Somewhere in France....

It was an early start this morning, we left later than expected, only leaving at 5am, but as we always book Flexiplus for the Eurotunnel it did not matter that we did not make our original booked crossing. We seem to waste time at the Eurotunnel, there is only one coffee place there so there is always a very long queue in the morning. It’s a Starbucks so it's not even worth queuing for their horrible coffee but it’s my last chance at a cappuccino with non dairy milk until I get to Switzerland as the French motorway services do not cater for any dietary requirements! I queue for the coffees while Gavin goes to Pet Passport Control to get Xena checked in, she is lucky to have a Swiss passport!! 

The weather was bright and sunny all the way through France, but from Calais onwards there were very strong gale force winds so passing high sided trucks was a bit scary as they were very unstable and swaying on the roads. We had no problem with fuel, I did read it was mainly in the south of France where they had no fuel due to strikes. Unfortunately the place we chose to refuel had a stupid system whereby you had to go inside and pay for fuel in advance, without knowing how much fuel you would actually be using. The cashier told Gavin to buy €150 of fuel but the car then only required less than €100 of fuel, and she assured him his bank account would be adjusted for the difference We are not so sure about that! We both kept commenting on how clean everything was with no litter on the sides of the motorway, unlike the UK. They have very large garbage bins with a big open mouth so trucks leaving the motorway stops can easily bin their rubbish whilst driving past, they are such a good idea and we really need these in the UK.

There was no opportunity for photos as where we stopped had no scenery. The scenery driving through France and then Switzerland is beautiful, but being in a right hand drive car on left hand drive roads means I am not on the side with views. The wind turbines seemed appropriate today with that strong wind blowing across the country.

I watched a few episodes of the BBC show The Gold on my phone which I had downloaded before I left home. I also caught up on the news. Liz Truss submitting candidates for the honours list, how ridiculous is that? And the court room battle over the skiing incident with Gwyneth Paltrow? Sounds like someone is taking a fat chance to get some money off a famous and wealthy movie star. Or is she guilty? 

It has been a long, long day - we finally got here after 14 hours, but that’s including a 1 hour time difference and a few stops - it’s about 10.5 hours of actual driving time.

I had the foresight to buy and pack a Charlie Brigham dinner so that when we arrived to an apartment with no food in it, we could enjoy a delicious Thai chicken curry plus veggies for supper - plus a glass of Prosecco to relax after that long day - haha, I did nothing but relax all day, poor Gavin always does all the driving as he prefers it.

Gavin is already setting up his laptop for work and zoom meetings this week, I was hoping he would have a week off....