We are Marianne and Chris and we have been traveling since May 2018
and for the past six months, we've been preparing ourselves and our van Trudy
a 15 year old Fiat Ducato, for our next epic adventure.
Which will see us drive around the world.
In our last episode, we said goodbye to our family and friends, old and new.
We headed South, and on the way we stopped off and picked up our friend Annabel,
who will be joining us for the first leg of our adventure.
And this episode starts, after we've arrived in Dover and we're waiting to get our ferry over to France.
Ha Ha !!! So we always get stopped at customs, which is never a bad thing, but I think it's because they see the
branding on the van, and they want to have a chat, have a look inside,
make sure there is nothing naughty going on !! Exactly !!
which is nice, so yeah we've just given out a few TREAD the Globe cards !! and all
the security at Dover, they're all signed up!!
So thanks guys!!
We've arrived at the White Cliffs of Dover! Honestly, I'm so excited, it's just such a momentous moment for us.
We've been in the planning for six months, we've been really lucky
DFDS - have actually given us the trip! Which is like 129 pounds,
and when we've gone to check in, they've given us a little card and said we've
got the priority lounge / premium lounge!! I don't even know what that is, but I sounds fabulous!!
Free teas and free coffees !! Amazing!! Thanks the DFDS
So the time has come we are saying goodbye to England, we won't be back for nearly two years,
and it is so hard to believe that we are heading East and we won't come back !!
keep heading in the same direction so the White Cliffs of Dover are behind us
and it's gonna be a long time until we're back and I'm sure we're gonna have quite a few stories to tell!!
So we are at the premium lounge, they have even got little chocolates!!
The have got chocolates !! We're spoiled!! we ARE spoilt,
so we're actually sat in the in the lounge on the ferry going over to France
I just thought I'd take an opportunity to talk to the Diary Cam to you guys,
It's just starting to sink in you know we're leaving,
the White Cliffs of Dover have gone in the distance and it's it's hard to believe that when we come back,
we're actually going to be coming back from a different direction, because we're literally just going East East and East,
and I've never obviously experienced that before! and Marianne is always like
"no just think of it like we're driving to Italy and then maybe we'll go a bit further"! and yeah it's just starting to sink in!
I'm super super excited, we haven't had much sleep over the last couple of days because the brain has been going
a lot and yeah this morning we were up at like 6 o'clock and went to bed quite late
So yeah! it's gonna be nice, just to get into our van life routine and start sharing that with you!
So yeah, exciting times ahead, we're so pleased that we're gonna be taking you
on board with us, and yeah more coming soon! Anyway Mariannes just getting a coffee from the buffet
because they've got this wonderful free coffee station here so I'm gonna go and have a coffee and a sugar rush and try and wake up !!
Yawn !! We have arrived in France whoo hooo! So after a two-hour ferry crossing,
Thank you DFDS!! it was brilliant, we've now arrived in France and we are planning to we found a park4night spot,
about 40 minutes South of here, we don't want to drive too far now, because it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon
and we're a little tired, so we're going to park up and just chill for the night and then tomorrow we head South.
I also have to write the newsletter, and I've got to start making the video for you guys!
So yeah we're going to have a relaxed evening parked up - first night in France.
So we think that we're in the right place, but Marianne is just going to check
yeah, ah perfect, so we are in the right place, so we can park anywhere we want to.
We can park over there as we don't need anything.
We can just go park quietly over there !! beautiful
So this is spot number one of our round-the-world drive in France just south of Dunkirk
and today we have done I think so far we've done 332 miles on the road plus the ferry crossing
Good morning it's our first morning waking up in France,
and the girls have had a pretty nice lie in, it's ten o'clock!
Yes thank you very much !! and I think they slept good, I did but I could do with 10 more minutes !!
ha ha ha
Lets go and find Annie, she's on the spare bed, did you sleep good? I did, it is it vey comfy yeah.
Yeah! amazing we don't really use this bed, because we don't need to, but we can
have sleepovers! So yeah, it's very early it's time to get dressed coffee time!
First night in France, I used Park4night to find a little spot, we were really
really tired, exhausted from all the excitement ! In fact I didn't get out of bed until
half past 10:00 this morning hallelujah praise the Lord! So literally, we decided
to find somewhere near Dunkirk, I found this little spot, it was really idyllic
empty parking lot ! Yeah it was absolutely dead - empty water service spot - grey water toilet waste
and top up, with the laundrette. So we came to the end of the car park,
Found a nice view, beautiful view, and this morning we woke up to this !!
There wasn't a car in the car park when we arrived last night !!
By the time we got up it's was rammed!!
