Tour De France

Off to a flying start, woke up late for the first time in weeks we didn’t wake up until 6.30 so we ended up leaving about an hour later than our intended time. Of course, by this time junction 14 was clogged up and it took us an hour to get on the motorway. Just got going and it all came to a stop start with the road works. Got through the road works and onto the M25 when it all came to a stop again. A rotten nightmare of a journey to Newhaven where we were to catch our car ferry over to La Havre then drive to Brittany where we intend to tour for a few days. An old colleague Steve that I used to work with 15 years ago and his wife Sue moved out here to renovate an old mill 2 years ago so we will be stopping with them for a few days and touring the rest under their supervision. Whilst on the M23 we had a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain for a while and even with the window wipers on full I couldn’t see much. We finally arrived in Newhaven exactly on time, an hour before departure so it didn’t matter in the end. Long cues and very slow check in was the game and then we had to sit and wait to board the Seven Sisters. Finally it was our queues turn to board so I started my engine up, or at least tried to. Flat as a pancake, I had left my lights on full during our whole wait in the queue without the engine running. I asked one of the officials for help and he talked to someone on his walky talky and shortly later a van came flying up. By this time we were the only ones in the car park and everyone else was on board. I opened the bonnet and he got the engine starter out, but something was missing, the leads. The van went flying off again and I talked the others into giving me a push which they did successfully and we were finally off but the staff on the boat wouldn’t let us pull up behind the other cars, preferring to direct us to the other side of the ship as close to the front door as they could get us.

We had a very pleasant journey finding a lovely wind shaded spot in the sun where we chatted, read the papers we had brought and drank lots of wine. Before we knew it we were there and I only had time for 2 cups of coffee. This journey with car and passengers cost us £89, a great price for a 5 hour crossing. Luckily Claire had found us a hotel for the night within a mile of the port called the Parisian where the sat nav found perfectly and we got one of the 2 parking spaces outside on the busy road. By this time the thunderstorm we had experienced at home caught us up and the heavens opened. A nice little hotel room, Claire did well again as it only cost about £40 between us with breakfast. The staff were unusually nice and tried very hard with their English. They also recommended the café restaurant next door to eat where we had a 3 course meal with coffee for 10 Euros each. Both our meals were lovely and it was time for our bed whilst watching tv in French.