Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.7 CRD OverlandA GRAND TOUR WITH A GRAND CHEROKEE
To find out what the latest Cherokee is like as a tow car and to get away from the everlasting rain your esteemed editor suggested that a longish tour in the sun (hopefully) might be a good idea.
With this in mind we approached the Camping and Caravanning Club with a view to trying their ‘Freedom of Europe’ package.
With this system you select a site (or sites) from their ‘Freedom of Europe’ booklet, pay or your ferry, get a number of vouchers and away you go.
This is an ‘off season’ way of touring, you arrive at a campsite, hand over a voucher one for each night) and pay a much reduced fee.
There is no advance booking but you can stay for as long or as short a time as you wish.
As we had not been to Provence before we chose to travel on P & O’s superb ‘Pride of ilbao from Portsmouth to Bilbao in order to cut down a little on the distance that we would have to travel, and also to enjoy a whole day ‘cruising’.
The P & O vessel although now eighteen years old has a character all of its own and is very atmospheric.
A slight pity therefore that some of the staff seemed rather abrupt and one too welcoming.
Jeep had agreed to loan us the Grand Cherokee with the CRD diesel engine to tow our faithful Bailey and we have to say that this engine has transformed the Cherokee and ade it an excellent towcar.
DAY ONE
Arrival in Bilbao to familiar weather, pouring with rain! Our first destination was a campsite deep in the Pyrenees called ‘Aerotel Pyrenees’ around 200 miles from the port.
Apart from it being rush hour and very slow moving traffic for about half an hour we had to contend with a rather inconsiderate car wrecking itself on the central barrier leading to a five kilometre queue, and this was before we left Spain.
Once clear of these hiccoughs the rest of the first leg was clear.
For the very first time a navigation system in a vehicle worked in France and together with an AA route rather grudgingly supplied by an operator who insisted that we could get the route ourselves from the web in spite of us telling her that we had failed in our attempt to do so.
We did, however, find our way with only one slight detour, through the centre of Lourdes which wasn’t a problem.
We were only staying at the first site for one night and arrived around 15.00.
Towering mountain peaks surrounded the site with houses perched precariously on the slopes. Their occupants would have to be careful not to drink too much!
DAY TWO
Our next leg was to a seaside site near Montpelier, a trip of 245 miles, most of it on the wonderful French motorways. With cruise control set at 72 mph the Jeep and the Bailey swept along smoothly and effortlessly.
We had had an Al-Ko Stabiliser fitted just three days before the trip and we are sure this helped.
The mechanical madam in the navigation department was ably assisted by the real one sitting beside me and together they enabled us to reach the next site at Vias-Plage at around 15.30 hours.
The site ‘Californie Plage’ was a large site right on the beach (?), very family orientated with shop, clubhouse, takeaway, restaurant, swimming pool and bars all saw to that. Unfortunately all but the pool were closed up as it was late season.
So far on our tour we had not encountered any bad driving, bad roads or law breaking, and the lane discipline in France is far better than in England. Drivers joining the motorways do what they (and we) are supposed to do and wait for a gap.
The Jeep was giving just about 24 mpg till now which we thought for a 2.7 litre engine towing a caravan at around 70 mph was very good.
We spent two nights at Californie Plage just to get our breath back, since it wasn’t really our kind of site.
DAY Three & Four
A short run up the A9 motorway took us to Avignon and then to Villeneuve-les-Avignon where our third campsite was situated.
The Campeole L’Ile des Papes was a lovely site on an island between the Rhone
Canal and the Rhone River.
Part of a chain owned by the Trigano group, this site was to be our home for the next five nights.
We had always wanted to go ‘Sur la pont D’Avignon’ and now we had the chance.
Avignon is a former Papal City and houses the largest Gothic Palace in the world.
The Pope’s palace is both a power fortress and truly magnificent palace and was the seat of the Christian world in the 14th century.
The bridge in the song ‘Le Pont St Benezer’ and a visit tells the story of Avignon and of the Rhone river, the legend of Saint Benezet and the history of the most famous song in history.
This bridge was started in 1177 by the then shepherd boy Benezet now only spans half he river, but in its heyday was 900 metres long with 22 arches.
DAYS FIVE TO EIGHT
We wanted to visit the Carmargue region so made for the very beautiful town of Aigues-ortes.
