After all the toing and froing getting the work done on Lo11y we were desperate to take her away for a longer trip to test out the systems.
In July 2023, after a week away in the Northwest of England in Blackpool and the Southern Lake District, we set off on our first overseas trip to France with the plan to follow some of the Tour De France in the Alps region.
We drove down to Dover and spent the night in a nice campsite in Folkstone overlooking the English Channel. We had a walk down the beach and even saw a sealion bobbing around just offshore, then enjoyed a lovely sunset complete with rainbow.
We had an early ferry to catch but had a moment of panic when we noticed our phones were showing it was an hour later than we’d thought. Thankfully we realised that our phones had already reset themselves onto French time.
After a smooth crossing we headed out of Calais and were a bit bemused to find none of our sat-nav equipment was picking up the routes. It was quite a few miles into the journey before they kicked into life. We can only assume there is some kind of block to signals around the port for security reasons.
We had decided to head to Luxembourg for our first night and had pre-booked a pitch at Camping Kockelscheuer, set in a municipal park on the edge of the city. We had planned to cycle into the city centre, have an evening there, then set off to France the following day, but feeling weary after a long hot drive, and finding the campsite to be very nice with good facilities, we decided to take it easy that evening and plan to have a full day In the city the following day with a second night on the campsite.
Although both of us had had brief visits to Luxembourg in our younger days, we hadn’t appreciated what a stunning city it is with the whole of the old town being a World Heritage Site. The public transport is also free, so we caught a bus into the centre from just outside the campsite.
It was a hot day, so we enjoyed the day ambling around the main areas of town and taking the panoramic lift which connects the valley with the upper old part of the town.
After a trip back to the campsite to freshen up, we headed back into the city for a drink and a bite to eat. There was a terrific choice of bars and restaurants, and we ended up in a place specialising in carpaccio. We were sat next to a large table of people who were obviously working for an international company (a mix of Luxembourgers, Americans, and English). It certainly made us realise we don’t miss corporate life and corporate speak at all.
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