Fancy Nancy

28.6.09 - Nancy (Sunday)

We are now heading on our trek towards Brugge in Belgium - which is a bit of a hike so it will require a couple of stop overs on the way. The first stop is Nancy a little village in the "Lorraine" region which is famous for Quiche Lorraine.

The campsite is just on the outskirts of town and quite a nice campsite with lots of greenery and large shady pitches. We havent been able to find a supermarket for a while so we are a bit light on for food. So our first night at the campsite we eat at the local campsite cafe which turns out to be a great choice - packed with campers of all nationalities. Bob has the steak and chips (the steak is quite good for the Frenchies) and I have the salmon with tomato and white wine sauce. My dish comes with either fries or vegies - and of course I choose the vegies. When the meal arrives, I learn the vegies for the night are boiled potatoes! Oh well, the salmon and potatoes are delicious anyway.

29.6.09 - Nancy (Monday)

The next day we catch the local bus into Nancy. Nancy is a lovely village (or city really - it has a population of around 300,000!). We walk into the main square of the town, "Place Stanislas" which is a famous square - considered one of the most beautiful royal "places" in Europe - and I agree. It is an 18th century square surrounded by buildings which are on Unesco's World Heritage List. All of the buildings have finely worked, gold embossed railings by a local (long since dead) wrought iron craftsman and each corner of the square has a very large, beautiful fountain with similar gold embossed works - very impressive.

Next we walk around the old town in search of the Sunday Times (we need our fix!). Not an English paper to be found! So we pop into the Tourist Bureau and the lovely lass gives us a map and directions to a supermarket (to get some food!) and a bookshop that might sell English papers. We locate the bookshop without much trouble (thank God I bought Bob along!!) but alas, no Sunday Times. There is however a possibility that the bookshop may have the Sunday Times tomorrow but we are not enitrely convinced due to the young lady's interpreation of our English and/or our interpretation of her French!

Then we go into the park area of Nancy to have our home made baguettes (which are delicious I might add). The park is huge (I think 40 acres) and full of beautiful very old trees. While eating lunch, we watch a kindergarten teacher try unsuccessfully to get her 20 little charges to lie down under the trees and have a rest!

It is quite a hot day so rather than walk around town, we decide to catch the little "toot-toot" tourist train around the city sights (although, if asked, Bob will deny any knowledge of any embarrassing "toot-toot" train!). The little train takes us in and around the medieval lanes with what sounds like an English/Polish audio guide (interesting accent), and we learn all there is to know about Nancy in the olden days - very informative and a nice little ride.

On the train ride we meet Sue and Eric from Sydney. This is their 5th time in Europe and we meet up with them for a drink in the town square after the ride. They both retired at 55 (they are about 60 now), Sue from school teaching and Eric from working for the CES (Fed Govt) for 40 years!!. Sue gives me lots of tips about travelling in Europe while Bob and Eric talk motor racing (another motor racing enthusiast!). Sue and Eric have travelled by campervan but prefer to hire a small car (they have a Peugot 308 this time) and stay in B & Bs as they travel along. This sounds like a great way to go and when we compare costs, it seems like their way might actually be a more economical option that the motorhome! We think about travelling this way next time - just a bit easier to get to the smaller towns and narrower streets than with Frankie!

That night at the campsite we have a bit of trouble with the internet so Bob goes off to the office to speak with the campsite manager. The manager finishes speaking with a French couple and then looks at Bob. Bob goes to a great deal of effort to explain, as best he could in his faultering French and pidgeon type English, the trouble he is having connecting to the internet. The manager then says to Bob in perfect English with a pommy accent, "OK, give me your name and pitch number and I will give you another log in"!!

Then later that night Bob relays another somewhat embarrasing "incident" in the men's bathroom. By way of background, the campsites have different methods of controlling the use of electricity in the sanitary blocks. In some campsites the lights are on a sensor and will turn on when sensing movement, others you need to push a button whereby the lights will stay on for a few minutes until you press the button again, and others you simply turn the switch on when you go in and off when you leave. Well, that night Bob was in the men's brushing his teeth when the lights went out. He started waiving his arms around in the dark so that the sensor light would turn back on, but without success. Eventually, the only other guy in the room, who was trying to change his contact lenses went over and pushed the light switch on!! Bob tried to explain in his best French that he wasnt going mad, again without much success - the other fellow just nodded "we, we".

