Motorhoming in France

[Richard Hakluyt]

Enjoy your trip, think you will have a tremendous time 

[Oexmelin]

Thanks Fromtia, really looking forward to it.

Thanks Oex. That sounds even more interesting. Any tips on a good book handling the social/memory/psychological results of the battle? I don't really have the ability to centrate enought to read heavy academical works right now, so something on the popular side?

For some reason, I had missed this!
In any case, I don't have any good general book about the effects of Verdun in English. Hopefully, the bookstore at Verdun will have something. Similarly, the Mémorial de Péronne acts as a bona fide research center on the matter: https://www.historial.fr/en/

Have fun!

[Threviel]

We've arrived in Coo in Belgium. It's been three hard days of driving for the kids, but we plan on staying here for a few days.

The weather is absolutely horrible, entering Belgium there was snow on the ground and it's very cold. I had not counted on this and we only have one bottle of gas in the car, there are lots of different connections and I plan on buying a french one, so no heating in the car. And I have lots of shorts, but no really warm sweater.

We could probably be out for a year or so, there's so much to see. My greatest issue so far is that we couldn't stop in Teutoburger wald and look at the missing three legions.

[mongers]

We've arrived in Coo in Belgium. It's been three hard days of driving for the kids, but we plan on staying here for a few days.

The weather is absolutely horrible, entering Belgium there was snow on the ground and it's very cold. I had not counted on this and we only have one bottle of gas in the car, there are lots of different connections and I plan on buying a french one, so no heating in the car. And I have lots of shorts, but no really warm sweater.

We could probably be out for a year or so, there's so much to see. My greatest issue so far is that we couldn't stop in Teutoburger wald and look at the missing three legions.

Great adventure for the kids.

Having read Languish, I went out and almost the first vehicle I saw was a motor-home, might have been the first spotting this year for me, certainly the first with the optional towed car. 

[Threviel]

The kids are loving it.

We've arrived in France, presently in Verdun. Driving around here really makes you see the gargantuan scale of things. And the kids love the playground on the campsite.

We went shopping today at a supermarket called Cora. It was excellent and really impressed me with the selection. Nice meat and vegetables. But apparently full cream is something not used in France. I tried to find a normal 40% cream without additives and I totally failed. Should I be looking for some special kind of cream? The same with milk, all I found was stuff stored outside the refrigerator, and some fermented stuff with arabic print on it. What should I be looking for if I want normal low pasteurized milk?

The french are very friendly, but it's quite clear that I should learn french if I want to talk to them.

[Oexmelin]

For cream, I believe you want to look for "crème fraîche". It's usually sold in a plastic tub, not a carton.

As for milk, the French more frequently have the ultra high pasteurized stuff, hence why it can sit outside the refrigerator. But you should be able to find "lait frais", or usually in 1 l plastic or glass containers in refrigerators.

If you do a google search image for crème fraîche and lait frais (France) it should give you a visual for what you are looking for

[Threviel]

Ahh, I bought a Creme Fraiche in Belgium out of curiosity. Creme fraiche in Sweden is a sour youghurty thing, so I assumed it was somewhat soured here too, even though the Belgian one wasn't noticeably sour.

I bought a demi ecreme milky thing. Thinking about it I believe it to be a half cream thing or something like that, I think the wife is going to be disappointed when she tries it in the coffee.

Oh, and as usual Belgium was charming but a silly country. A few of the Belgians we spoke to even joked about how backwards it is.

[Malthus]

Oh, and as usual Belgium was charming but a silly country. A few of the Belgians we spoke to even joked about how backwards it is.

That's what I learned from that documentary, In Bruges.

[Oexmelin]

I bought a demi ecreme milky thing. Thinking about it I believe it to be a half cream thing or something like that, I think the wife is going to be disappointed when she tries it in the coffee.

Are you putting heavy cream in your coffee? Normalcy indeed is a variable quality 

It's going to be difficult to find something heavy to put in coffee, "as is". Café crème, in France, usually simply means with milk, and only rarely with a tiny bit of liquid crème fraîche. Crème fraîche can be more or less liquid. It is used for cooking, or, when liquid, to pour over desserts, or soups, or to whip ("Chantilly" is whipped cream) etc.

[Duque de Bragança]

Ahh, I bought a Creme Fraiche in Belgium out of curiosity. Creme fraiche in Sweden is a sour youghurty thing, so I assumed it was somewhat soured here too, even though the Belgian one wasn't noticeably sour.

