Almost home....but it's been a LONG drive!

Hello everyone

Well, we're now well on our way home. After a reasonably early start (had to get up early to make sure the shed was clean and tidy before we handed the keys back!) we packed the car and headed off into Bourg d'Oisans for some fuel and some sandwiches to keep us going on the journey. They make good sandwiches here in France - real butter, lovely fresh French bread and plenty of filling...yummy! They are expensive though. I bought 2 cheese baguettes and 2 small bottles of soft drink and it cost over 13 Euros...that's about £12! It has been a great holiday but also an expensive one - 2 cognacs and 2 coffees = £13; 2 trips up the cable car at Mont Blanc = £90+; restaurant meal for 2 of pizzas, ice cream and a drink = £50; - as I said, it is expensive here.
We set off from the town at 9.45am this morning and headed north. We took a slightly different route back than the one we drove a week ago, using different toll roads/ring roads and recording the time and miles for future reference. We drove 567 miles (from our hotel near the channel tunnel in France) south to our campsite in 10 hours (including stops) and drove 569 miles back to the same hotel in 9 hours. We paid around 70 Euros in tolls each way.

I'm sat in our room at the Holiday Inn at Coquelles typing this update. We've eaten a meal on the way up France so that we didn't have to pay hotel prices for food but I suspect we're going to head to the extortionately priced hotel bar soon - you can't put a price on a cold beer after almost 600 miles of driving in 29 degrees of heat (outside, that is...we had the air con on in the car!). We've kept our sandwiches (the ones we bought in Bourg d'Oisans this morning) stashed in the coolbox which we've had plugged into the car during the journey. We've just eaten them along with tomatoes, cheese, crisps and some chocolate biscuits - more than enough to keep us ticking along until breakfast here in the morning!

Our train under the channel is due at 9.20 tomorrow morning so we'll be up and out of the hotel by 8.15am. It is only a 15 min drive to the terminal but we may want to browse the duty free shop for a few minutes before our journey. We have about 50 Euros left in the purse and don't really want to bring them home and lose money when converting them back into sterling so we may blow them on duty free - although, to be honest, things are so expensive over here that even with the duty removed you could probably buy them for the same money at home. We may just spend the money in the bar here at the hotel instead...!

I've no pictures to show you of today's trip, I'm afraid - one autoroute looks pretty much like any other autoroute and that is all we've seen for most of the day. The hotel is a typical Holiday Inn - nothing offensive but nothing worth photographing either.

Oh well - time to chill now (that's code for "we're off to the bar"!) and try to get some feeling back into our buttocks after sitting for all those hours. Will finish my blog entry now and will probably be in good old Blighty when I next get to log on.
Our French holiday was lovely and very enjoyable. I'm hoping to put some stuff on this blog when on our other trips and holidays this year - a few days in London; a week in Skye; almost 3 weeks in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles (I bet there's no problem finding plenty of wifi spots in the cities but I'm not holding out much hope for Skye...but you never know!).

See you then..?

Take care

D&M
xx

The end of a great week

Bonjour everybody.

Well we've arrived at Friday evening and we're due to set off back to sunny Britain tomorrow so this is an update on the last couple of days.
The weather has turned hot and sunny here - very nice when sitting around at the shed....I mean the chalet...but not as nice if driving around or walking/cycling. But I guess we'll suffer in order to bring you this blog ;o)

Yesterday (Thursday) was a quiet, lazy day spent mooching around the site and picking up a bit of food shopping here and there. Martin made a second attempt at cycling up Alpe d'Huez but, as mentioned earlier, it was much hotter today than last time. Mart managed the climb in 1h 36mins...a 3 minute improvement on his last attempt - phew! (and a fairly reasonable average time for a keen amateur). The climb actually goes around 21 hairpin bends - as seen in many Tour de France races although they aren't climbing the alp this year. I've attached a pic to show the views from about half way up the alp - that's the town of Bourg d'Oisans right in the bottom of the valley....a LONG way down!. The Tour de France cyclists are amazing and the fastest of them have managed this climb in around 37 minutes! It takes us almost that long to drive up to the top!! Anyway, once at the top Martin was adopted by a group of Belgians who wanted to feed him a ham baguette and coffee - very nice and friendly but not really what you want just after extreme exertions in 28 degrees of heat! Still...it was a kind thought.
We BBQ.d for our evening meal and spent a fortune logging on to the net via my mobile phone (there are no wifi spots anywhere near the site - I'm typing this from a cafe in the town nearby). Caught up on the news that Ronaldo has been sold to Real Madrid - ha! that means Liverpool will DEFINITELY win the Premiership next season - I can't wait!!