So we're gonna go into the supermarket find some breakfast
although it is actually lunchtime,
and then work out where we're heading and probably head south a couple of hours
So yeah!! Welcome to France !!
You cannot come to France and be denied the pleasure of the patisseries
I was fortunate enough to spend some time growing up in France,
So coming back to a supermarket and finding the patisserie section,
I'm sort of getting a little bit dizzy - it's so good!
We've actually come across a whole table of Gallettes des Rois,
And it's a festival in France that they do in January
and you buy, like a flat cake it is a 'gallette',
and they either do it they normally, traditionally do it with
marzipan in it, I'm not a fan of that,
but I found they're doing an Apple one
and you slice the cake up amongst your family and whoever gets the little token it's a
bit like the sixpence in the Christmas pudding in the UK, you get a crown
for the person who gets the little token, gets to wear!
so we're back in the van and we've done some shopping,
the thing is don't buy too much shopping
when you live in a van,
because it's just taken Annie about 20 minutes to get it into the cupboard!
Good job though - well done !!
We have a bag of croissants, for Blunch
Blunch ? Breakfast Lunch !!
Is that a new word? I don't know that's what I call it!!
it's Blunch !!
And Marianne is about to tell us where we're going today ..... No !!
I haven't actually found a place yet !!
I'm not sure how we're gonna go around the world when we can't get through France!!
And these are just for the two of them !!
And there was four more in there !!
Get off my croissant !!
So we're probably going to head south, probably an hour or so towards Amboise
So we're gonna use the park4night app and just find somewhere to go.
So most of the aires in France, or a lot of them have facilities
and on the park 4night app you can actually see which ones
have somewhere to empty your grey water
like your sink water and shower water
and others and where you can also empty your toilet
So this one has both so where we're going tonight
doesn't have any facilities, so we're just going to empty everything so we start afresh.
The cycle of van life.
I honestly can't believe how lucky we are with this weather
just look at the sky behind me
It's been raining so much over the past few weeks
and just start our adventure with blue skies
someone's looking down on us!
Right we're all emptied, south we go
and we have to just remember to drive on the correct side of the road - Yeah I am on it !!
We continued our journey South
Admiring the French countryside and the most wonderful, beautiful blue skies.
So we have driven South for about an hour and a half,
we found this lovely little village that we stopped off for a bit of lunch
is actually probably about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon and it's just looks so
traditionally French so we're gonna go and have a little look around
Annabel's in the back, actually trying to put me off and being rather silly
bloopers
So yeah, let's go and have a look around
What's it funny is because it's already past the twelfth night of Christmas,
back home in England all of the Christmas decorations
would be put away by now but here in France they are actually still up!!
We've wandered a little bit down the road and found this wonderful river and
church that you can see behind us and it's really really pretty.
Nice! and I just can't again believe how warm it is today
Is lunch served? Lunch is served !! Amazing
So we've got a bit of bits for lunch
we got some nice cheese
and some crab salad
Marianne's got some celeriac salad, some baguettes and some salami how very French!
So yeah, I'm starving oh and just to make it healthy some salad!! Thanks love !!
You're welcome - lunch time!!
How can you buy a baguette for 30 cents 27? 24 cents?
Honestly, it gets cheaper and cheaper soon they'll be giving it away
So nice lunch, and we're off again! about another hour,
and then we're going to stop for the night
I love driving on the French roads, and you get all these avenues of trees
it's very iconic to driving in France, and it just is really nice to have those roads lined with different trees
I can't believe the weather .. I have said it already today !!
how lovely is this for a parking spot?
this is where we're gonna spend tonight
we got a beautiful view and some swans
As we're walking around they're swans
with their feathers up and I've never actually seen them do that before.
Only in the pictures
and I'm not sure whether the camera will pick it up?
Good morning !
This morning we're up earlier, we've left our beautiful spot by the lake and we
are now heading south towards Amboise, to Mariannes sisters, and the journey is
about five and a half hours drive so it's quite a long way
and it's that long because we are avoiding the toll roads in France because they do add up to
quite significant money, if you take them. So yeah because we're on a very strict
budget we're choosing to take all the quiet roads, plus it's also nicer scenery
to drive down all the little roads through the villages,
So yeah, five and a half hours drive, Amboise here we come !
Join us on the next episode,
when we arrive and explore the French town of Amboise,
and we try some local delicacies. See you on the next episode.
Ha Ha Ha ....voiceover fail !!
I forgot!
it's important to get exercised in the morning if
you're spending five hours in the van
isn't it love? No !! I just want to be in bed with my coffee !!
quack quack !! the duck finds it funny