Motorhome musings

 We have been keeping an eye open as to what is on the market motorhome wise.  Retirement travel plans start, but do not end, with exploring France.  A new Motorhome is well outside our price range and buying any motor vehicle new would be something of a departure from the norm for us.

We have also been watching a fair number of motorhome adventurers on YouTube to get a bit more of a feel for what we might like and where we want to go with it.

We have limited experience but are not completely at a standing start.  We had one of our own for a year about 10-15 years ago.  Long story.  It was bought for a specific purpose but we managed to get a couple of weeks travelling in France in it ourselves and were a little surprised at how much we enjoyed it.  Given our particular circumstances we really could not justify keeping it, at that time, so it had to go but we hired one the following year for another couple of weeks.

Both were quite large, ours was a Hymer and the one we hired was a Carthago.  The first of those trips started from near Cannes (to pick it back up, we had taken it down there to the in-laws a good few months earlier).  We drove west to Aigues Mortes where we saw the bull running, actually the bulls were rather reluctant but …….  Then on to Carcassone (bit theme parky for me) into the Pyrennees (best night sleep ever and farm animals being herded through the streets), dropping down to Biarritz (love Biarritz) up to Bicarosse Plage (lovely Aire - pine forest alongside the Ocean), on to Ile de Re (so looked forward to that and so disappointed - we were there in October though so out of season) then into Brittany and Cancarnou followed by Mont St Michel (back then, not now, you could park for the night on the salt flats, amazing view of the Mount all lit up).  

The second trip we went from Plymouth to Santander (nice ferry trip that I had done a few times with my parents and sister as a child) then to Biarritz.  BIarritz was a deviation from the plan, which was to spend a little more time in Spain, as the hired motorhome had just been serviced and a diesel leak had ensued which obviously needed fixing.  We had also picked up a stone chip in the middle of the new windscreen so that also needed attention.  Our Spanish gets us round a menu, our French is better, though not great.  France was, however, better option given the circumstances.  

After a few days in BIarritz we went up into the Pyrenees (another excellent night’s sleep) and dropped down to Barcelona (I know everyone raves about it, I’m less of a fan).  On from there back into France and over to Antibes, Nice and from there up into the Alpes (sleep not bad there either) then home.  

Both trips were via municipal aires rather than campsites.  

I get for the seasoned, or even average, Motorhomer a total of 4 weeks equates to complete amateur but at least we have something of a taster prior to making the decision to embark on this in retirement.  That said, whilst S is comfortable driving a large motorhome, I shall be having some lessons. He can’t do all the driving, all the time and I need to be able to step in should the occasion arise.

So after all that background waffle we have narrowed down what we want to pretty much what we are used to ie Hymer or Carthago, 7-8m long ie BIG, hence the driving lessons.  My licence allows me to drive it but being allowed to and actually doing it competently and not completely terrified are two very different things.  

We expect to use campsites as well as aires but do expect to be using our own bathroom facilities a fair amount and to be cooking and eating in the van so proper living facilities are required here as neither of us are small and we are used to certain niceties and a degree of comfort. 

This is all a bit early timetabling wise for us though if we find the right one we are both open to some changes in our usual holidaying plans.  Finding the right one is, however, the challenge which, arguably, is perhaps a reason to get moving on a search sooner rather than later.   Quite where I fit the vegetable garden in is another thing but then it is not like that hasn’t had its challenges time wise for years.