Day 11, Tuesday - sandstorms and phone calls

Such a windy morning I feared for the tents safety and our sanity. We battened down all hatches and went to the beach, but there was a sandstorm which stung our legs and the kids cried - no way we could stay there. So we went back to the town. We sat outside in a sheltered spot and it was quite hot out of the wind as the sun's there. We went to see some pictures that had taken our fancy previously - still life on silk - we liked them very much and at 380F seemed very reasonable, but after the car's expensive repairs, we could't really afford them.

Sat outside on the leeward side of the tent all afternoon, wrote postcards and read while Joanna slept and Louise mooched around 'finding friends'. After the meal inevitably we went to the bar and rang Roselle in Paris - cost 16F to speak for 8 mins, that's £2 - extortionate! She was leaving for Nantucket on Saturday but for some reason we couldn't quite glean, she was being left in Boston for a few days. Anyway we arranged that she would phone us on Friday night and I asked her to ring Mum. Why did I do that? Probably wouldn't have been any dearer for us to ring Mum!

Expenses Francs
Bread and Milk 4.50
2 coffees and orangina 11.00
bread 1.75
Sausage and cheese 17.50
Strawberries and taters 7.00
stamps 4.00
Beer 2.00
Campsite 22.10
Bar 21.00
Vin, bread, postcards 7.75
Phone call 16.40

Day 10, Monday and the weather's changed

It's cold and dull - had we been transported back to the UK overnight? This is not the sort of weather I anticipated in the Med region and we weren't thrilled. To make the most of it we went back to the little town of Valras Plage we liked the look of yesterday after we'd been on the beach. However it had been very crowded so we didn't see much, and there had been a local 'do' on. We thought it was a drum majorette competition but not sure, and there were bicycle races so everywhere was packed.

Monday was market day and much better suited to our needs than bike races. What a beautiful array of food. We didn't have anywhere near the selection and quality of fresh food that the French people enjoyed then, (better now, but I'm still impressed by French markets all these years later). There were stalls of cakes and biscuits looking very tempting and appetising. There were dustbins (clean!) full of black olives, stuffed olives, gherkins, onions, pickles, all sorts of exotica. Fresh veg stalls with every type of home grown veg and a big stall with loose herbs and spices. I got cumin, coriander and cordoman seeds which are really hard to get at home unless you go to Upper Parli st. Lots of clothes stalls, some dear but some reasonably priced, well same as UK. But the shoes were a triumph! I got some high heeled, pointed toes for 25F, abour £3 - probably fall apart quite quickly but who cares - result!

It stayed cold, dull and windy all day; in the bar le patron said there had been snow on the Pyrenees for the past 3 days so not a hope of it turning warmer in VP. He said it was the worst weather he'd had in 7 years of running the site. Trust us to choose the hideous weather year to trek to the South of France and camp.It seemed it was no better the other side of Marseille which had been our original destination before the car fell apart. That all seems an age ago now.

Expenses Francs
Milk and Bread 4.50
More bread 1.25
2 coffees/Orangina 9.00
Veg & salad 6.00
haricot vert 3.25
Pork chops 10.70
Cheese 5.80
Vin 3.00
Camping fees 22.10
herbs/spices 7.00
bar evening 23.00

Day 9, Sunday - hair washing and dog!

So it rained all night - I know, I was there lying awake listening to the rain on canvas, wondering where the next leak is coming from. When I did get off to sleep, it wasn't for long - Jo decided to wake us up at 6.30 to tell us it was bright and sunny - thanks Jo! So they and us had the first hair washing of the holiday and no longer looked like Worzel Gummidge.

With an air of anticipation and great excitement we gathered up all the necessary paraphanalia for the beach and set out the 300 yards to get there, while overhead the clouds blackened and threatened. Stayed threatening all day but it was hot and the troops had a lovely time. At last, this is what a holiday should be like.

In the evening we went to the bar where the World Cup final was on between Holland and Argentina, and the Dutch were surprisingly animated. As we were ordering a drink (and therefore slightly distracted), Louise, showing an amazing turn of speed, homed in on a dog lying on a seat and flung her arms round it. The dog, terrified (and probably indignant) at the unprovoked attack, snapped at her and caught her face on both sides of her mouth, breaking the skin on one side. Oh la la! what a performance - Louise screaming, me trying to calm her down to get a good look at the damage, patron belting dog, Joanna clutching David's leg cutting off the blood supply below the knee, and the Dutch torn between the World Cup or the real life drama going on behind them.