Anyway, now to today (Friday). I'd seen some posters earlier in the week promoting a classic car rally which came to town and actually climbed Alpe D'Huez (our mountain of the moment). After a bit of research by our daughter we managed to work out when the cars were due to arrive on the alp and got ourselves up there, in a shady bar with a brilliant view of the cars as they came in to the checkpoint at the top of the mountain - fantastic! I've attached some photos but they probably won't do justice to the event - the cars, the scenery, the weather, the cognac...I guess it helps to be there when this sort of thing happens. I really liked the poster the organisers were using to promote this event and, it just so happened that I'd seen one pinned up outside a shop which was closed (the main holiday season hasn't quite started here just yet). So...I thought I'd help them tidy up the area by relieving the shopfront of the poster...then I ran back to the car and stashed my haul! Well, I tried to tell myself that no-one would miss the poster as the event had now already happened....and it would only end up in the rubbish bin, probably wouldn't even be recycled....and the shopfront did indeed look tidier once I'd legged it with the poster - but it still doesn't change the fact that I stole something so I'm drinking cognac (again!) in attempt to forget my wicked deed (and it seems to be working!).

We treated ourselves to a meal in Bourg d'Oisans tonight. It was lovely and a real treat - no washing up tonight! We'd forgotten all about proper washing up after having a dishwasher at home - it was a bit of a shock to our systems but we managed ok ;o) (although I wish I hadn't burned the scrambled eggs onto the pan this morning....)
Once I've finished typing this we'll stroll back to the site (just over a mile away) and finish off our packing ready for an early-ish start tomorrow. The weather forecast is for hot and sunny again here - I suspect it won't be the same at home in Bolton.

Will try to update this blog en route as and when we find wifi spots but, for now, it's au revoir and we'll speak soon!

Take care

D&M
xx

The good, the bad and the bloomin' horrid!

Bonjour everyone.

We've now found another, more local cafe (the Cafe de Paris in our local town of Bourg d'Oisans) with free wi-fi access (or "wee-fee" as it's pronounced around these parts!) so here's our latest update.
First, "the bad". We drove over some winding, undulating and down-right scary alpine passes yesterday to visit Briancon. Its a larger town round here (although Astley Bridge would constitute a "large town" in this part of France!) so we thought it might be worth a look. Although the drive was pretty hairy it was also spectacular and quite enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way. I've attached photos of M in various parts of the alpine scenery but I guess once you've seen mountains, meadows, snow and stuff on a picture then you've seen them all so I probably won't impose any more on you. However, when we eventually got there, Briancon itself was a bit of a shabby disappointment and so it gets the title of "the bad" in this blog. We had a nice lunch there (see photos of lovely bruschetta and cokes!)but then had an encounter with "the bloomin' horrid"! We had the misfortune to have to use Briancon's public loo - yuk!!! It was filthy, very smelly and full of graffiti (and not even good graffiti, which I can sometimes appreciate and even enjoy!). It was bloomin' horrible....and we even had to pay 20c to use the loo, just to add insult to injury. And I thought this was supposed to be a sophisticated country. Well, maybe it is in other places but it certainly isn't in that corner of Briancon (I've attached a picture as proof and so that you can all share my disquiet!).
Anyway, on to "the good". Today we set off early and drove the 160 miles to Chamonix and Mont Blanc. It was quite a distance so we'd checked the maps and had spotted a decent looking road which would cut across country and shave a few miles off the journey. However, disaster was never too far away - we were sent on a diversion or, as the French appropriately call them, a "deviation". It took us up some of the smallest, twistiest roads we've ever driven on and was awful. I felt ill and was having to concentrate to hang on to my breakfast. But, eventually, we made it after over 4 hours driving - and it was worth every mile! We went up to the highest point accessible by cable car and lifts (well, we weren't kitted out for walking!) at 3842m (I've attached photos...again) and had our breath taken away both figuratively and literally! The views are indescribable (so I won't even try) and, although you can see our photos, they really never could do justice to the real thing. But we were also feeling a little light headed and dizzy due to the lack of oxygen at this altitude - and we're both a couple of wimps, too!
We spent a good couple of hours traveling up the various stages covered by cable cars and lifts before heading back down in search of food (again!). Around 4pm-ish we ate a substantial, if late, lunch at the first restaurant we found in Chamonix - we were both famished! The weather was hot - it reached 82 degrees today - and so now we both just wanted a sleep but, instead, we set off on the long drive back to Bourg d'Oisans...this time taking the "long way round" and using the more expensive, but straighter, motorways - much better!
We're still finding little quirks and odd things about our shed...I mean, our chalet! We barbecued last night (I've attached a pic of our meals...sad, I know) and it was lovely. We had a barbecue but no cooking utensils at all! Martin had to use some scissors and a fork to cook the meat and I just sat back laughing. A local cat adopted us and sat waiting for scraps - we saved it some but not too much...we didn't want to feel like we were cheating on our own cats! However, it was sat outside waiting for us again this morning. It didn't seem to be interested in boiled eggs and yoghurt so I think it's fallen out with us now - fairweather feline!
We are now sat outside the Cafe de Paris drinking wines, coffees and eating peanuts and locally picked, sweet cherries donated by the bar owner. Its still very warm and lovely and things don't get much better when on holiday in France.
Anyway, that's enough from me today. I'm sure we'll get another update on here soon....technology, and Cafe de Paris, willing!

