The Outward Journey
In a change from the usual motorhoming blogs, we have travelled by car to our house in the Dordogne, where we plan to stay for 4 weeks.
On such trips, we cross the Channel by Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to Caen. A route which we now prefer having tried the tunnel and other ferry routes, as it reduces the time driving overall. The journey is 250 miles from home to Portsmouth and a further 350 miles to the house. It is a nearly 6-hour crossing and with the move to Central European Time, the 14:45 ferry arrives at Caen, at around 21:45, so we usually stay overnight in a hotel before continuing.
Before setting off on Saturday, we had received a message to say that our ferry would be leaving Portsmouth late, at 16:00 hrs., but we left at our usual time, thinking it would allow us to take a little more time with the journey and not be worried about any traffic issues.
After travelling for around an hour or so, a further text message came through, saying that the departure time had been moved further back, to 17:00hrs. with a latest check-in time of 15:30.
The M6 motorway was quite busy in places, but the traffic kept moving and we maintained progress at around 60-65mph. I was driving when we approached an on-slip road, just before Hilton Park Services and I moved over to the middle lane to allow a number of cars to join, one of which immediately left the line to overtake, hitting my car side-on in a high-speed collision, pushing us towards the outside lane.
Remarkably and very fortunately, it was a glancing blow, the outside lane was empty, nobody was injured and there was very little damage caused, but we were quite shaken. After exchanging names and addresses on the hard shoulder we were on our way. Things might have been much worse.
Our friends, Jeeves and Michelle had travelled the same way, a week earlier and described difficulties in obtaining diesel fuel, both in Southern England and in France, so we wanted to make sure we had enough for the remainder of the journey. Portsmouth Tesco had none, but we were able to fill up at another station. Being quite early, we had got plenty of time to look, of course. We also had time to get a meal.
We arrived at the ferry terminal well before the last check-in time, but despite the declared sailing time of 17:00, the ferry eventually left at 18:30. About a 4 hour wait at the port.
The ferry was extremely busy, so when we arrived in Caen, there was a huge queue to clear passport control and customs. We arrived at our hotel around 03:00, exhausted, despite snoozing in our cabin.
After a substantial breakfast in the hotel, we hit the road south. It is amazing the difference driving in France to the UK. Good roads, very little traffic, amazing scenery, tolls.
Before long, we stopped at a supermarket for essentials. On Sundays, French supermarkets mostly only open in the morning, many do not open at all, so an early visit was planned. Here again, there are many differences between French and British supermarkets:
Many supermarkets sell an astonishingly wide range of goods, including lawn mowers, domestic appliances, audio-visual goods such as TVs and computers, cookware and tableware ..the list seems endless.
Much of Northern France is flat and large-scale agricultural, but as you travel south, gradually the mix changes to smaller fields and eventually, around the Cognac area includes some grape production.
With much relief, we reached the house around 17.30pm. The journey through France was long, but uneventful fortunately. It reminded us of why we love spending time in the area; a world away from North West England. We will be cleaning the house, starting work on the garden and replacing a leaking kitchen tap tomorrow.
"See-u-Later" 