Arrondissement de Philippeville

From our French stopover in Charleville-Mézières we did a short hop to a Carrefour supermarket to pick up some wine and other bits and bobs. Vicky was not best impressed when she was required to remove and open her rucksack before being allowed to enter the store! However, it had almost everything we wanted, including an extensive organic food section. There was quite a buzz around the boxes of Beaujolais Nouveau that had arrived, they had notices printed on the boxes instructing for them not to be put on sale until the 3rd Thursday of November!

We returned to Belgium but the road continued to dip in and out of France to the extent that we didn't know which country we were in at points! One border crossing that occurred within a town demonstrated the different approaches the two countries have to christmas. We approached from the French side, where christmas lights were strung accross the road. However, as soon as we crossed the border, they came to an abrupt halt!

The aire we stayed in was a patch of gravel near a museum and petanque club. It was big enough for 4 vans and when we pulled in we saw two Belgian and one large British motorhome. The occupant of the latter didn't seem very sociable so we didn't push it and indeed, he soon escaped to a parking spot outside of the aire. We guess as we draw closer to the ferry port we will see more and more GB plates.Read more