Back in France, and I remember how much I love it here. No funny looks as you drive the motor home down the wrong street. The french have this self right to park where ever. So no matter what, you can park nearly anywhere. We headed to Bergues on friday a familiar stop, this is our third visit here. They have a great laundry not far from the free parking and the vet is 600 metres away. This is our main reason to visit Bergues. The tapeworm tablets and pet passport sign, off ready for the tunnel crossing on Tuesday. As we drove in we stopped at the elephant blue car wash, hoping to wash the motorhome. After finding it had luke warm water and no brushes, we moved on. I was directing Jason to the laundry parking, when all of sudden. There is a new Lidl right next door. Fab to park in and stock up, the old one is about 500 metres down the road and now closed. Amazing how in 7 months it’s moved to a brand new store. Stocking up on steak and fish, we have only really seen pork products since Italy. It was nice to have a full fridge. Parked up for the night, we left early and walked the dogs through the familiar town walls and into the old town. Bergues is a lovely place to visit. Arriving at the vets, our usual english speaking vet wasnt there. The equally lovely french speaking vet, sorted the dogs out, and we were in and out in under ten minutes. Packing up we decided to drive to Watten. A small WW2 town on the edge of a canal, not far from Calais. Pulling up it was semi full of french, with a few brits. I got talking to a lovely English guy who told us about the V2 bunker a mile walk away. He couldn’t recommend it more highly. It opened at 2pm, so we opted to cross the canal, and go get some baguette for lunch. Choosing to go later in the day to the bunker site. At 1.30pm we walked past the local dog training group and along the path to Le Blockhaus d Eperlecques ( v2 bunker). We arrived on opening and for €10 each including taking the dogs in, we entered. It’s a well sign posted site with audio commentary all around, in many languages. The bunker is absolutely huge and the history behind it fascinating. The sheer volume of concrete alone is indescribable. You can go inside and they have a picture mock-up of how high these V2 rockets would be. Overall it was a great day out and when we left there was bus loads of people arriving. Today we left for Marck , even closer to Calais. The day here is blissful and warm and I walked the dogs in the surrounding nature reserve, taking in the sunny day. Back at the motorhome, now parked up with a Scottish motorhome. We guess a lot like us are heading back. Since Luxembourg we have seen more british motorhomes, than we have seen the whole of the last 7 months. It’s sad to be counting down our final days in Europe. I will miss the freedom of living like a gypsy, taking each day as an adventure. We are grateful for the experience, and hope others are inspired to step out and taste the freedom the world has to offer. Our travels wont end here but will just take on another form. And as they say, as one door closes another one opens……..
Wanderlust Craddocks 