To Paris, and Brittany

[August 14, near Cambridge, UK: the past two weeks have been sufficiently action-packed and internet-deprived that I have only recently started editing pix and text; I hope to post things back up to date in the next few days]

July 27 and 28 were days of driving, Monday into Hamburg and the Camping Salon, then west, through Bremen and beyond to a lay-by just west of Koln. We saw the Cathedral spires int the distance. We visited Koln in 1979, and certainly will return next year. Tuesday we continued on through Germany, Luxembourg, then into France, eschewing the peages for the blue roads (is there a book there: Blue Roads of France?), to just east of Paris.

We have done this and similar routes from the east many times, always forgetting, as we did this time, there are no aires, no campgrounds, municipal nor private, in this part of the world. Vicki has had this theory that, when all else fails, in big cities, there is always long term parking at the airport. In that we were to pick Rebecca up at noon the next day at CDG, we decided to test Vicki's theory. Indeed, the theory worked, although it was as expensive as a campground and provided no amenities. Getting out the next day, in a vehicle longer that 5 meters, proved interesting but feasible, at length, with airport parking personnel assistance (le bureaucracy).

Wednesday, the 29th, after internet at the Pullman Hotel, we met Rebecca at CDG terminal 2E. We had lunch in the camper, unpacked, got out of parking with the aforementioned difficulty, then drove into Paris (thanks, Tom), on toward Rouen, then into Brittany, and finally camped at an Aire near Rennes. En route we had the first of many pleasant supermarche experiences, stocking up for the next couple days. It is good to be back in Brittany, a place we have visited many times and love. I particularly love multiply ambiguous places and stories, and Brittany fits that bill pretty well.