{"id":10449,"date":"2024-10-07T20:13:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T19:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=10449"},"modified":"2024-10-07T20:13:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T19:13:02","slug":"day-64-avignon-to-reims-and-15-seconds-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/07\/day-64-avignon-to-reims-and-15-seconds-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 64 – Avignon to Reims and 15 Seconds of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Right, the last full day on tour! Today we\u2019re going to make as much progress up through France as we can, within reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had rained over night but the mud outside the van was still pretty resistant under foot – not like the mud bath that was the volcanic mush in Pompei!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Leaving the Avignon mud behind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the past we\u2019ve made the dash up from the south of France all the way home in a day. We\u2019re not that committed these days, and seeing as the French speeding ticket system can reach back to the UK, it\u2019s much more prudent to stick to the actually quite generous 130km\/h anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We punched Troyes into the SatNav and set off as it was trying to rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Weather quite decent in the morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And that was pretty much it. The rain held off mostly until about 1:30 when we made our second stop at a service station somewhere around Dijon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while we\u2019re talking about those services, one of those bizarre moments happened as we were sitting drinking our take away coffees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note the white car left of the red one in this picture, with the lights on\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
White car with lights on\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we pulled into the space, two spaces to the left of the white car, we noticed there were a couple of Brits sitting in the car having a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then went into the service station, had a wee and negotiated the very posh new automatic coffee machines – it seemed impossible to actually get the cups out of the machine if you ordered an \u201cXL\u201d drink. Fine if you got an espresso!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we got back to the van to have our drinks, the Brits were still in their car. But after a few minutes we noticed them pull out and we presumed resume their journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then a few seconds later they reappeared into their parking space and the guy got out. He came across to our van and knocked on the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We opened the sliding door and he said\u2026 \u201care you John Martin? Purplemeanie?\u201d !!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now this does happen to me reasonably regularly in the UK. Obviously at Caterham events, but also can happen randomly in car parks (the latest was in July).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This guy, Mark, had met me at the Caterham and Lotus Seven Club, Intro to Speeding event at Curborough last year. I meet a lot of people at these events, and I remember his face, but it\u2019s fantastic that he took the time to say hello when he saw who we were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d spotted the Purplemeanie sticker on the back of the van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Purplemeanie Sticker on the Van<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Doing all this Purplemeanie stuff, and helping out with the club, is a great ice-breaker and fantastic that it means we bump into people all over Europe! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps I should get bigger stickers for the van though, perhaps we\u2019re missing friendly encounters! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that we stopped once more where we reset our goal for the day. We were going to get to Troyes around 4 and decided we could push on further to Reims. The only site that looked like it was going to be not too far off our route, was open into October and had reasonable reviews was Camping de Val de Vesle about 20km south east of Reims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Camping de Val de Vesle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Campsite quiet at this time of year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Camping de Val de Vesle has also turned out to be the cheapest of all our campsite stops, \u20ac14 for a night. That beats the next cheapest which was Faucon in Chareloi, some 8 weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So by the time we pitched at the site about 5, we\u2019d put 702km behind us today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Avignon to just south of Reims<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not bad considering the torrential rain we had during the latter part of the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our view for a lot of the afternoon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Camping de Val de Vesle is our 31st stop of the trip. Counting campsites (22), hotels (1), friends and family (2), apartments (4), villas (1) and one overnight ferry (not technically a \u201cstop\u201d but the count of nights doesn\u2019t add up unless I count it! \ud83d\ude09). If you\u2019re really unlucky then I\u2019ll do a list of all the places we stayed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also another pretty horrendous peage day. About \u20ac80 we think today, and I\u2019m sure more tomorrow\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Not many paeges but still about \u20ac80<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s probably going to put us up around \u20ac200 for the peages to get from Naples to Calais. Perhaps we should check the bank account and report back more accurately?