Category Archives: MiRiDer

Vanlove Fest 2025

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We left Calais, France in the morning and drove to Elvington airfield in York to attend Vanlove fest 2025. This is our third consecutive year at Vanlove and the scale of it keeps increasing with more than 1,200 vans on the runway. Queuing to get access to the pan was awful and the four queues were not taken in order. Vanlove can definitely do better than this! Parking on the runway was a similar experience with vans not taking in order of arrival. Thereafter we had a nice time. It was good to see Bobby, Marie and their dogs from One Life Truck It at Vanlovefest and hear Mark (Bobby’s dad) talk about their plans for the MAN 8X8 truck and how it will be used in the future. Sadly, Guy and Jo advised this is the last time Vanlove will be at Elvington airfield so we’ll wait to hear where the new location is and if this works with our commute from Europe enroute home at the end of our summer tour.

Touring France Coast to Coast

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In this video, we travel from Roses near Girona in Spain crossing France’s southern border and travel north to the aire at Calais. We have four overnight park ups at Roche De Glune, Lamarche Sur Saone, Saint Imoges and Calais. The island at Roche De Glune is interesting and we return to Lamarche Sur Saone after 12 years so it’ll be interesting to see if it’s changed. We often try to stop at Epernay to allow Wendy to stock up on Mercier’s rose champagne and we hope to stay at the Epernay aire if there is space. Whilst we are parked up at the Calais aire we meet Rose and Paul, a lovely couple who are parked up in the same aire and are also travelling to Vanlovefest in York in the UK. The power of social media connected us!

Investigating Lloret De Mar, Spain

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Lloret De Mar is the most southerly point of our trip. We are staying on a campsite at Camping Blau/Lloret Blau. This is a 10-15 minute walk from the beach. It’s a nice campsite with most pitches surrounded by trees. Our Starlink was partly obstructed as a result, but we still got good reception. There is a lovely well kept beach here, with many beach bars and restaurants to choose from. The larger hotels are typically at the southern end of the beach up the hill. There’s a castle at the northern end with lovely views over the cliff onto the crystal clear waters.

Outstanding Medieval Carcassonne, France

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We spent two days at Carcassonne in France, exploring the medieval village and the new town area. The medieval village is spectacular. There’s lots to see and do inside the walled village. We couldn’t book the aire so booked the adjacent campsite. This is ideally located, just a short cycle from Carcassonne itself.

Vanlovefest 2024

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We are heading back early from our three week European tour to attend Vanlovefest 2024 at Elvington Airfiled in York. We started off this morning from the aire in Calais, France and arrived at Elvington in the glorious sunshine. This is our second trip to Vanlovefest and we have e a couple of friends attending this year too. We bought our MiRiders here last year so I’m looking forward to cycling past all of the vans on the runway – and we have Lola our Miniature Pinscher pup with us this year (on the back of Wendy’s MiRider).

Europe 2024 La Rochelle, Mont Saint Michel, Le Crotoy and Calais

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In this video we leave Ile De Re heading North with four more park ups along the way. We have an overnight park up in the aire at La Rochelle and a wee tour of La Rochelle itself – what a beautiful place. We then spend a couple of days at the stunning Mont Saint Michel campsite and then stay over at an aire in Le Crotoy. We are staying at the second aire next to the harbour that we haven’t been to before. Our final park up in France is the aire at Calais. Whilst we are parked up we have several e-bike tours along the way too.

Europe 2024: Ile De Re, France Coast to Coast

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Episode 2 of our European tour travels coast to coast across Ile De Re staying at three different campsites across the island and touring in between on our MiRider e-bikes. This is a lovey place with many cycle tracks to explore. Our touring spans Loix, Saint Martin De Re, La Flotte, Saint Marie De Re, Rivedoux Plage – starting in the North West corner and travelling to the South East corner. It’s well worth visiting here.

Europe 2024: Travelling to Ile De Re, France with stop overs at Bolougne Sur Mer, Honfleur and Nozay

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Episode 1 of our summer European tour travels from the Glasgow area in Scotland to Loix in Ile De Re, France. We have park ups in Rugby, England by the canal and aires at both Honfleur and Nozay in France before travelling over the bridge onto the island of Ile De Re. This is the first big trip for our new pup, Lola the Miniature Pinscher, and it’s also the first big trip with our MiRider e-bikes. We intend to tour many of our stops via the cycle routes, so we’ll be capturing footage from the e-bikes as well as our campervan. Lola also has a place on Wendy’s MiRider. Our first impressions of Ile De Re are very good.