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Next stop…Gien

We moved on to Gien on Tuesday morning. Gien is on the river Loire, on the eastern edge of the Loire region and about 45 miles south east of Orleans. The campsite at Gien is within walking distance of the town which is pretty handy although we visited the town by bike rather than on foot. It was also right next to the ‘Loire a velo’ cycle route which provides a nice flat and safe cycling path alongside the river.

Gien is famous for its pottery which still produces porcelain today. We visited the factory outlet shop and were staggered at the price of pottery pieces, What??, £28 for a dinner plate?, outrageous. Needless to say, we’ll stick to buying our plates and bowls in Ikea at 50p a piece.

While in Gien we also visited the Museum of Hunting in the Chateau, which turned out to be well worth a visit. I didn’t realise that there are so many ways of hunting and killing the native wildlife.

One of our favourite meals on holiday is ‘tomates farcis’ which is tomatoes stuffed with pork mince, probably some sage, onion etc, all served on a bed of rice. But at £3.50 or so per tomato, I baulked at the price this year. Instead, we bought 3 large tomatoes and 350g of stuffing and made our own. They were superb and a fraction of the shop price. We have added this recipe to our short list of meals to do again very soon.

Gien across its bridge and in the distance. The day started off cloudy but the sky soon cleared to give us an afternoon of 30C.

Gien from further down river.

The parking near to the river and site exit was somewhat crowded, but away from the river there were a number of large empty pitches. One of which we bagged.

Parked up in the evening sunshine. We had to move the table and chairs to the shade to escape the heat while we scoffed our home made tomates farcis.

The Museum of Hunting in the town chateau was well worth a visit, which is much more than can be said for the museum of pottery at Gien faience. However, the pottery outlet shop was well worth a visit.

Ah, the good old 49er is running out despite competition with local produce, but it still has the advantage of price.

Note to self – bring more next time.

On to Orleans

Enough of churches and godly things and time to move on and head for Orleans via a supermarket to supplement our supplies. The Orleans traffic and navigation lived up to my expectations. It was horrid. We eventually found somewhere to do our shopping and then headed for the campsite at Olivet, a suburb south of Orleans.

Agggh!, the campsite is full, but it’s a really nice quiet place so we go in anyway and speak to the receptionist about booking in for the following night, Sunday. As Fiona spoke to him in French rather than English, he rejigged his booking list and found us a pitch! Well Done, Fiona. Camping Olivet is a really nice little site, very clean, very quiet and with easy access to cycleways and to the tramway into the centre of Orleans.

On the Sunday we took the tram into the centre for a good look around, visiting the cathedral and old town and we found a good small place to have lunch. Orleans is a very modern city with a few old bits. Typically French in that there are no high-rise buildings and the city has been built on a grid system giving wide thoroughfares and plenty of places to eat and drink, and watch the world go by.

The following day we cycled into the city for a further look around and then took a bike trip up the Loire for a few miles, along the canal towpath- Loire a velo again. It was absolutely scorching. By the time we got back to the ‘van we were both sunburnt, despite the SF50 protection.

All in all, Orleans is a great place to visit and Camping Olivet is a superb site at which to stay. In fact, we’re booked in again for next weekend (17 to 19 June)

Chartres – every picture tells a story

I’ve seen videos and read about the Cathedral at Chartres and it looked as though it was worth a visit, maybe we’ll spend the afternoon walking around and then head off to Orleans. I’m really not a believer in any of the God, JC or VM nonsense but I enjoy wandering around the huge medieval churches and try to imagine how they were designed and built without the use of technology available these days.

We successfully navigated the Versailles traffic and headed South and within a couple of hours had arrived at the new campsite just outside Chartres. After parking up and settling in we unloaded the bikes and were off to visit the town.

Bloody hell, what a place, what a masterpiece of medieval architeture, design and engineering. It is unbelievable. A spire built in 1190ish of over 100m in height, 130 metres in length and 30 odd metres wide. There are over 1200 stained glass panels in the windows, many of them originating from the 12th century. Staggering.

