France

We get one of the last parking spaces at the thermal bath. The site has no toilets or showers, but the facilities in the thermal bath can be used. However, the way can be quite long, depending on where you are. For the shower you would have to buy a ticket for 3 EUR. The place is well suited for a stopover. We take a nice walk through the beautiful spa park with its many extraordinary trees. And in the beer garden we find a nice place for a delicious dinner.

As always in France, the journey was quite relaxed. We arrive safely and meet camping friends here. We want to start our tour of France from here. Originally we were going to the south of France, but since the corona situation is already quite tense there, we are changing our travel plans and will decide every day how to proceed.

We're going on a bike tour to Santenay. It's a wonderful tour along the Canal du Center. We will visit the Canal several times during our trip. Together with 2 other canals, it forms a canal chain that allows a transition from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. In Santenay we visit the Château, the roof of which is covered with the typical Burgundian colored tiles. The red wine from Santenay has made the town world famous, and the prices are correspondingly high. What inspires us on the entire tour through France are the beautifully designed and planted roundabouts, bridges and flower beds on the roadside. The flower boxes on the bridges are literally overflowing with a sea of flowers and everything is well cared for.

The campsite is very neat and well-kept and also well attended, but not crowded.

We cycle to the old town of Paray-le-Monial and take a nice tour. We visit the basilica, whose two-door facade is reflected in the water of the river flowing by. The town hall from the 16th century, the former town house of a rich cloth maker, in the Renaissance style with its yellow facade, is particularly interesting for its decorations. Shell ornaments and medallions with portraits of French kings cover the entire facade.
The place is not very crowded and the operator is very friendly. The pool is clean and well tempered. Really refreshing after a warm day!

We cycle to Digoin, always along the Canal du Center to the famous canal bridge. Here the canal crosses the Loire - a particularly impressive structure. The bridge is 243 m long and has 11 arches and 10 pillars. The trough is 6 m wide and 2.30 m deep, its bottom is 8.30 m above the Loire. It is lined on both sides by a 1.75 m wide towpath, which is great for cycling through the canal and crossing the Loire.

On the recommendation of the campsite operator, we cycle again in the evening to Paray-le-Monial. The entire old town is illuminated with many spotlights and lights, the town hall and the church opposite and of course the basilica shine particularly beautifully. The lights are reflected in the water and the bridge is also a great photo opportunity.

The French camping chain Les Castels has specialized in campsites at castles. These are exceptional campsites that want to keep the spirit of the family alive, open their parks to campers and thus earn money for the high costs of maintaining the castle and park. The place we visited has a great ambience with a castle, spacious parking spaces in the shade of ancient and sometimes rare trees. The pool is also well laid out and we use it extensively in the evening. The sanitary facilities are housed in the small outbuildings, which were probably stables or apartments of the employees in the past. Everything has a special charm, but is clean and well equipped. The tiles in the showers are extraordinary, almost antique. The place is hardly visited, we are almost alone on the huge area.

The place is well filled, but not full. The sanitary facilities are regularly cleaned and disinfected. All the loungers at the pool have been cleared away, so you don't meet many people here, but we still enjoy the evening swim after a warm summer day.

We cycle on the wonderfully laid out bike path always along the coast, past the port of Royan with the countless yachts, to the lighthouse at the Gironde estuary and after passing another beautiful bay we stop at the Acapulco Bar. We enjoy a cool cocktail and the fantastic view of the Atlantic. We cycle on to Meschers. On our last visit 2 years ago, we ate delicious here. This time we forego in view of the crowded restaurants and the small distances between the tables.

The next day we cycle in the other direction. Here, too, the bike paths are wonderfully laid out, we cycle from one beautiful bay to the next - in the sunshine and in the shady forest, past the golf resort - to La Palmyra. Here we find a nice restaurant with a view of the sea. It's not that crowded here and we find a table on the edge and delicious food.

The sunsets by the sea are of course fantastic, bathing everything in a red-golden light - always worth seeing!

The course is only 300 m from a wonderful sandy beach and only 7 km from La Rochelle. It has a great pool area with a covered swimming pool, an outdoor pool with large slides, a whirlpool and many small pools. The lush vegetation on the square is well-kept and the sanitary facilities are clean.

We cycle to La Rochelle. We pass the huge marina, which is approx. 4000 berths is the largest seaport in Europe designed for pleasure craft. The view over the yachts to the old town is just great! Then it's on to the market hall. As everywhere in France, it is richly stocked with specialties from the region. Our camping friends enjoy a portion of fresh oysters and we get truffle cheese and a good bottle of wine for dinner. Right around the corner we find the bunker museum, housed in the basement of an inconspicuous residential building. A black cat was the emblem of the 3rd German submarine flotilla, which was stationed in La-Rochelle. The Germans occupied the port city for five years; Under the hotel where the Nazi officers stayed, they had an air raid shelter built with space for 62 men and a spacious bar. Absolutely worth seeing! Unfortunately, the filming location for “Das Boot” in La Pallice can no longer be visited, the site is cordoned off well in advance. On the way back through the old town and the harbor, we pass the Ferris wheel and quickly decide on a ride. We are rewarded with a fantastic view over the city and the harbor to the sea.

