Campsites,France # 8of16

John D. Rockefeller donated $1,000,000 to repair WW I damage to the Rheims Cathedral, and in his honor, the street right in front of Notre Dame was re-named, Rue Rockefeller. We headed for the campsite we had seen as we entered the city, but found no freeway off–ramp. We were soon in Châlons-s-Marne for the night, but Reims was still there when we returned a couple of years later. This time we easily found the campsite we had by-passed earlier, and as we left it the next morning, we followed the canal to downtown. We saw canal barges tied up at a dock in Rheims, with tents pitched on the grass alongside, where the crew had spent the night.

We could return seven kilometers to a campsite where we had stayed one year, or go on to find the one at Maisons Laffitte. Well, two hours later we finally found it. We were never lost, and did not make a wrong turn, but we did stop a couple of times to confirm we were still going the right direction. So many twists and turns. These little towns near Paris originally had no connection to each other, but they have just growed, and growed, until they more or less meet, but not too well.

As we neared the Gorges du Tarn we found a campsite along the river, with beautiful mountain scenery, with little towns in the valley and hung on the hillsides. People were going down the Tarn River in canoes, and a man in a truck would retrieve them, and bring them back to the starting point.

When we looked for a campsite one day, we had to go to four before we found a spot in the campsite parking lot in Freland. We needed some boards under the wheels to make the camper almost level, but we were able to reach the last available electric plug. Linda and her friend Margit were in another part of this campsite, and their sleeping bags were as sloped as we were. The people next to us were from Brugge, Belgium, and had just spent their vacation at his family home in Italy.

A few years later we ended up at the exact same spot in the exact same parking lot in the exact same Freland campsite. This time our neighbors were a school teacher and his family, from The Netherlands. The campsite was so crowded, the next morning we had to wake a German in a nearby trailer, who had parked on our electric cord when he came home last night.