Instead of spending just the afternoon in Chartres we ended up spending an extra day and splashed out on the guided tour of the Cathedral. The tour was given by Malcolm Miller, who is pretty much the world authority on reading and interpreting the windows at Chartres. The tour lasted 90 minutes and focussed on the 12th and 13th century windows; it was absolutely gripping stuff. The windows can be read like a book and they tell a story; they are not just pretty pictures. Actually, they are a shocking propaganda that tell a story that the church wants us to believe, it contrives to join JC to Adam in the garden of paradise, it links the new testament to the old in obviously contrived ways.

Wow, as I sit here in the sun typing this a pair of treecreepers are fluttering around us and walking up one of the trees in our camping emplacement. Bloody marvellous!

Here are a few of the photos we took in Chartres:

The western or Occidental facade which is the main entrance surrounded by gothic carvings including those of JC and his gang of 12 but they have substituted Judas for someone else. Don’t know why.

Views along the main nave of the Catheral

Here are a few of the photos I took of the 12th and 13th century windows. Each pane in the vertical windows is 4ft tall, with 9 panes per window making the height of each vertical window more than 36ft high.

Just a small sample of the magnificent windows.

Every pane of every window tells a story; it’s really just a multicoloured propaganda machine, albeit marvellous.

Inside the Palace

Well, we bought our tickets at the campsite so that we could avoid the queues and travelled by bus to the Palace of Versailles. The weather has changed from nice and sunny to cold and windy hence the use of the bus.

We queued for around 15 minutes to get through the baggage check, then ticket control and finally the real security check before getting into the main building. Having opted for the audio guide, we were relieved to find that the cost of them is included in the ticket.

Wow, what a place. The size and splendour of the place is truly awesome (I don’t use that word often ‘cos it often means ‘ordinary’).

The interior of the palace was rather dark so I didn’t take very many photos, I just gawped in awe at the wealth of the place. Every room was adorned with oil paintings; handmade furniture littered the place; I hate to think how much it all would have cost. All I can say is “comment le autre moitier vecu” (how the other half lived), no wonder the aristocracy were very soon to lose their heads.

Here is a small sample of the photos I did take:

No CBeebies in Versailles

Off on holidays yet again, and again it’s off to France we go. This time we have decided to be culture vultures, at least for the first few days, and head for the Huttopia campsite in Versailles from where we will visit the renowned Palace of Versailles.

Locating the campsite was harder than I had thought, but if we will insist on ignoring the sat-nav announcements, we should expect no better. Driving the van around some of these Paris/Versailles streets is hair- raising to say the least.

Anyway, finally we find the campsite after a journey of around 3 hours from Caen, and we quickly settle in and switch on the TV and Satellite, only to find that it’s bust. The aerial is stuck in its extended position and will have to be lowered manually. This is a disaster – no CBeeBies to watch, no cringlingly embarrassing interviews with Diane Abbott – how will we spend the evenings without TV reception? Good job we brought the Scrabble and a few books along (as well as the mobile broadband dongle for internet access).

Next morning it’s off to visit Versailles Palace gardens. The Palace building is closed on Mondays, but the gardens are open and it’s free to visit, so we unload the bikes and head there for the day.

The gardens are absolutely spectacular. Here are a few photos of what we saw there:

Louise’s 30th

Doesn’t time fly? It seems hardly any time at all since we were celebrating Louise’s 3rd birthday, and here we are celebrating her 30th. Where did the years go?

To celebrate Louise, Fiona, Luke, Steve and I went out for a meal at Dim-T’s in Whiteley and then it was all back to our place for birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Louise, our lovely daughter. We hope you enjoy many more happy birthdays.

Heating the ‘van

It’s winter. It’s pretty cold and I don’t want the van to get too cold inside or it’ll take forever to warm up.

We do have a portable halogen heater that we bought in Aldi, but I’m not too happy putting it on a timer to switch on overnight so we bought a small 1Kw oil filled radiator that we will connect on a timer so that it keeps the van warm at night.

An electric heater is fine when we are on electric hookup, however a 1Kw heater is not going to keep us warm if we are out and about in the van in the depths of winter. The best way to keep the van warm when not connected to the electricity supply is to use its gas fired blown-air central heating system. The problem with this is that we use the same gas bottle to power the kitchen hob and the fridge, and we only have the one 11Kg propane bottle, and we really don’t want to run out of gas.

We have the space in the gas locker for 2 propane tanks and have already done the hard part of connecting up the LPG filler point so we decided to buy and fit the additional bits necessary to double our gas carrying capacity.

