Adrian's Autocirrus in France

We were very lucky to be the first journalists to get behind the wheel of the new Elddis Autocirrus 220.  This neat, low profile motor caravan, was delivered to us on a low loader with just 22 miles on the clock.

Elddis were very proud, and rightly so, of the fact that their Autoquest 115 had just been voted “Motor Caravan of the Year” in the Caravan Club “Design and Drive Competition”.  One of the factors that helped this cracking little ‘van to win was value for money, this feature shone through in “our” Autocirrus.

Our trip had been arranged for us by the Camping and Caravanning Club as the first part of it was to attend a rally in Provence near Avignon. The rest of the journey we were going to stay on campsites that were in the Club’s “Freedom” book, this journey, we thought would give the Elddis a real test, not only of the new chassis but of all the fittings as well.

We sailed to Bilbao on, by now, our old friend the “Pride of Bilbao”, a fairly elderly ship but full of character. We have as yet, touch wood, never had a rough crossing on this ship and true to form the Bay of Biscay was like a mill pond, a slight down side to this smooth water was the thick fog that enveloped the ship for most of the daylight hours thus preventing any whale watching.

The ship arrived on time, 07.00, and as we were in the stern we were almost the first off. We were out of the port and on our way by 07.30.

The trip to the French border is one of around 80 miles with motorway all of the way, this went like clockwork and we soon found ourselves on the A63 leading to the A64, now the Autocirrus really started motoring, the Peugeot found itself on home ground and liked it.

Our first stop, a site in the Freedom book was just a stones throw of the medieval city of Carcassonne, quite a nice site somewhat spoiled by the attitude of the young lady in reception.

The next day was a fairly short one of about 150 miles, we arrived at our rally destination, L’ile des Papes at lunch time after an easy run of about three hours, we were just in time to catch the receptionist before lunch, she had a lovely attitude.

Our pitch was next door to one that we had stayed on about four years earlier, nothing much seemed to have changed.

The Autocirrus breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward to a short period of rest.

The rally consisted of around 29 caravans and motor caravans, the people joined in the various activities and seemed a nice bunch of folk.  On cliffs overlooking the site there is a single tower with “pepper pot” roof, none of the locals knew the history of this, we decided, as a group, to have a walk up to this building. We could drive about halfway and then we would have to walk, up a cardiac hill, the rest of the way. The tower was in a rather dilapidated state but the views were well worth the walk, the temperature, bear in mind was in the late twenties.

Another trip consisted of a visit to a local vineyard to view the plants, sample the goods, and of course have a chance to buy the end product.

The “park and ride” service for the city of Avignon is excellent, frequent, easy to get to, and completely free. Once the seat of the Roman Catholic Church the magnificent “Palais des Papes” is the largest gothic palace in the world, this is where the popes ruled. Next to the walls of the old city is the, now, half a bridge of “Sur le Pont D’avignon” fame. The river kept washing bits of it away, it was rebuilt several times but in the end in about 1750 it was left.

For another day’s outing we went in the Elddis to a village called I’lse-sur-la-Sorgue, this was a pretty little place with plenty of water wheels whose sole purpose seemed to be keeping the visitors amused.

The highlight of our visit to this area of France was a trip to the “Pont du Gard”, this Roman aqueduct which was started in 52 AD was built to carry water to the then city of Nimes. The water, which came from about 50 kilometres away, ran at a capacity of around 40,000 cubic metres a day. The aqueduct fell into disrepair but the Emperor Napoleon, who was in love with the building, had it completely refurbished, this work took three years.
Whether you are interested in old buildings or not, you cannot fail to be impressed by this incredible structure.

We took our leave of the rally, we had met some nice people and had been kept busy and amused by Wally and Joyce the rally stewards.

We used the new motorway, the A75, toll free as yet. This is a spectacular route climbing up through the Tarn gorges reaching a height of just over 1,000 metres and leading to THE fantastic Millau Viaduct. Designed by Lord Norman Foster and built by the Eiffage Group it cost some 310 million Euros, this sum was financed by the company itself, imagine that in England. The towers reach 340 metres into the Aveyron sky and the length is 2.46 kilometres. The Autocirrus is maybe the first Elddis press vehicle to cross this magnificent structure.

Our destination for that night was another Camping Club Freedom site just south of Clermont-Ferrand called Le Clos Auroy. We had intended to stay for two nights but liked it so much that we stayed for four. During our time at this site we went to the “Plateau de Gergovie”, this is the site that, in 52BC, was the scene of Julius Caesar’s only defeat in his was with the Gauls. The view from this plateau was truly outstanding, one could see for miles around.

Soon it was time to move on again, our next destination was a very nice quiet site, also in the Freedom Camping book, called “Vallee des Vignes”, this site was in a village, with 21 vineyards, called Concourson-sur-Layon.
This is about 12 miles from Saumur with its beautiful castle, horses, and mushrooms. The journey from Clermont-Ferrand was one of about 260 miles and was achieved by the Autocirrus with total ease, the driver did not have quite the same ease as he got slightly lost in Tours, the song “lost in France” came to mind here.

The weather was being somewhat British, cold with some fairly heavy rain, which did not make us homesick, far from it. Our only trip of any note from Concourson was to Saumur, we found a parking spot and took a walk up some pretty steep hills and steps to have a look at the castle close up, there are still extensive repairs going on to the ramparts so no visitors were allowed. We descended and had a walk around the city, which is twinned with an English town that is home to the best castle in England, Warwick.

Soon it was time to make our way back up to Le Havre and home, we were booked on the 17.00 hours LD Lines to Portsmouth, this would be the first time that we had travelled on this company’s ferries and we were looking forward to it, not going home exactly because we had news that our house had been flooded in the torrential rain that swept parts of England.

The Autoroutes now extend from Saumur right to Le Havre so the journey was completed in an easy five hours with the Elddis coping with great ease and seemingly not even getting out of breath.

The whole journey covered 1873 miles and we really became very fond of the Autocirrus, it was good to drive, good to live in, had a comfortable bed, and seemed pretty well put together.

Our thanks to the Camping and Caravanning Club, to P and O Ferries for the trip to Bilbao, to LD Lines for the very good trip to Portsmouth, and last but by no means least to Wally and Joyce for being excellent rally hosts and good company. All we can say is “here’s to the next time”

Adrian H French