I haven't actually set up the blog yet, and this is being written off-line, in the hope that by the time I get down to the wifi area tomorrow, we can upload to our chosen blog. The choice, it has to be said, is hardly dizzying! What to do, create a whole new blog, or use the old one.
Regardless of that particular dilemma, let me tell you how the glamping is going.
As you may know, the plan was that we were going to have 3 of us driving – after the interesting fiasco of getting Emma added to my insurance, last year, with the specific proviso that we were going to be driving in France, and then having to cancel the policy because, actually, she was too young to legally drive in France, regardless of her driving licence status in the UK, we thought that we'd be just fine getting two 18-year olds onto the insurance. Sadly, this has, once again, proven futile. Apparently last year's insurers would have put them on, but this year, it appears I'm with a different bunch of people, who think the girls are too young!! Anyway, with all that in mind, we were going to make a really early start on Saturday morning, and take turns driving all day, so that we'd be pitching up here before 9pm, and it'd still be light enough to pitch. Well that didn't happen!! Since it was, once again, only me driving, we had to take two days to finish the trip, although the ludicrously early start meant that we were able to push on substantially further than Gacé, and parked up just outside Poitiers. And because we hate striking camp so much, we decided to stay in a small hotel for the night.
This was a huge treat! Having stopped (briefly) at Futuroscope to see how expensive the hotels were, we realised that the chances of finding something within our budget was SO not going to happen at a place like that, and pressed out into the country. A little fiddling later and we arrived at Le Moulin Vert, a very nice place which provided two perfectly nice, if not particularly modern rooms for just over 100 euros, including a decent breakfast. Enquiries led us to a Buffalo eatery, where we consumed, not the steaks we all so richly deserved, but the somewhat less expensive Steak Haché.
Exhausted, I fell into bed well before the girls had finished the film they were watching on Lizzy's laptop, and slept until Elizabeth kicked something off her bed, which hit the floor with a huge crash. Thankfully it was the plastic tray in the vanity box, which cracked a little, not her laptop, which was my first concern!
A short, and relatively relaxing drive today brought us to Le Truc Vert. Our favourite camp site (sorry Camping du Planet).
This year we're using a huge, great, 8-person tent, because we've brought Emma's mate Neisha, and I have to say it's lovely to have all that space. I have a small, 2-person pod all to myself, which is quite a treat. Lottie and Lizzy have a 2-person pod to share, into which we have managed to squeeze 2 single blow ups. Emma and Neisha have a 4 person pod to share, and seem to be quite happy with that arrangement. We're all quite enchanted by the amount of space in the middle of the tent, and while there is a fair bit of “stuff” lying round, we're having none of the problems we've always had in the old 4-person tent. I think a huge “Thank You” should go to Vesna, who researched and chose this particular tent!
We've put up a clothes rail for the girls to hang their storage on, and make sure their clothes are either hung up, or at least clustered round it. Hmmm – we'll see how long that lasts, shall we? And electricity! No, this is too important, it should have it's own paragraph...
ELECTRICITY!! Yes, we have electricity this year. Although the connection is further away than our 10m cable, we've got a long 4-gang socket and a plastic bag. If I can find a camping shop, I'll see if I can find an extension. But no matter – we've got electricity, which is exactly what we wanted.
On a completely unrelated matter, one thing that partly freaked me out and delighted me was that when we rolled up at the automatic check-in at Eurotunnel was that before I'd had a chance to shove in the card on which I booked the trip, some kind of recognition had read my number plate, and put up a welcoming note on the screen “Welcome Mrs Day! Your hanger is being printed out – hang it in your windscreen and carry on!” or something like that anyway. Delighted because it was a beautiful use of computing power: Freaked out because it's a dangerous use of computing power! I'm torn.
OK – let's bimble down to the wifi area, and see if we can't upload this...
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