Our configuration now consists of two Alugas 11Kg bottles, both bottles are connected to the LPG filling point on their inputs, and both outputs are connected to a T-piece which is connected to the gas regulator. Both bottles will be filled at the same time, and gas will be used from both bottles at the same time. I cannot see the need for either a manual or an automatic switchover as both bottles will be refilled at the same time from the same fill point.

The regulator and T-piece are fastened in place by 15mm pipe clips which fit quite well and should hold it all in place.

All checked for leaks and it seems to be fine. All we need to do now is to fill up with LPG.

Regulator is above the bottles so should not become gunked up.

The aluminium bottles weigh very little so will not really impact on our van’s payload. I wanted to use the new 14kg bottles, but they would not fit the gas locker. Still, with 2 x 11Kg we should be able to survive at least 10 days before needing a fill up even in the coldest winter.

Update 8th January

We filled up with gas on Friday, putting in around 17 litres. This filled one tank which was 3/4 full anyway, and half filled the other. No smells of leaking propane, phew. Next time we’ll fill it to the brim.

DVLArsehole

I am a law abiding citizen, I have never had any penalty points on my driving licence, I have never had a visit from the ‘plod’, I have always paid my taxes and kept my nose clean.

I recently bought a motorhome, a beautiful 2014 Hymer B544. It’s worth a pretty penny. Being a sensible person wanted to protect my investment so I took out comprehensive insurance on it to ensure it was insured prior to me getting my hands on the keys.

We used the van for outings to the New Forest, Somerset, a few times to France and more recently in Wiltshire knowing full well that for any fire, theft or road accident involving our van our costs would be covered by insurance.

The DVLA had other ideas. They use a register called the Motor Insurance Database (MID) which is a record of all insured vehicles in the UK. When you take out insurance on a vehicle, your insurer advises their underwriter to update the database with the details of your insurance, vehicle etc.

The letters start coming:

I received a letter from the DVLA advising me that my motorhome registration details were not in the MID. This spurred me into action; I called my insurance company who stated that I was insured and that they would prompt the underwriter to get the details entered.

and another letter

I subsequently received another letter from the DVLA and responded to them with a copy of my insurance cover sheet and contact information for them to contact my insurer so that they could resolve their data issue. My assumption was that’s what they would do and the matter would be closed: How wrong I was.

This time its a threatening letter

I received yet another letter from DVLA stating:

This I found infuriating. The implications of it are that the correct data is now in the MID, however, they are imposing a fine on me for something that was outside of my control. I wrote back to the DVLA asking why they are imposing this fine when I have provided proof that I had insurance on the ‘van since March. I had no intention of paying the reduced fine nor the full fine.

The threat continues…

Their next response was equally infuriating.

I have included my response below: they were clearly lying. I contacted my insurer who confirmed that there was no record of DVLA inquiring about my vehicle. I phoned the DVLA to try and clear up this mess, but they were completely unresponsive.

Despite me including my phone number on each and every letter, no phone call came from the DVLA. I awaited their response with bated breath.

Ah, a different response this time

I received a further letter.

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. My persistence looks like it might pay off, they are going to have to get off their backsides and do their job.

Finally..

I was right all along, and now they have admitted it. They have withdrawn their threat of a fine and of court action.

I thought about how they had treated me and after a few days I penned the following reply:

I am left with the feeling that the DVLA had only one purpose in writing to me and that purpose was to impose a fine. They didn’t care about the rights or wrongs, they just wanted to collect revenue. They were unprepared to listen or discuss the situation, none of their letters was signed nor had a phone number that I could use to call to discuss. The only phone number given on their correspondence was to an automated payments system.

Each letter I received from the DVLA was titled ‘Failure to Insure’. At no time did I own the van and not have fully comprehensive insurance for it.

I am left with the conclusion that the DVLA is overstaffed with underperformers, inconsiderate people who cannot be bothered to do their job properly and who lie when it suits them.

My lesson learned from this episode is that if you are not guilty of, nor reponsible for the charge they are putting forward, then under no circumstances pay anthing to the DVLA until all alternative avenues have been explored and exhausted. Persist in stating your innocence if you believe it and let them take it to court if you reasonably believe that you are right. Keep copies of all correspondence between them and you; these will be needed in court.