Eventually with much shoulder shrugging and gesticulation on the French part, phlegmatic resignation from the Dutch who were beaten 3-1 and relief from us as Louise seemed to recover very quickly, all was quiet and no kids on swings to disturb our sleep.

Expenses Francs
Milk and Bread 4.50
2 vins 6.00
cakes and bread lunch 19.00
pepper 1.00
buckets, spades, ball 17.80
ice creams 4.00
meat 11.00
beer 3.55

campsite fees 22.10

Day 8, Saturday - Are we nearly there yet?

Up at 7 and away at 8.30 am, no breakfast for anyone, girls didn't want cereal and only biscuits would do. With what they put up with during the week it seemed churlish to argue so they had biscuits. The plan was to get to Millau by lunch time, have a leisurely lunch and arrive at the sea with plenty of time to spare in the afternoon. We reckoned without the mountains ... they went on for ever.

We got onto the main road from the campsite, started to climb immediately and there we were on a giant roller coaster which went on and on. We averaged about 25 mph and obviously weren't going to get to the target lunch destination. I had a headache same time as I got one the previous day, thought it was just tension but David thinks fumes are getting into the car. Stopped outside 5 miles Millau, had lunch and then David took the troops for a half hour walk while I tried unsuccessfully, to sleep it off. The headache got worse as the afternoon progressed and I still don't know how I drove the last few miles to Valras Plage and the sea.
It had stopped raining by this time and looked promising, so we got the tent up and I fell into bed. Woke up an hour later and felt much better. However it was evidently going to rain again soon, but the campsite had a restaurant, bar and all facilities, so didn't care any more! Later on the kids couldn't sleep as French kids were determined to break as many limbs as possible by falling off swings behind our tent. Hmm .. Location is everything in this game ...

Expenses Francs
Lunch Bread,Pizzas 10.00
Fruit, Peaches, apples 3.00
10 litres petrol 27.00
Vin 3.00
25 litres petrol 67.00

Day 7, Friday - deffo going South

Got up full of ambition and enthusiasm at 6.30, even before the Louise alarm clock went off. Marshalled the kids, packed and left in the rain with soggy tent at 8.15. We were delayed because Madame le camping had lost our papers and didn't know what to charge us. Sorted that out and belted south, well 50 mph is belting with the load we had on board.

The weather improved and we got to a village outside Clermond Ferand at 12 noon and bought a very tasty potato, cheese and cream pie, pate and egg custard, (oeufs-au-lait to be precise). Shifted that very quickly and left for Clermond at 1pm, Reached our campsite at a place called St Nectaire at about 3pm - just as the weather was changing for the worst again. By the time we had (by now expertly) erected the tent and got the washing out it was raining again - oh no!

By 9pm we were fed up as there had been no let up in the unrelenting rain - it was more of an endurance test than a holdiday. Everything was damp and the tent started to let in water because it had been rolled up wet all day. The girls were very good, maybe they were resigned to a holiday spent in damp clothes, cranky old car and wet tent, I told them it was the norm. Jo went to sleep very early but Louise was still awake and talking to herself quite late: not making any sense but that's deffo the norm.

St Nectaire was a spa and local interest spot - shame it poured and obscured the view, would have been interesting to see the mountains and to have taken the kids out. Most things were packed up ready for the last push south, determined to get to the sea the next day.

Expenses Francs
Campsite fees, Orleans 18.00
Petrol, oil and water 70.00
Campsite St Nectaire 11.00
lunch charcuterie 26.00
dinner Boucherie 11.00
ice creams 2.00
Plums and onions 3.00
milk and beer 3.00

Day 6, Thursday - Miscommunication rules

The little horrors were up at 7am, (quite unnecessarily as we didnt know when we could pick up the car. Eventually we walked into town with them in the double buggy, took about 40 minutes. We headed straight for the garage and tried to ask what he was doing, but he kept saying "this evening", so it meant that even if he could adapt the system and (that's by no means certain) we still couldn't leave until the following day, and the weather's turned very nasty. Very windy and squally - we must look splendidly English in our cagoules, tramping through the city in search of a coffee for us and le glace pour l'enfants terrible.

