Day 12 - International relations

Question: how many people does it take to get a stuck motorhome off a muddy pitch? 

Answer: three Welsh, two Germans and a French man. 

Yes, we got stuck in the mud today. We arrived at Chartres campsite but Lee didn't think our electricity lead would reach the unit, so he drove onto another pitch. Then changed his mind, but when he tried to reverse off the pitch Beti, and the mud, had other ideas. 

There was a German couple pitching up next to us, so the husband,  Manfred, came to try to help me push the van. No joy, so Lee found some branches to put under the wheels to try to get some traction. Manfred looked very skeptical about this idea, but we gave it a go, with no luck. 

Enter a French chap who had just arrived, who found some wire sheeting (probably for the very purpose of getting stuck vans off pitches), and at the same time another lady (who was washing her dishes) said she had some grip mats. 

The next thing you know we had an international team of campers pushing Beti around to get her onto the wire and the mats. We eventually got her out and onto a better pitch. Note, the French man did all of this with a cigarette in his mouth. So very French!

Lee then used the international language of beer to say thank you to our helpers. 

It restores your faith in humanity when complete strangers come together to help each other out. It's also very much how the camping community operates, too; that spirit of helping fellow campers. 

After that we needed a de-stress, so we walked into Chartres for a little recce. All the interesting stuff is in the centre of the town, which is up a hill. At the top is the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame de Chartres. I thought the only "Notre Dame" was in Paris, but a lot of the big cities have got one. It means "Our Lady" in French. 

It's a nice walk in along the river Eure, and Chartres had lots of interesting looking buildings. 

The bar we found, the Cafe Serpente 

The area surrounding the cathedral is full of restaurants and bars. We had a beer before heading back to the campsite to order a pizza from the little hut on site. Lee did his usual "let's go halves on the pizzas" so I ordered a four cheese one! He decided he didn't want my stinky French cheese pizza after all 😂

Stinky cheese pizza and Lee's pizza

Hopefully the rain will hold off for us to have a bike ride around Chartres tomorrow.  

This makes me think of a house from Grimm's fairytales