2024 September: France and Spain – Shopping at Auchan and overnight at Esquelbecq
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Our day begins at Oye Plage with coffee in bed. After the long drive from Lancaster to Folkstone yesterday followed by crossing to Calais via Le Shuttle we take our time and have a leisurely start to the day. The first day in France is always exciting, clocks forward an hour, driving on the right, switching from English to French, different speed limits, switching our GPS speedometer to kilometers per hour and looking at the prices in euros instead of pounds. Our normal practice is to check the fuel price, diesel, before arriving in France just is case the UK has a lower price, that would really be most unusual, the UK has one of the highest prices for fuel in Europe. That means we let the diesel tank run down towards empty so that we can take on a full tank of French diesel.
We wake at 7.00am local time after a good night of sleep. After a mug of coffee we are up for breakfast and plan our day. We see about eight cars and small vans plus one motorhome all parked at the other end of the parking area. We watch with interest as a stack of tents, stools and fishing equipment is loaded onto small carts and wheeled down ‘Mosquito Alley’ to the inland fishing lake. There is a lot of activity, including the local Gendarmes who come to watch!
After breakfast we move on towards Dunkirk for a big shop at Auchan Grande Synthe. We stock up with cheese, jambon ham, fruit and vegetables, wine, baguette and a few other essentials (annoyingly leaving our large shopping bags, including our two wine carriers in the shopping trolley…of course when we go back to look they are gone!).
Taking the N-225/D-928 we head south to Esquelbeqc and the Aire next to the moated Chateau, there are nine others (of the 18 spaces) already there when we arrive. We park at the end of the row overlooking the Pole Archery and relax now that we have ‘arrived’. Last time we were here in September 2023 we did not have time to visit the Automaton Museum (Les Gigottes Automates) in the town as tours can take up to 2 hours. We walk the 7 minutes across the town square to the Museum and join a small party who have not long started the tour. From the first it is a journey through theatre fantasyland, the sublime and ridiculous, the funny and the macabre, as we look we are totally engrossed as Bruno’s puppets (some life size) come to life. Mr Fox the school teacher with his enormous eyes that miss nothing (!!) a bit too close for comfort (and my own childhood schooling).
The puppets talk, in French of course and respond to you when you speak to them, the goat’s bell tinkles, you can milk her rubber teats and she laughs infectiously when you tickle her ‘chinny beard’. Adults and children alike are entranced, entertained, bemused and laugh out loud. Bruno was an attentive host, chatting to us later he took us around his enormous workshop packed floor to ceiling with paraphernalia and ‘recycled junk’ a-la Great Grandad Chard at Blackpool. A fabulous afternoon, more than two hours that just flew by.
Later we open wine and drink it with humous and thinly sliced baguette while watching the activities in front of us on the Esquelbecq sport field, a group of noisy men playing boule are very entertaining! We note a team of 6 archers crossing to the 30m high poles (two) unlatching one at the base and lowering it to the platform. The aim is to hit the small targets arranged in short rows at the top of the pole with your arrow and release the feathers (popinjay). This sport of vertical archery (or Popinjay) kept us entertained for over an hour; the three teams (a pair of archers each) competed against each other with varying degrees of success. Clearly not an easy sport but the three teams were well matched, including the two young women against the two pairs of older men. Our ring-side seat just over the hedge from the archery field was a bonus. Later, as the archers packed up we ate our tea of beefburger, large tomato, mushroom and fresh sliced green beans. As darkness falls the tiredness catches up and so another early night. What a fabulous day: the Automaton Museum, Popinjay archery and we didn’t get to the moated Chateau and its lovely formal gardens.
Photos of the aire de camping cars at Esquelbecq
click any thumbnail image to enlarge