I bought a demi ecreme milky thing. Thinking about it I believe it to be a half cream thing or something like that, I think the wife is going to be disappointed when she tries it in the coffee.

Oh, and as usual Belgium was charming but a silly country. A few of the Belgians we spoke to even joked about how backwards it is.

demi-écrémé is just semis-skimmed milk, sorry. As for putting something in the coffee, not so long ago the working class put marc (grape brandy) or even cognac, though not XO or VSOP.
Weather should be back to normal patterns by the next week.

[Threviel]

She uses milk in her coffee, I bought demi ecreme believing it to be milk. It made good pancakes at least. I will buy the strange super pasteurized stuff next time.

The weather has been awful, we had -4 one night in Belgium and there was a bit of snow. It wouldn't have been so bad if we could have heated the car, but a combination of little gas, no electrical heating and a badly wired heating system forced us to turn off the heating at night.

In Verdun it has been raining almost ceaselessly since we got here, we extended our stay and hopefully we can go around outside a lot today.

[Threviel]

Some observations:

French people are very friendly and polite. They are not linguists.

French people drive in a respectful and considerate manner. Always stopping at crossings and so on, in contrast to the Belgians that accelerate when they see a family with kids at a crossing.

French supermarkets are incredible, compared to Sweden the quality is superb. One example is that one of the two hypermarkets in Verdun, a smallish town, had 4 fresh ox tongues. I would probably have problems fjnding that in Stockholm.

French seem to not wash their hands after a toilet visit. Often the toilets lack a commode for washing hands.

The toilets often lack toilet paper. 

They eat lots of white bread and fat foods, why the french don't have an obesity problem escapes me. This visit will make me fat.

[mongers]

Some observations:

French people are very friendly and polite. They are not linguists.

French people drive in a respectful and considerate manner. Always stopping at crossings and so on, in contrast to the Belgians that accelerate when they see a family with kids at a crossing.

French supermarkets are incredible, compared to Sweden the quality is superb. One example is that one of the two hypermarkets in Verdun, a smallish town, had 4 fresh ox tongues. I would probably have problems fjnding that in Stockholm.

French seem to not wash their hands after a toilet visit. Often the toilets lack a commode for washing hands.

The toilets often lack toilet paper. 

They eat lots of white bread and fat foods, why the french don't have an obesity problem escapes me. This visit will make me fat.

I like this thread, please do keep updating it.

[Threviel]

And here I thought I was boring.

I can really recommend Verdun. The place is wonderfully cared for and itus all vere serene and respectful. Walking in the trenches amongst the shell holes in a beatiful quiet forest is strange. Every square meter seems to have been hit by something. There are cycling routes through the place, but the weather and time stopped any of that.

Then we went to Epernay in Champagne. It had rained a lot so the car got stuck in the first camping lot. A guy had to come with a tractor and pull us out, bending a transverse metal bar in the process. By then it was late Saturday, so only a few champagne houses were open. At least we got to buy some. Driving out on a Monday every all house in the villages around was also closed, so no case of cheap champagne for me.

Next up was Disneyland. Now that cost a lot, entrance for us four, with the youngest free, would have cost 219€, since internet bought tickets have to be printed. Luckily we met a dane that just planned to buy online and then make a scene if there were to be any problems. So we did the same and got tickets for 153€ instead. There were of course problems with the tickets on the mobile, but instead of making us buy new ones they apologised profusely and gave us some fastpasses as compensation. So hurrah for merry-go-happy Danes. Disneyland proved to be very good value for money, the place was very nice and we will go back when the kids are older and can enjoy it more. Once inside every attraction was free unlike other amusement parks that I've visited.

On the way out of Paris we visited Chantilly, the wife has always wanted to be a jockey but is too tall. Since next stop is Honfleur in Normandy we had to stop along the way, we try not to drive over 2 hours every day. Semi-randomly we chose Les Andelys, since there was a camping there. Apparently we chose wisely, it lies on a bend of the Seine and over the camping looms Chateau Gaillard, a fortress built bu Richard Lionheart. We will probably remain here for three nights instead of one.

France is ridiculous, almost everywhere we want to remain longer.

[mongers]

Thanks for the update, Threviel.

It's a nice an relaxing read; whilst the Brexit stupidity continues here, Europeans just get on with living.