Sunday 1st September- we have done a whole month of travelling! Woohoo. There has been some rocky parts to this month but hopefully our second month will have more ups than downs.
Today saw us travelling to another tourist spot called Pont d’arc, which is as the name implies, a huge rock arc that goes over the river. The scenery was absolutely beautiful as we stood on the beach and later the rocks watching people canoe down the river. It really made me want to do the same but obviously that wasn’t a possibility for us with having two little ones….in a few more years hopefully. We climbed over the rocks further down the river, with my son on my back so we could get a better view and watch the many hilarious moments when people either crashed or got stuck amongst the many rocks and other canoes. Then the rain started to fall quite heavily and we quickly retreated into the trees before the rocks became too slippery. Having done that we headed back to the van and drove on towards Geneva.
We stopped to do some food shopping, well myself and the two little ones anyway as my husband still wasn’t feeling very well and wanted to get his head down for a bit. He has been feeling rubbish for a long time and it became very clear that things weren’t improving and I was very concerned. The day was gloriously sunny and my husband was shivering and had wrapped himself up in the duvet, sometimes he would sweat so much that you could literally see him dripping and other times he was like this. We discussed it and could only think of two options; either we carry on towards Geneva hoping that the climate was cooler or we could turn around and head back home. Well my husband decided on the latter as he felt like he wasn’t getting any better and also felt bad that he hasn’t been able to help me out with the kids and chores most of the time and enjoy time with us as a family because all he wanted to do was sleep. So yet again we set a course for Calais!
It was the first time we actually went on the motorway thinking there was no point anymore and we might as well make as much progress as we could. It was getting late by the time we set off and so we decided to camp in Lyon. The campsite was very expensive for what it was; basically a large car park with a sanitary block, but it was the only ACSI one we could find. (ACSI by the way, is a discount camping card where you get cheaper rates during off peak times and saves you a load of money). We walked into the little town but everything was closed what with it being a Sunday, so we walked to the sports complex that had a little outdoor gym area and let the little ones have some down time for a bit. We talked about whether we were being hasty in our decision to turn back and whether we should just continue on again but as I said to my husband I felt it wasn’t really my decision to make as I wasn’t the one feeling like shit. He was obviously torn in two minds and eventually decided on continuing with our journey but so long as we take things slower, i.e stop over in campsites a bit longer and not drive as much as we had done in one day unless we took long enough breaks in between. It seemed fair but I wasn’t ready to accept this as his answer until he had slept on it. I wanted him to be sure and think about it properly and not do what he felt would make everyone else happier. This was his journey too and he needed to enjoy it just as much as the rest of us and besides this was his health we were talking about which was a lot more important than this journey.
Whilst we’re on the topic of health, that night I felt our little boys gums and he had cut his bottom premolar! This explains all the crying he had been doing.
The following morning my husband was definitely sure he wanted to continue and see how things go and so we carried on. We camped in a campsite in the middle of nowhere but surprisingly by the end of the day the whole site was full and then completely empty by morning! It was clearly an ‘in between destination’ place as we did the same!
We then camped in a campsite called Les 12 Cols and strolled around it’s little town and then left again in the morning. If there wasn’t much to do in a campsite or we didn’t particularly like it then we moved on- in this case there wasn’t really much to do.
We finally made it to Switzerland that day on Wednesday 4th and had no idea where to buy the vignette we needed for our van as the border check point was unmanned and this was supposedly one of the places to buy them! Luckily we crossed the border right next to CERN (the European organisation for nuclear research) which happened to let you park all day for free! So we parked up and googled where else we could buy a vignette as we didn’t want to go further into the country without one in case we got fined! (A vignette is what you need for your vehicle if you are going to travel on the motorways in that country- not all countries have them such as the U.K. for example because there you have to pay road tax instead) We didn’t want to do any of the motorways but my husband believed we needed one regardless so we thought we might as well get one anyway just in case. We discovered that petrol stations sell them too and luckily for us there was a petrol station right next to CERN!
We thought we’d get one later and instead catch the tram into Geneva instead.Our little boy got restless on route though and so we got off a few stops earlier- there’s nothing like a screaming kid to make you get hot in the face with embarrassment as everyone stares at you as you try your hardest to calm them down!
Lake Geneva is beautiful and we were both amazed at how clear the water was especially in the middle of a busy city. We were clearly far from home! We walked across the bridge where we bought our little girl candy floss which you could get in lots of flavours and ourselves some churros. We also realised we needed to get cash out at some point as the currency had changed from Euros to Swiss francs- this wasn’t a problem luckily when buying the above said items. Having eaten our treats we walked along to have a closer look at the Jet d’eau- It is as the name implies a huge jet of water that shoots up into the air. In fact it’s one of the tallest fountains in the world and pumps out 500 litres of water per second to the height of 140 meters! It was pretty spectacular and so we walked along the pier towards it. I had to get close and take a picture as you could see a beautiful rainbow through the mist- luckily I captured it as best I could (on a smartphone) in time before the wind blew a spray a water my way.
We walked back towards the bridge to a little park where we stopped the let the children have a play and our son some time out of his pushchair. (We have an awesome pushchair by the way which is perfect for families who want to travel. It is so lightweight and compact! It’s called the GB pockit plus. There are different ones depending on the year it came out but we have the latest one which I believe is 2018).
We then caught the tram back and bought a vignette from the petrol station after much confusion over which one we needed and then headed back into France as that was where the nearest campsite was. We would have loved to have done a tour of CERN but we knew our little ones would get bored quickly and kick up a fuss therefore making it pointless for us as we wouldn’t be able to read anything. Again, another time hopefully.
The campsite was a bit dire really and so we decided again just to spend the one night but on the plus side we had made it to our third country and tomorrow we would re-enter to see what else it had to offer.
K.E.E.N Explorers 