The Naming of the Vans

I was delighted, on waking this morning at 0400, to find that I no longer felt sick with apprehension about this holiday. Sadly, the whole of yesterday I was convinced that the idea of taking the girls off with my neice for nearly 2 weeks was a Very Bad Idea Indeed, and all that could go wrong was bound to go wrong. So, despite the early hour, I was just pleased to find myself optimistic and happy about the holiday. As it happened, there was little left to pack - we had only to decide which clothes we really couldn't live without, and we were on our way!

Once in France, we were able to chuckle anew at the somewhat ironic names given to camper vans. While the Dutch are practical, with their tiny caravan called a Kompact, the Germans obscure with some of their names, the French have the most imagination, with their Challengers, Galaxies and Chateaux. However, the prize for the most ironically named camper van goes to the Rapido - proof, I believe, that the French do, indeed, possess a sense of humour.

We stopped, as always, at the Aire de la Baye de Somme, this afternoon, to stretch our legs and take on board a few more supplies. As usual, there are many carp and ducks in the lake, but we were all enchanted to find that there were a number of ducklings in the water too. Unfortunately I gave the girls permission to feed their CRUSTS to the ducks, but since the sandwiches disappeared very quickly I bet the ducks got a good deal more than crust!

We have passed Rouen, and are well on our way to Le Mans, having finally given up driving (let's face it, 0400 is very early) at 1600 and found a campsite at a little town called Gace (this has an acute over the e, but I don't know how to get this keyboard to do that.) The camping is nice and mostly level. It's close to the centre of the town, but we haven't, as yet, been down to have a look.

I think I might go and have a look at the town now...