. This is the last leg of our travels, we came across the interior of Spain. We stopped at some beautiful city’s and towns, the country side, mountains, narrow roads all very quiet away from the crowds.(see blog 6). Our last stop in Spain is DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIAN one of the most elagant seaside resort in Spain. With a population of 188102, it lays on the coast of the Atlantic ocean the bay of biscay in the basque country just 12 miles from France, with three lovely beaches some very beautiful Architecture all very smart and elagant. We’ve stayed here three time, we like it here a lot. There is a good aire for motorhomes 7 euros a night with services, just 15 minutes to the beach and the city centre and the old town a very lively place on a night. We cannot praise San Sebastian enough, it’s a great place for a holiday.

We would like stay here a bit longer but we have a boat to catch on Friday at Dieppe to Newhaven, that will be our three months or 90 day up that’s all we are allowed since we left the European Union.

              So off we go over the border to France. Where going up the west of France to Sanguinet  a small village on a lake about 120 miles away, it took us a 2 hours drive and turned out to be a very nice place.

We went in a bar on the lake to celebrate our 51 years wed, only us and three other people in the bar it was a bit dead 😕 so we went back to the van and made a meal and drank bottle of wine🍾has you do. Sanguinet is a nice place but a bit quiet at this time of year, the weather was warm but a bit wet and windy.        

                                                           So off we go again further north to St Florrent Le Vieil another small village in the middle of nowhere but we have beautiful views, we had a walk around the village no shops no bars nothing open a bit like a ghost town. 😱

So we looked at the clouds 🤣

We’re going to Honfleur 4 hour’s drive away on the northern coast of France, Honfleur is  situated on the English channel by the river Seine across from Le Havre. It has a old port in the town which makes it interesting, most of the houses have slate covered fronts. A very arty town with lots of beautiful Architecture. We are staying on an aire which holds 200 hundred motorhomes, and is always full in summer £12 a night all in. At the moment it’s about half full. Honfleur a very popular town plenty of restaurants shops and bars, the weather is simular to UK weather maybe a bit warmer, but well worth a visit 😊👍.

As you probably know there’s been lots of protests going on in France about raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. We’ve seen a few petrol stations closed so we got a bit worried, but we found a big supermarket with fuel so we filled up. We’re now OK till we get back to the UK.      We have also been held up a couple of times at roundabouts by protesters blocking the road, but they only kept us waiting 15 minutes. The French are certainly good at protesting, all power to them.👍

Tomorrow we’re going to Dieppe to catch a ferry to Newhaven England. We’re getting a early ferry it’s sailing at 6 30am, we have to be at the ferry terminal for 5 am. So we’re staying the night in Dieppe so we don’t have to far to drive in the morning. 😊

We woke up on Friday morning to a force 8 gale, our 6 30am ferry booking had been cancelled. So Its been rescheduled to 6 pm. At 5 30pm we boarded the dfds boat, but it was still very strong winds and it was raining sideways so the captain delayed the sailing. At 7 30pm the captain desided to sail.

What a journey the sea was lifting us up and the front end of the boat would come crashing down every 20 seconds. The gale was travelling east alone the English channel and we where heading straight for it, so we had to turn west to avoid the worst part of the gale. On normally days the journey takes 4 hours this was not normal it took 7 hours That was an eventful journey. 🌊😭. But we made it to Newhaven safe and sound.   We had a sleep for few hours then we set off over night 300 miles to Hull. Home and dry, home sweet home. 🏠

We’ve had a fantastic holiday we love travelling around Europe, we’ve met so many good people and been to lots of different citys, towns, villages and mountain scenery. The weather has been kind to us we’ve had a fantastic 3 months adventure. We feel very lucky to be able to do this kind of holiday. But we are looking forward to coming home to see our family, grandchildren and friends.

I’d like to thank you all for following our blogs we appreciate your support. cheers. D&P. X

derekandpat.com see you in summer at some folk festives. X