Alsace Wine Tour – Givet to Rodemack

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Givet to the walled city of Rodemack

It is still very warm when Gill gets up around 8am and makes coffee. We have to move off the aire here at Givet by midday because the area is going to be used for the fireworks display to mark Bastille Day. I check the UK news, the battle to be the next prime minister has begun in earnest, I don’t recognise the names of some of the hopefuls, that’s not surprising really because we don’t have a television in the house or in our motorhome. I make breakfast, then go out onto the river bank and perform some Qigong, the Daoyin 12 postures, following by the 24 for Tai Chi. The river environment is very relaxing and a great place to exercise. The Norwegian man emerges from the river and wraps himself in a towel, smiling as he moves towards his motorhome.

We study the maps and look for somewhere to stay tonight, our plan is to stop at Dudelange in Luxembourg, we stayed there previously, a small aire, but very convenient for taking the train into Luxembourg city, we might do that again. On the way out of Givet we pass a shopping are with a massive InterMarché, we need more supplies already so stop off and spend another €68 on various wines and cheeses, then fill up with diesel at €1.94 per litre as that is a low price (at the time). This particular supermarket is just in France, a short distance along the road is the Belgian border. An extremely hot day, we take lunch in a roadside turnout where there is good shade. A group of about 100 cyclists arrived just as we were leaving, complete with motorcycle escorts, obviously intent on a lunch stop too, we were fortunate to get away before they blocked the road.

The heat was overpowering when we reached the aire de camping cars at Dudelange in Luxembourg, the aire is small, we were disappointed to find that every place was taken, so we had no alternative but to turn around and park nearby to assess the situation. It was already late in the day, so we did not want to go far. Another motorhome was nearby, French plates; I asked the driver if he knew anywhere near and he said no, but they were using park4night on their phone to look for a suitable place. Gill and I looked and decided that we did not want to stay where we were because there was not much shade and it was not really anything more than a parking place. We selected the aire at Rodemack, about 20 km away and headed off there. That was a good decision because we ended up staying three nights at Rodemack.

At Rodemack we found the aire easily, a massive field, good facilities and space for 220 vehicles, one of the biggest aires we have stayed on. When we arrived there were a handful of other motorhomes; not much shade unfortunately. Gill was stung by a wasp, not a good end to the day. 

Photos around the Aire de Camping Cars at Rodemack

Click at image to enlarge