This completely walled town is set among the salt marshes of the Carmargue and looks today much as it must have done when it was completed in 1300.
Aigues-Mortes was the stopping off place for the Crusaders and in 1248 a huge rmada gathered at the town, which was then linked to the sea.
An estimated 1500 ships carrying thousands of men and horses set out for Cyprus and this Crusade was called the Seventh.
Moving on towards the coast we journeyed to St Maires-de-la-Mer, a real holiday easide resort with its riot of cheerful cafes.
The beach is huge and consists of lovely golden sand. Posters for bloodless bullfights abound and there are the famous white horses everywhere.
The next part of our tour took us to Arles, and we used a back road and to our delight we saw hundreds of flamingos in the marshes, as well as the black bulls.
Arles was a Roman Capital and religious centre in the Middle Ages, and was in fact located on one of the four major roads to Santiago de Compostela.
Arles still has several Roman and Gallo-Roman buildings.
The next day we visited Avignon and wandered round the tiny streets within the walls, such a fascinating and incredible place, with shops and monuments all interspersed.
After a visit to the hypermarket, we spent the rest of the day soaking up the sunshine.
Villeneuve-les-Avignon has a weekly market and this was our next destination, taking the opportunity to purchase some of the local pottery and the inevitable tablecloth.
Villeneuve-les-Avignon is another town which is steeped in Papal history. Called the ‘City of Cardinals’ it offers a view over the ‘City of Popes’ (Avignon).
This town was founded at the end of the 13th centrury by Phillip the Fair, and realising the great military importance of the new town he built a large fortification at the entrance to Pont-St-Benezet (which then spanned the river).
So much to say, so much history in this beautiful region. Regrettably we could not stay longer.
DAY EIGHT
We then set off on a rather long trip starting at 07.45 from our lovely site by the Rhone at Villeneuve-les-Avignon to another rather splendid, if somewhat deserted site just north of Cahors, a journey of just on 300 miles all, bar about 15 miles at the beginning and 10 miles at the end, on motorways.
This journey took six hours, which included three stops, only one of which was for fuel, thank you Cherokee.
This site, Chateau de Lacomté, 30 acres in the grounds of a Renaissance Chateau as little off the beaten track, but very well worth the visit.
We were told at every site that France has had a bad season, some restaurants have not even opened. The reason, we were told, is the expense of crossing the channel (for the English).
We had a meal in the site restaurant as it was our Wedding Anniversary, and what a superb meal it was, totally delicious, as was the wine. Eating and drinking is such a pleasure.
DAY NINE
We enjoyed a fairly quiet day and observed a number hot air balloons from the Balloon Festival at Rocamadour.
We were taken out to lunch by some friends who live near Cahors. We ended up at a Logis Hotel at Payrac, always such good value and lovely meals.
In typical French style the meal lasted well into the afternoon and by the time we had returned to the campsite and our caravan it was time for a little nap.
In the evening we staggered up to the site restaurant for a very simple meal and turned in early.
Chateau Lacomté is a lovely site, in very picturesque surroundings, which was bought and developed by a British couple, Sheila and Stuart Coe some 14 years ago.
The fruits of their labours are a credit to them and we would not hesitate to recommend the site.
Unfortunately we were unable to extend our stay but hope to return in the not too distant future.
DAY TEN
Another early start to our next and last site in the Loire valley. This site, also run by an English couple, John and Lesley Nicol, was easy to find as mechanical madam was as in excellent form and guided us right to the entrance.
The journey had been totally uneventful covering about 240 miles, the last 100 or so on the N147 which runs from Limoges in north westerly direction and crosses the country up to Saumur.
The Jeep performed faultlessly and we arrived quite ready for more.
Contrary to the news from others sites, this fairly small but excellent site had had a good summer with mainly Dutch and British visitors.
At the time of our visit there were only British vehicles and caravans.
The site, Les Vallee des Vignes had fully serviced pitches (water, drainage and 10 amp electricity) so once again no chores to do.
As the site restaurant was open we elected to eat there and had very simple but tasty meal, with a bottle of local Loire wine which completed a very convivial evening.
Once again, time prevented us from spending longer on this excellent site, but we vowed to return pdq.