Camping in the cold

We were both getting itchy feet again and both felt the need to have a break and spend a few days away in the ‘van, but not too far away. I’ve wanted to visit Caen Hill locks on the Kennet and Avon canal ever since I saw it in photos so booked a stay (Sunday to Wednesday) at the Devizes camping and caravanning camp site which is halfway between Melksham and Devizes, is adjacent to the canal and within a mile or two of Caen Hill.

We packed our warm clothes, fleecy sheets, winter duvet and headed off on the Sunday afternoon, first stop at the Shell garage to inflate the tyres and to fill up the gas bottle. No need for any diesel as ‘LC was still full of cut price French fuel. Our journey to Wiltshire was quiet with very little traffic and we arrived at the camp site within 2 hours of leaving home. Needless to say we did not unpack the BBQ table etc as the temperature was around 5C and it was very dark.

We decided to avoid cooking on the Sunday night and instead visited the Three Magpies pub right outside the campsite gate. Here we drank and feasted until late(ish)

Monday morning was sunny and very cold but we did get the BBQ out and started the day with a cooked breakfast, a full English but without the eggs.

A great way to start the day, BBQ breakfast and fresh coffee. The first cooked breakfast I’ve had for years.

Delicious

Following breakfast we walked into Devizes along the canal towpath in the bright morning sunshine for a good view of the system of 29 locks that allow the canal to rise 230 ft over a distance of 2 miles.

Canal boats moored at the top of the lock system a short walk of Devizes town centre.

Autumn colours in the winter afternoon sunshine

We had a wander around Devizes town centre with a stop for lunch at Brogans where, apparantly, they have hand cream and tissues in the ‘ladies’ toilets, I can’t even begin to imagine why. Then we decided to head back to the van while it was still daylight and not too cold. On the way back we spotted a Kestrel perched on an overhead wire, and a Barn Owl fluttering silently over the canal right by our campsite.

Monday night the temperature plummetted to around -7C, but we didn’t worry. We had brought a home made Chilli Con Carne with us and had a film to watch so we put the heating on and only ventured out to the toilet block a few times before bed.

No cooked breakfast on the Tuesday morning – it was too damn cold!.

We caught the 10:38 bus outside of the camp gate and were off to visit the Bath Christmas market and have a look around this lovely city as well as to visit the Abbey. Here are a couple of photos of the big window and the ceiling.

Off to The Three Magpies for dinner once again.

Wednesday morning was very frosty and freezing but it was nice and snug in the van. The campsite showers were nice and warm despite the -7C outside temperature. Cooking breakfast was a little more arduous as our BBQ’s butane didn’t want to perform, but we managed it in the end.

An icicle had formed on the side of the van below its gas heater outlet

We had a brilliant time at the Devizes camping and caravanning site. The facilities were first class; its showers were clean and warm. There is a good pub/restaurant on its doorstep; there is a handy bus stop for easy access to Bath, Melksham and Devizes; and the site has easy access to the canal tow path so you can walk or cycle to Devizes, Melksham or further afield.

Our ‘van was also brilliant; it kept us both lovely and warm despite the freezing outside temperatures. During the day while out and about, our gas heating was set to its lowest setting. We also have a small (1Kw) electric powered oil filled radiator running on its ‘medium’ setting which is about 500W. The electric heater kept the van from getting too cold especially on the Tuesday when the outside temperature hovered around freezing all day. On our return to the van in the early evening we would turn the gas heating up to half way and leave it there until bed time. During the night the gas was turned to a lower setting (2) and the electric heater was turned to about 250W. This was all we needed to keep the van nice and snug.

Where shall we go next Fiona?

Homebrew Beer

I enjoy drinking beer, but I don’t enjoy traipsing around Waitrose, Tesco or Sainsbury’s looking for it only not to find it at the right price. The cost of Hobgoblin can vary anywhere between £1.25 and £1.99. There has got to be a better, cheaper and more reliable way of getting access to plenty of high quality beer.

Fear not, there is a better way. It’s called ‘Homebrew’.

I dallied with homebrew about 20 years ago, but at the time it was extract beer and guesswork recipes. My beer was passable, but nothing to write home about. This time I have more time on my hands and decided to do it properly. I’d love to have bought a Speidel Braumeister, but the 10litre version is rather expensive at £1000. So, I decided to buy the SS Brewtech 5 gallon brew kettle, mini brew bucket fermenter and a small drinks cooler, and to brew my own all-grain beer from the recipes available in Graham Wheeler’s book ‘Brew your own British real ale’, and from beerrecipes.org. I have decided to brew batches of about 2 gallons instead of the ‘industry standard’ 5 gallons. This will allow me to brew more frequently, I have less stock on hand and will have less to dump if it tastes awful.

