Up early and on the road by 7.30am. Arrived at Port of Caen at 5pm - 390 miles later.
- Volvo went superbly.
- Brunnehilda behaved herself.
- Toll roads good albeit expensive (I reckon tolls have been £200 each way!)
- 3 Aire stops- one horrible croissant and one half decent fish and chips
- The Co-pilot was excellent - apart from losing a toll ticket but I don’t think that cost us anymore than it should have done? Mentioning lost things ... I’ll update you on the glasses mystery later.
Seriously on the last point ... people said that putting up an awning together was “divorce in a bag” but I was never too concerned - as it turns out correctly. But Kim and I were both a little wary about 8 hours a day driving together. We really shouldn’t have worried - we worked well as a team on all the hazards (and by jingo, there were a lot) that were thrown at us and also had lots of fun.
Eventually after a wrong turn by me we found the easier back route out to the motorway from Camping Huttopia Royat - the secret was to go through a village called Ceyrat and pick up a main road lower down. Within 30 mins we had cruise control on and heading north on the motorway.
The campsite here at Caen - Riva Bella - is all you would want and need for a one night stay. It’s within 5 mins drive of the ferry terminal, adequate toilets and a load of restaurants handy. Although the huge Carrefour did shut at 8pm!! I finished off the holiday with moule creme while Kim had oeuf et frites. It was ok. It was very sad to see a small migrant camp (about 20 guys huddled around a fire) just at the entrance to the campsite- the poor sods, what an existence. If that’s better than where they’ve come from, just imagine where they’ve come from!?
So, as we approach the finish of our first foreign trip with Brunnehilda, here a few random reflections:
Biggest disappointment:
- Food - especially breakfasts and especially in France
- Some of the weather
Biggest surprise - bad:
- The cost of motorway tolls
- The scary roads - especially in Italy
- Sone opening hours of restaurants and shops
Biggest surprise - good:
- How relaxed and tolerant the French and Italians are behind the wheel
- The superb flushing capacity of F&I toilets - literally nothing gets left behind ... if you know what I mean?
- Quality of sites - especially the Italian one
Lowlights:
- The infamous mountain road and nearly getting wedged in!
- The mud in the first 2 French sites!
Highlights:
- Swimming in the Med with my number 2 son - in all sorts of weather!
- Sitting in an Italian restaurant in the pouring rain watching couples scampering by with their brollies up - like a scene from a movie
- Having a coffee in a deserted coffee shop in an ancient medieval hill village
- Having a laugh together at all the crazy things we said, saw and did
Finally, we were struck by how nice all the folks we met we’re. The French, The Italians and the holidaying Germans. I can’t think of one person that wasn’t friendly / helpful or both. We’re all the same really with a few differences that make it fun and interesting so why on earth do 17 million Brits want to:
- vilify them
- blame them
- despise them
- criticise them
- disassociate themselves from them
- remove themselves from them
- find differences between themselves and them
- fear them
Very very sad.
Breaking News:
My missing glasses turned up! Turns out it wasn’t a black hole at all. They had just managed to squeeze themselves down a gap between the wall and the mattress. I could hardly get my fingers down the gap so how the glasses got there I don’t know. Kim suggested it might be something to do with the weight distribution on my side of the bed??
Time to sleep - ferry at 8.30 am tomorrow morning.
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