Early morning woken by the alarm. Monday is going to be so hard. I slept really badly with the usual long journey anticipation. We got ourselves together and put the last bits in the car, having packed all the big stuff last night. Then into the car and on the road before 8am.
Driving through the countryside at this time on a Saturday is lovely. The roads are quiet and the sun is starting to burn off the mist. The fields are sparkling with dew.
We’re listening to another Amazon playlist thought himself’s phone. I’ll be glad to get back home to BBC 6Music. These are so samey. It’s pretty much the same 20 artists and they all sound the same too. Women with soulful husky voices that go squeaky in the emotional bits and men that sound the same but deeper.
Himself did the first couple of hours then I did an hour and a half – he had a snooze. When we stopped for lunch we managed to find the service station of doom that was responsible for dog poo in our car last summer. Once again it was parking hell. We pulled up on the edge and ate lunch out of the tail gate.
About an hour up the road it started pouring with rain and the sat nav and road signs agreed that there had been an accident (whether there was a closure or not they couldn’t decide). So we let the sat nav (GoogleMaps) detour us through Orléans. At this point the GPS on the phone running the map got very imprecise. So I had to run a separate map on my phone to get us through the city. The route took us through all the non-picturesque bits of the city and out onto the péage again.
Every year we drive on the French motorways and debate how to judge at what point the speed limit drops from 130kph to 110kph. We usually decide it’s when the road is wet, not just a bit of drizzle. Today is definitely and without doubt a 110kph kinda day. It’s wet, there’s spray, there are people driving too close and braking too hard and we’ve had a little sideways squiggle at low speed because this truck has so much torque. 4WD has been turned on for a bit even.
5.30pm, still going. Sat nav claims arrival at cité d’europe 7.20pm to stock up at Carrefour and grab McDonald’s for tea. Husband deserves a reward.
Finally arrived and fed everyone. The road back to Calais is closed so I think we need to go down a junction to come back up again. Just what we need after a long day.
9pm: three million bottles of mint syrup purchased along with biscuits galore for work and neighbours. Finally in the hotel room, PJs and sleep after 13hrs door to door. Night night.
To see what else we got up to on our 2019 summer holiday, see Holiday 2019 Round Up.
Smelly Socks and Garden Peas 
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