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Spring Tour 2009 – Day 3: This day felt like our vacation had really started now. Instead of driving all day again, we decided to visit interesting places in the area, as we were moving south. First destination was the wash-house at the Fosse Dionne, a deep water source with a mysterious blue green color below the Sankt-Pierre church in Tonnerre.

Unfortunately the town with just 5322 inhabitants (2006) is a town in decay. Many houses are in a bad condition and on the edge of collapsing. It could be a charming French countryside town. With the Fosse Dionne, the Sankt-Pierre church high above the town (not open to the public), the Hôpital Notre-Dame and some small stores and cafes it could be popular among tourists.

On our way to Tonnerre we drove through the vineyards of the Chablis, the northernmost wine district of the Burgundy region. In April there isn’t much to see yet but it is always nice to see where some products come from.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 2: From Bouillon it was just a short drive until we reached France. Originally we had considered stopping in Reims on our way South, but as it started raining we kept on driving. As far as we could see, the famous cathedral of Reims was also obscured with scaffolding, so we will come back another time.
Leaving Reims behind we drove through the wines fields, were Champagne comes from and soon reached Burgundy. The further we got South, the more trees and bushes were flowering already. Unfortunately this also meant that my allergies were getting stronger.

For the night we stopped in Gurgy, which is a small town north of Auxerre. Here there is a lovely camper park directly next to the Yonne river. We arrived early enough to enjoy the warm weather outside and went for a walk along the river and through the village.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 2: In the morning we visited Bouillon, not a broth but a Belgian town located in a sharp meander of the river Semois. The massive Castle of Bouillon (first mentioned in 988) sits high above the town center and is a popular tourist attraction. In town there was a medieval market with knights and traditional products. We were lucky to have some sun, when we walked around Bouillon.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 1: After dinner we drove 358 kilometers from Almere to Herbeumont in Belgium. Taking the same route as on our return from the Solar Tour brought back some painful memories.

Herbeumont has a large and quiet camper park and is just around the corner from Bouillon, a place we wanted to visit before going into France. It was almost midnight when we arrived and there were a lot of motorhomes already.

For us it was just a place to stay for the night, but if you want to stay longer, there is a castle ruin not far from the camper park, and a 6.9 km walking/biking path starts here, which goes through the valley of the Aise.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 1: Today marks the beginning of our Spring Tour 2009. We decided to go South again since this would be the best place to find Spring at this time of the year. Years ago we have seen the Ardeche in the Winter and it is one of the areas we wanted to come back to when it is green.

Before we could go I had to take our motorhome to a tire center to get the wheels aligned. This took longer than expected and in order to avoid the usual Dutch traffic jams, we decided to have dinner at home.

Winter Tour 2008 – Day 14: Except for a French woman peeing next to a British motorhome in the middle of the night, there was nothing remarkable about the night in Gacé. After breakfast we got back on freeway and didn’t have much time to loose if we wanted to be back before dark.

We made it through the smog and bumpy roads in Belgium and arrived back home in Almere, just in time for dinner. At home everything was fine and it was nice to have space and a warm place again with a hot shower.

In total we drove 5421 km during this tour (on average 387 per day), which is much more than our usual distance. In total we spent EUR 191 on freeway tolls in France and some in Spain as well. I hope that visitors from those countries will have to pay in Holland as well one day. We spent 4 nights on camp grounds and the other 9 on official camper parks. Because we spent more time on simple camper parks, we sometimes where short of electricity and should try to find a better solution for that. Our motorhome has solar panels but those are 10 years old and not as efficient as current models.

Looking back we probably wouldn’t do this tour again. The goal was to avoid the fireworks and get some sun and warmth. This year the south of Europe got much more cold and rainy weather than usual and there was basically no place to go. Traveling with our small motorhome in rainy and cold weather is not really fun. We did see some great place but in the end it would be better to save the money and vacation days for a different time of the year like early spring, but then we need a different solution for the firework issue. Staying in Almere is not an option.