(PS: Sorry - I know the photos all appear on this page in some random order but I haven't quite got to grips with how to change this (and I think I'm putting the same photos on twice every now and then...)- but maybe I'll work it all out in time for our next trip. Just bear with me for now, please.)

Au revoir for now

D&M
xx

And about time too!

Bonjour from France!

WooHoooo - we've eventually found a wi-fi spot so we can update the blog. These hotspots are like rocking horse poo or hen's teeth or something....whichever way you want to describe them, they're VERY rare around these parts!

We had a good journey - 10 hours in all from Coquelles to the site but that included plenty of stops and breaks. We used toll roads most of the way which were nice and quiet although they did cost us 70 EUR!

Anyway, we're here (but you probably knew that already) and have settled in to our chalet. Actually, it's a bit like the Fawlty Towers of chalets - there are 8 tumblers, 3 smaller glasses, no wine glasses, only 2 plates match - the rest are all odd, the pans are all either HUGE or tiny, there is the world's slowest heating electric hob, no oven, the heaters won't switch on or won't switch off, the fridge acts like a freezer and freezes everything solid (even though we've turned it down) and there are no plug sockets in any convenient places - but apart from that it's fine and quite cute really! I've attached a picture of our shed.

We've spent some time mooching about but I'm now typing this at the top of Alpe d'Huez which is a mega-mountain that the Tour de France goes up. Martin cycled up it last year in 2 hours 25 mins and wanted to make more of an effort this year(!). He has just arrived in 1 hour 39 mins - what a result! He doesn't even look too tired (so he could probably have done better....but I won't tell him that just yet!).
We're having some coffee at a cafe (which is where we've found the wi-fi spot) and then we'll be heading back down to the site.

It's not exactly sunbathing weather here but it is warm, dry and very nice really - and whatever the weather it is much better than being in work on a Monday!

Will try to update again whenever we get near a hotspot but bye bye for now.

Take care, everyone!

D&M
xx

Bonjour toutes le mondes!

Bonjour everybody

Well we're here - safely installed in the hotel bar with 2 extortionately priced but very cold and welcome beers.
The journey south to the tunnel was smooth and problem free with just a minor delay on the Dartford Crossing bridge - but it gave us time to watch the barges on the river, I guess!
We had a meal at our usual stop at the Eureka Park which is just a short drive from the tunnel. We arrived for our train early and were able to catch the 7.20pm train instead of the 8.20pm train we were originally booked on - result!
Once on t'other side we found the hotel easily thanks to the car's sat nav who we call Maureen - she's brilliant and totally unflappable (unlike her human co-travellers!).

It's now 10pm here so we're planning to watch a bit of TV and get an early-ish night so we're ready for a marathon day on the road tomorrow. Hoping for decent weather but we're not hold our breath (although it hasn't rained on us at all since leaving home....yet!).

Have attached a few photos showing you our day so far - not too exciting but we hope you enjoy!

Au revoir

D&M
xx