{"id":7540,"date":"2026-05-14T18:23:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7540"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:23:43","slug":"1-do-we-need-a-disaster-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7540","title":{"rendered":"1. DO WE NEED A DISASTER TO START?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve only been in France for eight days and we’ve already had three bank holidays!\u00a0 And two of those have given us a problem!\u00a0 The weekend we arrived was a celebration of Victory in Europe Day and the following Thursday was Ascension Day.\u00a0 And most French people seem to like taking the odd Friday off to make a very long weekend.\u00a0 We met two of those today!\u00a0 Going golfing in Lorient for four days!<\/p>\n

On the boat, we were given a spot right near the front door.\u00a0 Too close really.\u00a0 Getting out of this corner is going to be a tight manoevre with the caravan in tow!<\/p>\n

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Actually, we were facing the back door.\u00a0 Apparently, the front door that failed to open for us last year is still waiting to be fixed!\u00a0 This time though, all vehicles did a U-turn on the boat.\u00a0 Up on the port side and back down the starboard.\u00a0 So everyone was ready to roll.\u00a0 There would be no need to reverse off.\u00a0 Also, there were only 150 vehicles on board.\u00a0 Realistically,\u00a0 everyone would be ashore within 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

The first major issue was going to be the much vaunted and anticipated requirement to comply with the recently implemented EES security checks.\u00a0 The checks which have been causing scores of travellers to Europe to miss their flights home.\u00a0 (Indeed, at least one flight left ALL its passengers behind and flew home empty.)\u00a0 These are the same checks that Greece has waived for all travellers (in sensible support of their country’s tourism trade).\u00a0 The same checks, indeed, that work like clockwork every time we go through Singapore and Hong Kong airports.\u00a0 These have been in place for years now.\u00a0 How can the EU stuff things up so badly?<\/p>\n

Well, EES was indeed anticipated, but totally NOT in place!\u00a0 Immigration officers manually checked our passports.\u00a0 Just like they have done every year since Brexit!<\/p>\n

The second issue relates to milk.\u00a0 And to butter.\u00a0 And all dairy products and fresh meat and even some fruit.\u00a0 These commodities are on the black list.\u00a0 Banned.\u00a0 Even French cheeses imported legally into the UK cannot return to their country of origin in our possession.\u00a0 Excellent!\u00a0 So we need to hit the supermarket before we can have a decent cup of tea.\u00a0 No one inspected us.\u00a0 They never have.\u00a0 I didn’t see anyone manning any inspection point.\u00a0 To be fair, I didn’t even spot any likely inspection site.<\/p>\n

Within 10 minutes of disembarking we we free to wander.\u00a0 Just as well really, because our pre-booked (because it’s a national holiday) caravan site closes at 9 pm.\u00a0 Our boat docked at 8 pm.\u00a0 The trip to the campsite is timed at about 35 minutes.\u00a0 No stress, then!<\/p>\n

After a few minutes on the road, it started to rain.\u00a0 A few minutes later, the rubber blade of one of our windscreen wipers broke.\u00a0 Luckily this was on the navigator’s side, not the driver’s!\u00a0 Luckily also, the caravan site didn’t actually have any barriers to shut us out!\u00a0 However, access to our chosen pitch was via a narrow twisting path with wild, trifid-like hedges and the occasional protruding rock waiting to cause us chaos.\u00a0 We will worry about getting back through the maze from hell in a couple of days time.\u00a0 We will also worry about wipers tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The site was delightfully quiet with lovely open rural views across a field with a couple of donkeys and a Shetland pony.<\/p>\n

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But the site is geared up for younger clientele.\u00a0 Much younger.\u00a0 It’s going to be very busy when these diggers and tractors get mobilised!<\/p>\n

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Little did we know!\u00a0 A couple of days later we woke to find our view had changed.\u00a0 The tractors and diggers really had got busy.\u00a0 I’m sure they were smaller when we arrived!<\/p>\n

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New drainage is being installed …<\/p>\n

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Then a new shower and toilet block arrives … on the back of a truck!<\/p>\n

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… and is put into position.\u00a0 Just a little late for our “convenience”!<\/p>\n

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The one obvious advantage to us was that the truck had demolished a lot of the trifid hedge.\u00a0 While he had sucessfully negotiated the maze on the way in, the driver managed to get stuck on a rock going back out.\u00a0 He wasn’t a happy bunny and took a load more vegetation with him along with a badly damaged back corner.\u00a0 The more intrusive of the branches that had survived the truck in the narrowest section seemed to magically disappear later.\u00a0 Well, one has to make hay when the sun shines!<\/p>\n

Wiper blades.\u00a0 There are two BMW garages near here.\u00a0 We know.\u00a0 We visited both of them.\u00a0 One of them four times!\u00a0 Although listed as open till 6.30 pm, that’s OK if you want to buy a whole car.\u00a0 We just needed a couple of small bits.\u00a0 The parts departments keep MUCH shorter hours and take two hour lunch breaks.\u00a0 They don’t open at all on public holidays.\u00a0 In the end we are informed that our wipers are not in stock.\u00a0 They have to come from Strasbourg!\u00a0 Three days delivery time – maybe four over a holiday – which will happen.\u00a0 French wipers are different from their UK counterparts.\u00a0 They wipe the opposite way.\u00a0 And that’s because the French drivers sit on the wrong side of their cars!<\/p>\n

After several long and involved telephone conversations with BMW garages near our next destination, we elect to sit it out here and get them on Friday, or possibly the following Monday!<\/p>\n

So we have time to explore an area of northern Brittany, which we have passed through many times but rarely stopped to admire.\u00a0 The coast is wild and rocky.\u00a0 The cliffs and beaches are littered with granite boulders, both massive and even bigger.\u00a0 Coastal waters around here are home to hundreds of rocky islands\u00a0 And if we go a little east, the granite takes on a beautiful pink tinge.\u00a0 Welcome to the C\u00f4te de Granit Rose.<\/p>\n

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Between rocky headlands there are dozens of sandy beaches.\u00a0 Some short and some many kilometres long.\u00a0 All of them extend a long way out at “Mar\u00e9e Basse”.\u00a0 This is because of the substantial tidal range in this area which can be between five and ten metres along the stretch of coast between Roscoff and Mont Saint Michel.\u00a0 That’s a lot of water moving about.\u00a0 In and out, twice a day.<\/p>\n

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Fabulous.\u00a0 Shame about the temperature which was\u00a0 recorded as “12.5\u00b0C with a real feel of 8\u00b0 C” one day and actually 8\u00b0C another day.\u00a0 Distinctly chilly.\u00a0 But at least we get sole use of the beaches!<\/p>\n

I think that’s a great place to stop.\u00a0 Our windscreen wipers (known locally as les essuie-glaces) may arrive tomorrow.\u00a0 Or maybe not!<\/p>\n

Luckily we found a bottle of UHT milk in the back of the car when we arrived – don’t quite know how that happened!\u00a0 However, we did get a cuppa on arrival!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve only been in France for eight days and we’ve already had three bank holidays!\u00a0 And two of those have given us a problem!\u00a0 The weekend we arrived was a celebration of Victory in Europe Day and the following Thursday… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7540"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7561,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540\/revisions\/7561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}