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s soundtrack in the van was BBC Sounds. Seeing as we\u2019re heading back to the real world, we bookended the day with R4 AM and PM. And in between we listened to some Toast, Rare Earth and Curious Cases. We also tried David Mitchel\u2019s Unruly on Audible, but grew tired of the ramble he was narrating. It seemed to have lots of factoids, but no real theme pulling it together. We only managed 3 chapters – not recommended if you\u2019re in any way into your history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for tomorrow, we\u2019ve now booked the Chunnel for tomorrow at 13:45, \u20ac172 in the end. It\u2019s much cheaper on the ferries, but we find the Chunnel worth the extra money. Time, weather etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re going to try and get away by 8:30 in the morning and that should get us to Calais in plenty of time to find a hypermarche and see what final dent we can make in our stash of Euros!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3928miles on the odometer tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as if by magic (geddit?) it\u2019s now 19 years later for Harry. If you know, you know\u2026 that I\u2019ve managed to finish all 7 books on the final night of the tour. It\u2019s actually been a real comfort to sink into the Potter books and forget the weather or whatever else was going on. And as it happens the perfect length to get me to the end of the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right, the last full day on tour! Today we\u2019re going to make as much progress up through France as we can, within reason. It had rained over night but the mud outside the van was still pretty resistant under foot – not like the mud bath that was the volcanic mush in Pompei! In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-summer-holiday-to-greece","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-2Ix","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9651,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/10\/day-37-igoumenitsa\/","url_meta":{"origin":10449,"position":0},"title":"Day 37 – Igoumenitsa","author":"John Martin","date":"September 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, we thought it would be a bit of a quiet day today, arriving in Igoumenitsa and setting up camp. But in the end we had a bit of a scramble to avert a disaster. In this next gripping installment of John and Sue do Europe\u2026 Over night, having left\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7058.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7058.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7058.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7058.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9795,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/19\/day-45-palaiokastritsa-and-lakones\/","url_meta":{"origin":10449,"position":1},"title":"Day 45 – Palaiokastritsa and Lakones","author":"John Martin","date":"September 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"After a cracking overnight thunderstorm the weather settled enough for us to head over to the West side of the island again and to visit Palaiokastritsa. We were all woken up around 1am for a lightning and thunder show. It lasted an hour or so, but unlike the last one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3b436407-5039-4e41-88b5-8e2c394c9ce5-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3b436407-5039-4e41-88b5-8e2c394c9ce5-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3b436407-5039-4e41-88b5-8e2c394c9ce5-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3b436407-5039-4e41-88b5-8e2c394c9ce5-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3b436407-5039-4e41-88b5-8e2c394c9ce5-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3b436407-5039-4e41-88b5-8e2c394c9ce5-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10320,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/03\/day-69-naples\/","url_meta":{"origin":10449,"position":2},"title":"Day 60 – Naples","author":"John Martin","date":"October 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not much to report today. We trained it into Naples, wandered around and did the Underground Naples tour. Our start wasn\u2019t too rushed this morning, we were hoping to get the 9:30 train from the Villa Regina train station so we walked the 15 minutes to the station rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8708,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/05\/day-1-still-in-the-uk\/","url_meta":{"origin":10449,"position":3},"title":"Day 1 – Still in the UK","author":"John Martin","date":"August 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Ok, so this is a bit of a cheat. We\u2019re still in the UK. We\u2019re taking the opportunity to swing by my (John\u2019s) parent in Northamptonshire for a night, before we head off properly on the trip. But we have started and we are fully packed, except for the stuff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_5054-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8687,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/02\/summer-2024-drive-to-greece-overview\/","url_meta":{"origin":10449,"position":4},"title":"Summer 2024 Drive to Greece – Overview","author":"John Martin","date":"August 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"So... we're driving to Greece... as you do! We have a villa booked in Corfu for 10 days in the middle of September, and in some Cliff Richard-esque Summer Holiday vibe, we decided to reduce our carbon footprint and drive instead of flying. Unlike Cliff though, we had planned to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Initial-Map.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Initial-Map.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Initial-Map.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Initial-Map.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Initial-Map.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Initial-Map.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10384,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/05\/day-62-travel-from-lucca-to-avignon\/","url_meta":{"origin":10449,"position":5},"title":"Day 62 – Travel from Lucca to Avignon","author":"John Martin","date":"October 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not much to report today. We set off from the yard at the back of the garage for Avignon after some breakfast and coffee\/tea, at about 8:30. The concept of using a back yard to house camper and with a minimal toilet and shower setup was quite appealing. We were\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241005_093422_0022a-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10449"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10469,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10449\/revisions\/10469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}