Nice coffee, bill horrendous - given to us upfront cost the equivalent of 15.70 francs. Then le garcon came back and asked if we could like some croissant and we said "oui merci", mainly because David said it was a quaint French custom given free, and took two. I was dubious so only took one. So D got a shock when they were 2 francs each!

We went to see the cathedral, which was enveloped in Joan of Arc tat - but at least it was out of the wind and rain. We decided to get more tent pegs because the wind is howling and we may do a Dorethy and Toto if we don't batten down. Later we went to a salon-du-the, had a wonderful cup of Ceylon and we all had Quiche Lorraine, nicest we've tasted. The kids ate all of theirs, which is almost the first proper meal they've eaten apart from chips on the boat, (which counts as a proper meal in their book).

After buying crayons and colouring books and postcards - what do we say? Having a WONDERFUL time, everyone. Wish you were all here to share wet tents, crappy cars that haven't got us far, crying toddler and spending money we haven't got ... We walked back to camp and then at 5.30 I went to collect the car trembling lest the adaptation had failed. But it was ready at a village called Olivet. The garage man took me over in his BL Innocenti - very nice, made in Italy with a Mini engine. Returned in triumph (and very relieved) to Big D and packed the car. It was raining again for a change.

Expenses Francs
coffee, croissants, glace 21.60
lunch Quiche and tea 37.00
tent peg and Jar 15.20
crayons and books 7.55
postcards 7.00
stamps 6.00

Day 5, Wednesday - Exhausted!

Beautiful day! got up early, packed up and away by 10 am from Chartres. Would have been earlier but we took all the wrong turnings possible. Didn't even get to see the Cathedral, so will do that on the way back. We were on our way to Orleans and then to Nevers, which is heading SOUTH (a great step forward to us seeing as we hadn't got off the the first page of the map at this stage). But the road to Orleans is long with a broken exhaust pipe dangling down ...
We drove around the city looking for and eventually finding a British Leyland dealer, but he didn't stock estate car exhaust systems. However after a long discussion which didn't get us very far, but thank goodness for David's school french, he's agreed to adapt a saloon exhaust - but not until tomorrow. It's very frustrating, we were making quite good time and Joanna's stopped crying.

We found a campsite on the banks of a river, it's a fairly primitive site but it'll do for tonight and then have to take the car in at 8pm. Went to a hypermarket in the afternoon, always a highlight of French holidays for me - bought steak, courgettes and lovely stuff for dinner.
Later I took the car to the garage and thought I was asking when I could pick it up tomorrow, but when I reported what I'd said to David he said I'd asked the man what time it was ...

Expenses Francs
Provisions 37.50
fruit 5.15
Icecreams 6.00

Day 4 Tuesday - In French France - Wow!

The plan had been to get up at the crack of sparrow fart (Louise being our very reliable, if grumpy, alarm clock), and get on our way south. However not only did we all sleep in, through all the pole clanking and swearing of seasoned travellers on the move, but by the time we'd breakfasted, (not well but quickly), and packed up it was high noon. We were the last ones to leave the site ...

We headed out on the road for Orleans via Chartres and Jo cried most of the way - she was so miserable, a normally very happy little person, I began to wonder if it was just the cold or if she was coming down with something else. Had to stop for petrol and to tighten the roof rack; then we noticed one of the back tyres must have a slow puncture. After pumping it up, the car suddenly sounded funny, very throaty and pffutting like mad. I listened for a bit and thought - exhaust - press on. We only got as far as Chartres not because of the car but because Jo was so upset, we had to stop and find a site. We found a sports field that was being used as an overflow site for the summer. Good facilities and very safe for them to play. Jo cheered up a bit, but still not like her.

Met a nice New Zealand couple who had worked in London for 9 months and were now on a tour of Europe - lucky them! Shared their wine, as I said - nice people! Had to go to bed in the dark because I broke the lamp - didn't have to fumble about for pjs though. Too cold to get undressed, went to bed fully clothed!