DAY ELEVEN
As we were booked on the afternoon ferry from Le Havre, we had to make a fairly early start as it would take around four and half hours to the port.
The motorways now go right up to Alencon so almost 75% of the trip would be on the autoroutes.
Mr Jeep as usual performed beautifully and we pulled into the car park at Le Clerc supermarket in Lisieux at around midday.
This is our normal stop when using this route as it enables us to have a bite to eat and a loo stop.
From this car park the ferryport is about 40 miles mostly on motorways and over the spectacular ‘Pont de Normandie’, but as is the norm, it was so foggy that we could not see the bridge columns.
For once the ferry was on time and we were soon on board. The trip was smooth and we landed in Portsmouth only fifteen minutes late.
The last 130 miles to our Warwickshire home was the worst of the whole holiday but was achieved without any real problems.
Door to door we had covered 1840 miles and had no events out of the ordinary.
Our conclusions at the end of this trip were what a huge difference the new engine has made to the Cherokee.
It is now a really superb tow car capable of tramping along all day at whatever speed you want with complete ease and stability.
Also what a pleasure it is to drive in France, the drivers are more disciplined, especially on the motorways and during the whole of our trip we never saw any bad driving.
The Camping and Caravan Club’s ‘Freedom of Europe’ package seems to work extremely well and shows a saving of around 20 percent over the published rates at each campsite.
Thank you Camping Club.
For full details contact Carefree.
The P & O Pride of Bilbao is, to our way of thinking, the nicest ship in the ferry stakes and the cabins are more comfortable than some others.
Thank you P & O.
CARAVAN LIFE – FACTS OF LIFE
2002 Bailey Pageant Monarch
The Monarch has had a full write up in previous issues. Briefly, it is our own caravan which has a hard, but so far short life.
A two berth, centre kitchen end washroom model, the Monarch must have the largest wardrobe in any caravan. A month’s supply of clothes for my better half, and still a little space left for me.
We have had several items fitted to the Bailey, the two latest being an Al-Ko Stabiliser and a Phantom tracking device.
In its life so far it has been virtually trouble free, new wheel bearings were needed at irst service but no-one can yet tell us why.
It would have to be a very good caravan to persuade us to change our very faithful Bailey, affectionately known as ‘Monica’.
WE STAYED AT (IN ORDER):
(1) Aerotel Pyrenees
46 Avenue de Barege
65120 Esquieze-Sere, France
Telephone: 05 62 92 89 18
A pleasant site with spectacular mountains all around. A fairly tight turn into, and out of the main entrance.
(2) Californie-Plage
Cote Ouest
34450 Vias, France
Telephone: 04 67 21 64 69
A large, all singing all dancing site with many holiday caravans.
(3) L’Ile des Papes
30400 Villeneuve-les-Avignon, France
Telephone: 04 90 15 15 90
A superb site on an island between the River Rhone and the Rhone Canal. It had a good restaurant, friendly staff and ‘Sur La Pont D’Avignon’. What more could you want.
(4) Chateau de Lacomte
46500 Carlucet, France
Telephone: 05 65 38 75 46
English owned. A little remote, but very well worth it, a good restaurant with quiet, pleasant ambience.
(5) Les Vallee des Vignes
49700 Concourson-sur-Layon, France
Telephone: 02 41 59 86 35
With hindsight this was our favourite site in one of our favourite parts of France. English owned, good restaurant, walk into local village which has 21 vineyards. Yes!
FACTS OF LIFE
Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.7 CRD Overland £32,415
What a difference an engine makes.
The last time we took a Cherokee to France it was powered by the V6 engine and an inadequate automatic box. The journey was far from relaxing and the fuel needle got red hot with all the movement it made.
This Overland however is a totally different vehicle and we certainly gave it a really good test, actually covering 2706 miles in the time that the lovely people at Jeep allowed us to borrow it.
It was as a tow car that we found the Cherokee to shine, it would tramp along (on cruise control) the French Autoroutes at 72 mph. On one occasion we did not slow down for over an hour and at these very steady speeds we were obtaining 23-24 mpg. Excellent.
Plenty of luxury, plenty of space, plenty of comfort and superb navigation system about sums up ‘our’ Grand Cherokee and we were extremely sorry to see it go back from whence it came.
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