30.6.09 - Chalons-en-Champagne (Tuesday)

Bob and I are looking very wild and woolly again (or rough and rugged as Bob prefers to call it) - no haircuts for quite some time. So this morning, we leave the campsite but head back into Nancy to find a Sunday Times and a haircut for Bob. As we have the rig (ie Frankie) we need to find a parking area on the outskirts of town and walk back in. We find one without too much drama and then walk back into town. It is another hot day and we are quite sweaty. We spot a small Hairdressing Salon with two hairdressers (gender unknown) with no customers inside. Bob strolls in, hair a little on the woolly side, a bit sweaty and asks if he can have his hair cut. They take one look at Bob and say they are "comple" ie fully booked. Well! OK, we then head on to find a Sunday Times. We find the newspaper shop but alas, no Sunday Times. Oh well, back to Frankie and on the road again. A hot fruitless exercise!

Nonetheless, enroute to Brugge, we stop at the next disignated stop, Chalons-en-Champagne, a smallish town in the champagne district. The campsite is another nice campsite, lovely shady pitches and beautiful trees - and best of all, free internet, from our van - yoohoo!! What luxury!

When we first started out on our trip, we would watch with amusement other couples strutting around the campsite to inspect the pitches before deciding where best to park their vans. Once the site had been chosen then there is the ordeal of making sure the van is level. Bob and I would discreetly laugh at those people with me calling them "bloody fussy buggers" and Bob referring to them in slightly less complimentary terms.

Well, now that we are experienced campers, we no longer laugh at those people. When Bob and I finally choose a spot, we both get out of the van, me following Bob, hands on hips, strutting about, front and side of van, sychronised head tilting one way and then the other inspecting the "levelness" of the van. The conversation goes something like "what do you think darl, single or double chock? Left or right? One on the back?" - all absolutely necessary in the correct positioning of the van!

Well, anyway, back to Chalons-en-Champagne. It is a very hot day and hot night in Chalons so once we arrive and the van is level, we rest for the afternoon - which is not the usual way we would spend the end of the financial year, but a welcome change!

1.7.09 Chalons-en-Champagne (Wednesday)

We catch the good 'ole public transport into town - with no problems whatsoever - we even have a somewhat friendly bus driver! We go into Chalons again looking for a haircut for Bob and a newspaper. We arrive in the town square and spot a hairdressing salon straight away and in we go. Initially there are a few translation problems but we enlist the aid of another customer who can speak a little English. She explains that we must sit and wait our turn - OK then, we will! Bob goes in fairly soon afterwards and I read a magazine (well, look at the pictures - the magazine is in French!). Next thing I look up and over to Bob and I see an almost shaved, almost grey head with a tuft of brown on top (think American Marines!). Oh my goodness, what has she done!. She finishes Bob and I walk over to him - he looks at me with a look of horror in his eyes - but I reassure him with "dont worry, it will grow back". There is no way I am getting my hair cut there - I will wait until I get back home, no matter how wild and woolly I look!

We then walk around the town a litte and buy a baguette for lunch. Unfortunately, the town is nothing to write home about but fortunately the baguette is good. We try three or four newsagents struggling each time to explain that we are after an English newspaper from 3 days ago! Either no one understands or wants to understand what we are asking for! So we miss out on our fix for the week but instead pick up a Saturday Telegraph which is not quite as good but it will do. We also buy a couple of little quiches to have with dinner - of course, quiche lorraine and quiche provencale. Then it's back to the campsite we go, me and my "Marine, Bobby-Jo".

Although we are in the Champagne Region, we decide that we wont visit any winerys or Champagne Houses - we went on a Champagne tour when we were last in France (as you do!) - but we will have a glass of champagne tonight at the campsite. We buy a glass of champange each from the campsite bar and sit back with our quiches and sip champagne - absolutely delicious (both quiches and champagne) - a lovely end to the day!