I can’t really tell you anything about Ettlingen, where we stayed on a free Stellplatz kindly provided by the town. The rain hammered down from the moment we arrived until we left this morning. The last 48 hours have been the wettest of the whole 7 month trip. We donned our waterproof coats a couple of times to take the dogs out for their walks and that was the total sum of our exploration!
We set off at a reasonable hour to make as much progress as possible in our quest for the sun. The Germany motorways, although well maintained, were nearly as congested as yesterday. We didn’t have any major delays although plenty of times the traffic ground to a halt just due the volume of vehicles. To make it all much worse the rain persisted.
Team Basil reached Freibourg and then made a right hand turn over the Rhine and into France. Initially things were little better in France and as we pulled into a service station for lunch it was still wet and about ten degrees. Our spirits were lifted when I managed to locate a baguette for lunch in the service station. It wasn’t France’s finest baking but it was a taste of things to come, we hope.
Better still I found a quick shot of espresso to be only €1.40 (not quite the Italian standard €1 but better than the German €2.50) and the toilets were free. On our travels through Germany we have been amazed to find that motorway service stations are in the habit of charging €0.70 to access the toilets! Talk about spending a penny!
As we set off after lunch things suddenly started to improve. The clouds parted and we saw some sun and temperature rose, reaching 17 degrees at one point. French motorways are expensive, but they are brilliant. The traffic was light and we were suddenly able to average a reasonable speed so the journey to our chosen campsite, which has looked infeasible during the morning, was easily achieved.
Sarah made an interesting observation today, which after 7 months driving in Europe, we perhaps should have spotted earlier and that is that articulated lorries from most European countries seem to have different number plates on their cabs and trailers. I am sure in England that it is a legal requirement for the two to match, but not here apparently. It is not just French lorries, but most other countries too. The only exception seems to be Spanish vehicles. We even saw a French car towing a small trailer with a completely different number plate. I don’t know how such a system works in a world with automatic number plate recognition. Perhaps both the trailer and the cab are registered separately, but who then pays the speeding fine?
We have stopped over night on an ACSI site, Camping Marjorie (46.684661, 5.567760) in the town of Lons-le-Saunier. It is a nice site, with good hedge separation between pitches, but it is right next to a noisy main road, so I don’t think we would be inclined to stay for more than one night. It is €15 a night plus tax and €2 for a second dog.
Enough progress has been made today to enable us to reach a campsite somewhere warm tomorrow. We haven’t decided where yet, but I am fancying the Cevennes.