Marigny, Normandy

How on earth we managed to pack Margery, yes Margery, not Marge, (she's a little bit posh) in readiness to leave, we don't know, but she was packed to the rafters by six in the evening when we readied ourselves to walk into Poole old town for a Thai meal, which incidentally was delicious.

On the walk back, we spotted some writing across the window of a campervan, it read, 'Life can't wait'. We had to agree with that!

We were up just before six the following morning, yet a few more items were squeezed into the van before we decided enough was enough.

A short drive to the port and by seven thirty Margery was pulled over by security. We don't know why, but we are often stopped, whether in a vehicle or on our bicycles. We were removed from the van, our bodies scanned and an official jumped in Margery to poke about. She wanted to look in her rear, but decided against it when she saw all our luggage. Touch Margery's rear, and there'll be trouble! We'd been one of the first to arrive at the ferry terminal, but after a long wait we were loaded at the end along with the other Volkswagens and a Japanese campervan that snuck alongside Margery. Not too close please.

As always the ferry crossing was long and boring, and with the sea state being moderate, a little uncomfortable.

So our stop tonight we decided would be at the pretty fishing village of Barfleur around eighteen miles drive sway. Or perhaps not. It had been a gorgeous blue sky day, but the wind was a little too keen. So we drove further down the Contentin peninsula where we found a sheltered aire to stop at in a nice town called Marigny.

This would be our first night sleeping in Margery hopefully it would be both comfortable and peaceful. Presiding over the site was a large imposing church. What we didn't anticipate was that the bells up in the bell tower would ring out not just on the hour, but every fifteen minutes, all through the night. In the campervan and motorhome world, stops like this are noted as being 'hells bells', and these didn't disappoint.