Today we take a boat out onto the Atlantic, the view back to La Rochelle is stunning. Our destination is Fort Boyard. The fort has an oval ground plan, is 61 m long, 31 m wide and 20 m high. In 1801 Napoleon began this strategically important work. Due to strong currents and the tides, construction could only be carried out in summer and at low tide. Completed in 1857, the fort was hardly of any military importance, in the meantime it served as a prisoner of war camp and prison. We enjoy the boat tour in summer temperatures and a light sea breeze, even if mouth and nose protection is a bit annoying.

On our onward journey we make a stop in the medieval town of Parthenay. The city lies on the banks of the Thout and has many listed buildings: citadel, castle, city wall with towers, bridges and city gate and many beautiful half-timbered houses. Coats of arms and explanations are attached to many facades, everything is very interesting and absolutely worth seeing! We stop at the Brasserie Le Coupé Gorge - great ambience, small stage for live concerts and a terrace right on the river. 8 different beers are brewed here, some according to long-forgotten recipes.

We visited the place last year on our Loire tour. The sanitary facilities are clean, but some things are defective and urgently need to be repaired!

We cycle on the Loire cycle path to the Pont de Langeais, a beautiful 360 m long suspension bridge over the Loire. In the center of Langeais is one of the oldest castles in the Loire. A drawbridge leads to the courtyard and park. The castle became famous in 1491 when the wedding of King Charles VIIII and Anne de Bretagne took place here. Langeais is a magical place, very clean and well-kept.

In the afternoon we cycle to the technology museum of Maurice Dufresne in Marnay. It is the work of a passionate collector, a huge area with a lot of old technology. In large halls there are machines, cars, trucks, motorcycles, landscaping and military machines, weaving machines, wine filters, even an original guillotine, 3000 great exhibits! The men are thrilled!

At the campsite we have a large meadow almost to ourselves, the sanitary facilities are very simple, but clean. Briare has many canals, a small marina, a beautiful church with interesting mosaics. We cycle through Briare and admire the lush bridges, beds and planters. Our destination today is the Briare canal bridge. It is 662 m long and a real work of art. The trough holds approx. 14,000 tons of water and rests on 14 pillars in the river bed, the bridge is 9 m above the normal level of the Loire. Towpaths and lamps were set up on both sides of the watercourse, as well as two brick candelabra. A nice photo opportunity and point of attraction for tourists.

We cycle to Gien. From afar you have a great view over the Loire to the castle of Gien, which dominates the city. The Gien Bridge was fought over during World War II. In June 1940, the German air force bombed the Gien bridge in order to cut off the possibility for the French army to retreat across the Loire. The air raid triggered a major fire that destroyed 80 percent of the city. Only the castle survived the bombardment almost unscathed. We are a little depressed by the history of the city, but we can still enjoy our lunch on the banks of the Loire.

The last stop on our trip to France this year is Verdun. Like all other places on our tour, the Les Breuils campsite is only moderately full, so you can easily get out of the way! The sanitary facilities are ok, the place also has a pool, but the weather is now a bit cooler and more autumnal, so we don't use it. But in the small bistro we get a cool after-work beer in the evening. The city of Verdun on the Meuse and its surroundings were the scene of the Battle of Verdun in 1916, one of the bloodiest battles of World War I. The battle lasted from February to December 1916, the city suffered severe destruction and some villages in the surrounding area were completely destroyed. 170,000 French and 150,000 German soldiers died in the battle that became a symbol of war.

We want to visit Fort Douaumont first, on the way we cycle through a forest with hundreds of hills, this is where the positions and trenches were once. The fort is a huge fortress - built between 1885 and 1913. In February 1916, German soldiers took the fort almost at a stroke. We walk through the underground rooms of the fort, it must have been horrific to live and fight here, for German and French men! We cycle on to the ossuary. The bones of over 130,000 unidentifiable French and German soldiers who were picked up on the battlefields are kept here. In front of the ossuary there is a cemetery with over 16,000 graves. The crosses are lined up and create an impressive and at the same time depressing picture. The central element of the ossuary is the 137 m long vaulted passage with approx. 4000 inscriptions on the walls and ceiling.

After saying goodbye to our camping friends, we head back to Germany. We make a stop on the Main before we finally go home to Berlin. The conclusion of our trip is quite positive. Despite Corona and the increasing number of infections, we had a great time. The campsites were not very full, we usually had a lot of space to keep our distance and thanks to the ACSI card also very inexpensive. The restaurants were often very full with little spacing (especially in the places on the Atlantic coast).