For my first attempt I used malt extract rather than all-grain; this was really just to help me understand the process. My second attempt was a 1 gallon fairly low alcohol all-grain batch, which conditioned quickly and was drunk quickly too. Since then I have been brewing all-grain beers following the recipes for Ringwood Fortyniner and Ringwood Old Thumper. The latest brew followed the Ringwood XXXX Porter recipe.

The Old Thumper and Fortyniner are currently conditioning in 2gallon plastic casks, the porter is still in the fermenter and bubbling a treat.

Mashing the grains at 66C for 90 minutes in a well insulated cold drinks dispenser. The temperature at the end of the 90 minutes was 64C.

Boiling the wort for 90 minutes. Notice the 3KW induction heater which brings the 5 gallons to a boil within about 20 minutes. Pity all the steam didn’t go out the window

All cooled and in the fermenter with the yeast doing its job. The OG was recorded at 1.057. The phial next to the fermenter shows the colour of the beer. Fermentation will last take around 10 days, then the beer will be conditioned for around 6 weeks. It should be ready to drink just after Christmas.

Updated 24th Nov

Fermentation started slowly (a characteristic of the Ringwood yeast), but soon became frantic bubbling through the air lock at a rate of one bubble per second. Bubbling lasted for about 5 days before slowing down to one bubble every 20-30 seconds.

After 12 days in the fermenter I decided to transfer it all to a barrel where it is now conditioning in the hope that it’ll be ready for Christmas.

Final gravity recorded was 1010, which I am happy with. I can’t wait for Christmas to taste it.

Updated 4th December

Another brew was started on the 24th November, this time its a Ringwood Old Thumper. My gravity readings were spot on with an OG of 1055. This time I used Windsor dry yeast instead of the Ringwood smackpack and I also added a small quantity of chocolate malt into the mash. I rehydrated the yeast and pitched it after cooling the wort overnight. Fermentation started within hours. By Friday lunchtime it was bubbling nicely, with a bubble through the airlock every few seconds. As the temperature in the kitchen is fairly warm I decided to move the fermenter to the garage. However, we went away for a few days and on the Monday night the temperature in the garage plummeted to around 6C. Needless to say that when we returned home the temperature of the beer was only 14C and bubbling had ceased. I stirred the beer and brought it back into the kitchen and heated it to try and wake the yeast up. Only time will tell if its been ruined. I’ll barrel it this week and start the next brew of Old Thumper straight away.

While away in Devizes I tried the Wadsworths 6X which was very nice. There are recipes for Wadsworth ales in Graham Wheeler’s book so I might give them a try over the coming weeks.

Update 17th December

A batch of Ringwood 49’r was started on the 14th December. I wrapped the kettle in clingfilm and left it outdoors overnight to cool and then added the yeast the following morning. Fermentation had started by lunchtime.

I checked on the earlier batch of Old Thumper. The yeast I used was Windsor which completes fermentation in three days. This means that fermentation had completed before the temperature dropped. My warming and stirring the wort after that will help with its diacetyl rest so the batch has not been ruined. It should be ready to drink in about 6 weeks. Phew.

Tasting the Porter

It’s nice.

It’s very tasty, slight hint of chocolate, nice aftertaste. I’ve got about 16 pints of the stuff which I’m going to save for Christmas.

A present to myself, but I will share it.

Tasting the Fortyniner

The Fortyniner is the first brew that I primed. The reason I primed it was to make it ready for Christmas. I’ve tasted the brew a few times in the past month and can now declare it fully ready. It has cleared nicely and has a nice fresh taste to it. Its slightly lighter in colour that the bottled stuff produced by Ringwood because I deliberately left out the chocolate malt.

Update 8th January

For my latest brew I used the recipe for ‘Gale’s Festival Mild’, a very black beer which should be ready in about 2 months time.

Those with good eyesight may be able to see the OG reading of 1056. This means that its going to need a minimum of 6 weeks conditioning before it is drinkable. Roll on mid March.