stayed at a few weeks back, Sereilhac, a few kilometres south of Limoges.

15th September 2107 - Marcilly-en-Villette
7463 miles

Quick progress for part of the route along the free section of the A20 from Limoges up to Vierzon, pleasant winding run down through the hills of the northern part of the Massif Central to, what seems to be the endlessly flat Berry region. Stopped off for the night at a pleasant village, just off the N20, about thirty kilometres south of Orleans, even managed a bit of a walk in the evening! Came across the large brick-built kiln shown below, turns out after googling that it was a brick kiln which were common in the nineteenth century in this region, the Sologne.

Tuileries de Pont-Long - Marcilly-en-Villette

16th September 2017 - Buchy
7631 miles

Through Orleans, then skirting Paris, Chartres and DReux to cross the Seine at Vernon, east of Rouen. After passing the impressive Chateau Gaillard, built by Richard I, through the Normandy hills to end up at the market town of Buchy with two impressive timber halles (open-sided market halls) in the town centre.

Les Andleys - Chateau Gailard

Buchy - Les Halles

17th September 2017 - Bergues
7835 miles

Some more free motorway driving to Abbeville on the A28, a rare experience in France most carry punitive tolls, gave time in the afternoon to search for the graves of two distant cousins killed in the Great War in France. I managed to find both cemeteries; one near Arras and the other close to Lille, and also their graves. I wondered if they had ever been visited by anyone else. Then drove onto Bergues a great aire adjacent to the walls and moat of the fortified town of Bergues about 20km south of Dunkerque.

Benvillers Military Cemetery - Pt Owen A Monery (1872-1915), Royal Sussex Regiment

Cambrin Military Cemetery - Pt John Monery (1876-1918), Royal Fusiliers

Bergues - Part of the Fortifications, mainly constructed in brick

18th September 2017 - Tankerton

7885 miles

Easy crossing from Dunkerque to Dover, the ferry terminal at Dunkerque has been re-built over the last year or so, Now very secure with four levels of check and army in place. No immigrants sighted. Stopped off at my sister's place in Kent for a couple of nights before heading back to Edinburgh on the 20th, a quick trip without any significant delays found me back in Edinburgh in nine and a half hours - but it didn't do the fuel consumption much good driving at 70mph on the motorway compared to my usual sedate, and of course economic, 50 to 60 mph - it's such a long tedious drive, it's best gotten over with as quickly as possible!

Some Stats for the Trip

Total distance                                               8335 miles
Fuel consumed                                             276 gallons
Fuel cost                                                   £1403
Average consumption                                 31.3 mpg

MPG - a tad lower than previous years, maybe more faster motorway and dual carriageway driving this year.

Total time away                                          174 days 
Comprising:
Number of nights on roadside                        5
Number of nights on aires                          102 - total cost 10euro!
Number of nights on campsies                    62 - average cost around 15euro a night