Saturday 28^th July 2018

Cathy posting,

It was a nice peaceful night in the Aire behind the sand dunes at the Le Crotoy Aire (GPS N50.22870, E001.61265) although there are a lot of motorhomes here it was quiet. We awoke to bright blue skies and Dave goes over the dunes to take a look to see if the tide is in whilst I get breakfast and coffee together in our little Italian coffee maker, I’m so glad that we bought it, although it only makes two little cups the quality is excellent, and Dave and I like good coffee, it sits onto the gas hob nicely. 

Dave comes back full of excitement! There are hundreds of kite boarders and windsurfers and they’re so colourful he exclaims! So, we quickly sunk our coffee, bread and honey and the sight as I walked over the dunes was one of amazement, as Dave said there were hundreds of colourful kite boarders contrasting with the bright blue sky, the tide was in and no sign of the green grass clumps or herbs now.

We sat on the sand and watched for a long time, the boarders doing tricks and hopping along on the surf so fast and so high it was amazing, we wonder how they don’t crash into each other.

More and more families were arriving and the place had a good vibe about it, we take another leisurely amble into Le Crotoy town along the beach, we are so very relaxed and happy, still not quite believing that we’ve managed to make this lifestyle happen, we spotted another Aire in the harbour area but we like the one we are on better, France is an amazing country for Motorhomers, there are so many Aires mostly a small charge like ours €7 per night and €2 for water or electricity, occasionally they are free and we wish the UK would wake up and provide them, bringing economy into places that don’t normally see many tourists, because we’ve noticed that Moho owners will stay anywhere where it’s cheap!

We like Le Crotoy, it feels calm and friendly, there is a good mixture of nationalities about, possibly because of the Aires but also there are quite a few beach front holiday lets, apartments, cottages and some very plush Villas.

Deciding to treat ourselves to lunch we look at the menus outside to find a good deal, we see one place that is heaving inside with French people and has cheap plastic tables and chairs but outside there are tables under a canopy with cushions, we grab the only one available after seeing a sign in the window for Moules et Frites €7 and it’s full of French families, so it must be ok! A lovely lady takes our order Moules Mariniere for me and Dave has the same with the French fries, 50cl carafe of nicely chilled white wine, these were the best Mussels we’ve ever had we both agreed and happy to report that we had very good French fries this time, no pre-fried pommes in sight!

Our rental money for the house came in today so we draw out €500 euros so we don’t have to pay a charge for drawing dribs and drabs out each time, Dave buys a huge baguette to take back with us, he loves bread that boy!

Walking back along the beach there are even more surfers, we have a break in Pogo for a couple of hours listening to music and blogging a bit, Dave is in repair mode and sets about fixing a broken spotlight and making a tie back for the cats tails fly curtain, he mounted a new fire extinguisher which he picked up in Lidl as we don’t know how old ours is, it came with Pogo and if the rest of the stuff we got with him is anything to go by it will probably not work.

Dave has brought a kite with him and he hasn’t used it yet, it was our childrens’ kite and the last time we used it was in one of our favourite Welsh places, Oxwich bay Gower Peninsular and it was many years ago. We go over the dunes in the early evening and Dave has fun flying his kite whilst I sat on the beach taking photos of him, the setting sun in the background.

We walk along in the opposite direction of Le Crotoy and explore the sand flats now the tide has gone out, noting all the sea herbs and samphire, lovely purple flowers and loads and loads of little tiny crabs dead in the grasses, they were white, possibly bleached by the sun.

Our daughter hates crabs so she’ll go queasy when she sees the pictures, she once said she was bitten by one in the sea on a family holiday, we didn’t believe her and all thought it was just seaweed and she’s never let us forget it, enjoy the pictures Sally!

Goodnight

Cathy x