Expenses Francs
Food 3.50
Petrol 67.00
Site fees 6.50
Provisions 20.00

Day 3, Monday - France or bust

woke at 4.30 am full of anxiety but lay quietly until 6 when Louise woke. At least David had recovered. Got all our gear packed and got off on our planned ETD of 8am. We made good time and got to the services just before Bristol by 10.25.
Stayed only to feed and water and got away at 11am, left the M4 10 minutes later and then ... crowded roads, village bottlenecks, roadworks, Louise needing a wee. Jo was very raggy and didn't sleep, both of them had colds, the grizzling adding to the tension in the car. Touch and go whether we got to the boat in time - eventually we were saved by the last few miles to Portsmouth being motorway and got there with 10 minutes to spare.
We were late into Le Havre because of a wreath laying ceremony halfway across which fascinated the girls and prompted the usual unanswerable questions from Louise.
It was late by the time we got to the campsite and we started to put up the tent which was beginning to look as though it had 10 sides and twice as many poles as when we packed it. We had an audience of experienced campers eating leisurely evening meals and loving the unexpected entertainment. Joanna wouldn't stop crying, and a woman in a caravan offered to look after them while we wrestled the tent into something resembling shelter and it was 11pm before we were ready enough to put them to bed. Only then did a jobsworth rock up and tell us we'd pitched in the wrong place and would have to move - did we? did we 'eck as like!

Expenses £
Petrol 4.00
Services 0.97
book 0.95

Expenses Francs
lunch on boat 26.00
dinner on boat 20.00
Cigarettes 4.00
Site fees 12.00

Day 2, Sunday - To go or not to go?

Our day started normally enough, if waking up in a posh Cheshire hotel when you think you should be in France can ever be called normal. Louise woke at 6.30 which is very normal for her, Jo would sleep til lunchtime if left alone. Went down to breakfast at 8am and while the three of us set about a hearty British plateful, David turned green and disappeared at speed. "What's the matter with Daddy?" was answered with my 'mustn't worry the children' voice that didn't even fool the 17 month old Joanna - "I expect he's forgotten something, Darling, now eat up nicely."

Phoned my Dad - he'd had a nice holiday, forget where. Phoned Mum - she's got a cold worrying about us taking the children to furrin parts. Phoned the garage - he said "What do you want, miracles? Phone back at 2pm" Didn't know what to do with ourselves, stuck in deep countryside, no transport, father ill and kids expecting a bucket and spade experience as promised. I remembered that some friends of ours lived somewhere in the vicinity and rang them, (thank goodness for pay phones, no mobiles back then). They came and took us back to their very nice house whereupon David retired to bed for the day. His sickness continued all day, poor thing. The rest of us ditched being F Nightingale wanabees and took all the kids to a pub, which seemed the right thing to do under the circumstances. He was no better when we wove our way back, so we called a quack who said it was a bug and he could travel on tomorrow.

The car being ready mine host drove me out to get it and thought he would have to call a doctor to me when I saw the price of the repair. That cost, coupled with the hotel and the meal, (so nice, so sick, so quick) was more than the total cost of the holiday budget. Maybe we should have turned round then and headed for home, the writing was on the wall for all but the most myopic. Our hospitable friends fed us well and the kids went to bed happy and tired having had a strange but entertaining day. I went to the pub and left the invalid to babysit - it's an ill wind ...

Expenses £
Holly Lodge Hotel 33.97
Car repairs 70.60
Pub spends 2.00
phone calls 0.46

Day 1 - Saturday, travelling or not?

We didn't set off until 11.30, a serious tactical error. The roof rack was hard to pack and lash down, and no, we hadn't practised that part of it. We got as far as the Burtonwood services on the M62 when the radiator boiled over. An RAC man arrived after about an hour, flushed it out and we set off again. A few miles down the road - same thing. This time we waited for 1 hour 15 mins before another RAC man turned up, only to tell us that the radiator is duff and we need a new one - terrific! All this time the girls have been really good, maybe oblivious to the situation, only vaguely wondering why we aren't moving.

We limp to the nearest service area to be told now that not only has the radiator gone but we need a new cylinder head gasket - even more terrific. The mechanic further complicates matters by informing my husband, David (who doesn't drive and knows less than nothing about cars), that "You can't just change it, you have to skim the head first" - What?! Oh and by the way, "We can't do that until Monday, sorry!"

