Sunday 5 June.
It was a bit far to walk into town for bread so we made do with just muesli and yoghurt for breakfast and would pick up bread later. Moira still wasn't very well and didn't have a good night's sleep again with coughing. We relaxed and read for a while before getting up, there was no hurry as we were only doing about 240 km.
When we left Moira had us heading up the road we had come in on yesterday from the motorway. She told me later that Tom Tom had said it was the wrong way and to turn around but she ignored it. When we reached Goderville there was a boulangerie open and I stopped for bread. While Moira was in the bakery I checked the map and found we had gone the wrong way and should have headed along the coast from Etretat to Fecamp. We now made for Fecamp by another road and by the time we got there I had driven about 40 km to gain about 10 km. Now we could continue by the intended coastal route to St-Valery-en-Caux and Dieppe. But Tom Tom had other ideas and wanted to go back more or less in the direction we had come and pick up the motorway and Moira now decided she wanted to follow Tom Tom. After a lot of shouting and arguing I headed inland again to pick up the A28 motorway. We could have gone by the motorway initially but the section from where we would have joined it to the other side of Rouen was toll. We took a normal road that ran parallel with the A28 toll until St. Saens where it was freeway.
Once on the motorway I stopped at the first service area and we had our bread now with a cup of tea. We were going to go to a campsite in Boulogne today but I was fed up with all the route changes and not knowing where I was most of the time that I said let's just go to our favourite aire on the Somme at Le Crotoy. When I got started again I was feeling better and calmer after the break and a cup of tea that I changed my mind and went back to the original plan, the campsite at Boulogne.
At Abbeville the motorway became toll again so we came off onto normal roads towards Boulogne. As we crossed the river Somme I had a CD on with one of the music selections I had compiled, coincidentally the song playing just then was the Corries version of 'Green Fields of France'. This is the thoughts of someone sitting at the grave side of a young man killed in the First World War, it was more moving at that particular time as we were passing though the area of some of the worst fighting.
The campsite wasn't actually in Boulogne but a little village on the coast a few kilometres prior to the port, St. Etienne-sur-mer. There was a signpost to the campsite as we entered the resort but the Tom Tom took us around back streets to a dead end. We ignored the GPS and tried going in the direction the signpost pointed. It didn't help and we arrived at an aire instead and settled for that. It was a trial to get through the barrier and that just required getting a ticket to pay when we leave; that will be another mission. The fee was €7 but the services were all extra including electricity but you had to use a token to access these and no indication where or how to get these jetons (tokens). We picked a fairly level spot but it still required the ramps to lift the front up slightly then it was time for lunch.
Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk have a look at the place and see if we could get WiFi anywhere. We made in the direction where we thought the campsite we had been looking for might be. We climbed a steep hill and then down the other side to where the beach seemed to be. It was nearly all houses, there was one restaurant but it was closed. As the road levelled out near the sea we discovered the campsite, it was €15 for the night and if that included services and electrics it was not bad but it was difficult to work out from their tariff list what you were paying for. We asked at the office if they had the jetons for the services at the aire but all we got was the 'Gallic' shoulder shrug. We checked on our iPads for WiFi but there was none showing. Other than the campsite there wasn't any other sign of life in the area but there was a town map displayed on a board nearby. It showed that all the shops were close to the aire and if we had turned left instead of going up the hill we would have found them, there was also a tourist info office at the Mairie close to the shops.
We made our way back, up and down hill, and found the shopping area. There were two or three shops, one a boulangerie, a hotel, a restaurant, the post office and tourist office attached to the Town Hall but all closed. We checked the WiFi again on our iPads and there was a service but we couldn't access it without a password. It was back to the aire and the motorhome. This was a place that we wouldn't be planning to visit again in a hurry!
After a break and a cup of coffee I decided to check out the TV, to see if I could pick up the UK channels now that we were close to England. I didn't expect anything and was surprised when it picked up all the normal Freeview channels. On ITV the French Open Tennis final had just ended, Murray lost to Djokovic. I was glad it was over as I might have been tempted to watch it. I turned it off then to save the battery and put it on again after dinner to watch 'Pointless' then 'Countryfile'. Unfortunately the picture began breaking up and it didn't make any difference when I adjusted the position of the aerial. I tried other channels and True Entertainment was working fine and 'Mash' was on. We managed to watch that for half am hour before it also started breaking up and eventually we lost everything. At least we had seen a bit of TV without the hassle of putting up the satellite dish.
By that time it was 9:00 pm so I made up the bed and we read for an hour before getting to sleep. The aire was quite busy but as usual with motor-homers it was nice and quiet.
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