The Italian Adventure - Part 3: The Way Home

After spending a wonderful weekend in Lake Como for a beautiful wedding it was time to start the journey home.  We had two nights to break up the journey on the way back but we had learned a few things from the journey down that helped us out on the way back:

• It is much wiser to input your final destination into the sat nav (even if you are not intending to drive there in one blast) and then find suitable stopover points along the way thus avoiding going off route too much
• Electric hook-up when stopping for one night isn't compulsory when you're doing so much driving as the batteries have plenty of time to charge up to easily get you through the night
• If in doubt stop off at one of the service stations to stock up on your essentials just in case you don't find a supermarket near to where you are staying, or worse, they are closed.
• Wine tends to be cheaper than beer in France and Italy if you are fond of an alcoholic beverage as we are.
• Spend a few moments taking in your surroundings and enjoy the adventure

For the journey home we decided to power through Switzerland and get through as much of France as we could before stopping but sometimes things don't go entirely to plan.  We encountered some of the heaviest rain we had ever seen as soon as we crossed the border from Italy into Switzerland.

Then we came across a wall of traffic while trying to enter a tunnel (even though the diversion we attempted fully backfired on us as they had closed all the entrances onto the motorway that we tried).

About an hour later we arrived at the tunnel entrance and we were on our way again.  We couldn't figure out why but they were only allowing a few cars through at a time - we think this might have been because our sat nav had directed us through the new San Gotthard tunnel which is over 35 miles long!

Several hours of driving later including a service station stop to pick up some much needed  (and wonderfully local) wine we arrived at Les Portes d'Alsace Campsite which was approximately one mile from Saverne.  We found the site as it was listed on the Camping and Caravanning Club and Caravan Club websites but unfortunately there was no discount to be had and we paid around 24 Euros for our pitch with electric hook-up included.



Much to my surprise, this campsite didn't seem to have a restaurant or bar onsite (or maybe we were too tired to notice?) so we cracked open a bottle of the local wine we had purchased and settled in for the evening.



The campsite did seem to have a nice swimming pool though.



If only we hadn't been so tired and time-constrained otherwise I would have loved to spend more time exploring Saverne.  Still, we have noted it down as a place to re-visit in the future.

The next day after catching up on some much needed sleep we drove all the way to Calais and stayed at a lovely campsite called La Bien Assise.  We had our apprehensions as this site was so close to the port but we needn't have worried, it was part of the Les Castels group just as the lovely campsite we had stayed in as our first stop on the way down.

We did manage to get a discount here as we only have a small 'camping car' and we were only staying for one night.  They gave us a nice pitch with electric hook-up included for less than 20 Euros.



We met lots of nice people here who were either starting their adventures or going home and it was an especially important night for us as England were playing Iceland in Euro 2016 so to find a bar with a TV showing the football was very welcome (it was just a shame about the result!)



The campsite was very close to the Eurotunnel terminal and we took advantage of that by going shopping at the Carrefour Hypermarket before our crossing and picking up some bargains (and lots of wine!)

We really enjoyed our adventures through France, Switzerland and Italy and we are really looking forward to another visit in a couple of months time for another wedding but our destination will be Lake Garda for that adventure...

The Italian Adventure - Part 1: France

We were invited to a friend's wedding in Lake Como, Italy so we decided to drive there in the Cali.  After some deliberation we decided not to pre-book any campsites along the way and we didn't even really properly plan our route. We booked the Eurotunnel and we had a hotel booked in Lake Como but that was it.  We knew we wanted to stop somewhere near Champagne in France and then somewhere near Lake Lucerne in Switzerland on the way down so that was a good enough plan for the time being.

We couldn't take the dogs with us so they had their own holiday being looked after in the UK and before we knew it we were dropping them off and setting off for Folkestone.  I hadn't been on the Eurotunnel before so I was quite excited (I'm a bit geeky like that!)  We arrived a bit too early and hoped to get on an earlier train but they were all full so we parked up, had a coffee inside the terminal and did some shopping.  

Getting on the train was pretty uneventful and not the most glamorous affair but we had some sandwiches in the fridge for lunch and the time passed very quickly.  You don't lose any phone signal for the crossing so you can continue to surf the net and use social media for the duration.  My only tip would be to make sure you go to the bathroom before getting on the train because it can be a long walk!

The weather in France was gorgeous, the French toll roads were a pleasure to drive on and the VW Sat Nav seems to work better in France than it does in the UK! After several hours of driving we were tired and hungry so we found an Intermarché and bought some bread, cheese and wine for dinner.  We arrived with only 20 minutes before closing time at 7pm which was lucky and then we set off for the nearest campsite.  

The campsite was called Camping La Forge de Sainte Marie and it is part of the Les Castels group of campsites in France.  It is also a Camping and Caravanning Club and Caravan Club listed site so if you are a member of either you should be able to get a discount here.

What a find this campsite was...it had an onsite bar/restaurant with a terrace overlooking a lake, onsite swimming pool and excellent facilities.   

It was probably a little more than what we needed for a one night stop over but at less than 20 Euros per night for a secluded pitch with electricity in a beautiful part of France you can't really go wrong.

When we arrived the reception was closed as it was after 7pm so they checked us in at the bar, we filled out a form and they gave us a couple of pitches to choose from.  It had been very wet in that part of France so we picked the one that seemed the driest, locked the Cali and went to the bar/restaurant for a cold (and well deserved) couple of beers in the sunshine.

The food menu looked so good that we decided to eat  there too, we didn't want too much as it was quite late (even though the steaks looked very edible) so we settled for a salad each and they were not disappointing.

Suitably fed and watered (or beer-ed), we headed back to our pitch and cleaned some of the thousands of flies we seemed to have acquired on the windscreen/bonnet and enjoy the evening.

We went for a run the next morning in the beautiful countryside to prepare us for a day of driving, paid at reception for our pitch and soon it was time to hit the road again...destination: Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.