OK, so now what to do? Go home? How negative! Limp on and hope to stay with a friend further down the motorway and chance getting it done on Monday? Not an option. Phone the RAC again? Why not? So now the third RAC man was on the way, leaping into his little van, (they were little in those days), and comes to look at the car. By now it's the most looked at car on the motorway and if he does that thing of pursed lips, sharp intake of breath and shaking head, I might thump him, because I'm fed up and it's damned hot.

But no, my hero knows of a garage who will fix it tomorrow. But, I say, it's Sunday tomorrow. He's very matter-of-fact "They work a 7 day week", he assures me. Now in 1978 that's quite something and I don't think I believed him until he had towed us there (at the best speeds we had done all day) and deposited me with the garage man in some little outback in Cheshire - we didn't really know where we were until he told us he had booked us a hotel in Holmes Chapel - at a price. So in a day we had managed to travel from Formby to Holmes Chapel, a distance of about 50 miles which we would have expected to take an hour on a bad day ...

Lovely hotel, we bathed the kids and put them to bed after tea and then had a lovely meal with wine. Very relaxing and all the better for being unexpected. So we were down a day, didn't really matter.

Expenses £
Petrol 5.07
Meal (Burtonwood) 2.39
Tea (Knutsford) 1.30

preparations for the big trek

When you've got no money - buy a tent, but not just any old tent, but top of the range, with 3 white cloth bedrooms that tie on and a kitchen extension tent. And then buy all the equipment you never knew you needed . So we have a 2 burner stove with a stand to put THINGS on! A set of 3 saucepans that fit inside one another with all the lids fitting inside too with the interchangeable handle inside the smallest one. Isn't that cute I thought. Lots more to buy and so little time - a washing up bowl on another stand with a draining board - (there's luxury), campbeds, sleeping bags, table, fold-up chairs, kettle with a foldup handle, frying pan, and lots more. Carried away by the possibilities, it never occurred to me that I could save money by taking equipment I already owned - did I think there were magic properties in items bought at the camping store?

The nice man in the tent store colour coded all the poles for us so that we novices couldn't start arguing the minute we got on a foreign campsite, and so that we would have a roof over us before it gets dark. When we got the kit home it took ages to unload, which didn't bode well for calm, efficient travel, especially if you take into account the amount of tackle you need for 2 toddlers. Perhaps that should have rung alarm bells but instead I decided on lists - list of camping stuff, list of kid stuff, list of our stuff, list of food and household stuff, list of Order of Packing, endless lists to make us Better Campers.

The day after the extravagant purchase was a fine Sunday, Granny was looking after the kids, so we decided on a dry run of erecting the tent and associated paraphanalia. It went very efficiently, thanks largely to the colour-cordinated poles (definitely less irritation factor), and within an hour, there we were with our own little bungalow that could go anywhere, anytime. . Having such a success, we now knew exactly what to do, how and in what sequence. Perfect - nothing simpler, there was a moment when i thought maybe we should just holiday in our back garden, but no, we're good to go. With a week to go I felt in control, potential problems eliminated.

where do we start?

I've been looking for something and not found it, but in the search I unearthed notebooks from years ago when we had no money but went on holiday anyway. It was the event of the year as far as I was concerned - 2 children, a husband who was a careerist, so hardly ever home before 7pm after leaving at 7.30 am. The day was a desert if I had no classes - I worked at night to ensure we had a holiday. various jobs mostly selling M & S seconds at 'parties' great gatherings of women to which I took a car load of black bags containing childrens, womens and mens clothing, and the most popular items - towels and tea towels - why them? They were good fun, those parties, always food provided by the hostess, and always sold something, better than when I tried Tupperware.

So I've decided to blog these holidays as if they were happening now but the differences are immense relatively speaking - no mobile phones, cars were much less reliable than now, couldn't really afford disposable nappies, (but made an effort to go 50/50 on holiday), tents are self erecting now whereas we had endless colour coded poles to be fitted together and then an internal bedroom tent to be attached, oh and a kitchen extension - yes, believe me!!

All the expenses are there too, but I don't know what the comparison between £1 in 2009 and 1978 - perhaps someone out there does? Tried Google, couldn't find it

ok so tomorrow I'll start the preparation for my 1978 holiday from Liverpool to the South of France in a 1969 Morris Estate - did we get there? tell you later