Day 5 – Beastie meets Big Daddy . . .

Camping Les 3 Clochers, is going to be home for the next three nights. Fortunately we’re pitched nowhere near either of them.

At sunrise, Beastie gets a shock. We feel him shudder uncontrollably. Like when you’ve just got out of bed and the remnant of the cold night air runs it’s course through your warm veins, chilling you to the bone.

A little later, I pull down the blinds to allow the early morning rays dispel our dreams. Two pitches away, a monster of awesome size is snoozing majestically. The Concorde Liner Centurion stretches out to a little under 11 metres (Beastie is 7.43m), housing a 7.7 litre Mercedes power unit and a Toyota Smart Fortwo tucked away under its queen size rear bed. My turn to shudder.

Ever since our ignominious failure at retrieving our scooter from within Beastie, Mary-Ann has been in dread of a retry. But retry we must. I am full of confidence. After our last debacle I got talking to a fellow camper-vanner using a much more usable ramp than ours. Our new Warrier ramp works perfectly and within 5 minutes, Beastie has birthed our getaway.

We’re off on an arty farty jaunt over to Le Cateau-Cambrésis (no, I haven’t missed an “h” out) to check out the works of Matisse. Not really our cup of tea as we prefer the types of work where the subject’s eyes spook you out wherever you are in the room. Most of his works on display were more like Nouveau Cuisine and left you feeling hungry for more detail. He could do it, but didn’t, much. We got lost coming back (that’s novel) and missed a huge downpour by a fraction, but we loved the freedom.

Here’s some info on one of our on-board gadgets – especially for you Lloyd . . .

Now you don’t see it . . .

Now you do . . .