Day 1 January 26th
The drive down from the Midlands to Pompey was totally uneventful; the bummer was the rescheduling of the ferry departure from 22.45 to 02.00, as we sat in the queue at the ferry port waiting to embark the clock ticked past midnight to January 27th and my 68th birthday, happy birthday to me! We boarded and headed straight to the cabin to get some shuteye, the first problem was that I could only see one bunk - WTF! A quick visit to information only to be told that the top bunk folds up flush into the deckhead and you twist the little grey handle on the deckhead and down it comes - DOH! Seems obvious now but why not put a little note on wall. Off to bed to try and sleep, at 2.30am they are still making the safety announcements and sounding off the warning siren and the car deck is out of bounds blah, blah, blah! Fuck off we just want to sleep.
Well, neither of us had a great kip, and the ship's alarm went off at 8am (which was really 7am GMT) so we were lucky if we had 4 hours. Had a passable full English and a strong cup of coffee followed by a hugely satisfying dump and I was ready for the world.
Around 9.30 ish we were docked and as we were waiting for the exit ramps to open we saw this grand old lady next to ours - a 1962 DB4, the owner's dad bought it in the 70s when nobody wanted them, it's restored, in beautiful condition, original paint scheme, uprated brakes and suspension and the engine has been fettled. The owner said he just considers himself the guardian to pass it on to the next generation, which is a wonderful sentiment. I did a quick google on values and in the USA they can go for millions!
We eventually left the dockyard at 10.30am and were on the road heading for the Caen Peripherique in heavy rain, I made two navigational fuck ups on the Peripherique which added a few minutes and a couple of miles but after redressing my supreme muppetry we eventually exited and found ourselves on an Autoroute heading South. It was also the first test of the toll booth electronic tag and it works like a dream, head for the barrier marked with the t and 30 sign and boom up goes the barrier with no need to stop and through, every time I giggled like a schoolboy having my first post -pubescent fumble up a girl's blouse.
Simple things eh!
I know Autoroutes are considered the Devil's work but when you need to cover some decent miles in one day I think they are so much better than our motorways. The lane discipline is great and the traffic is so much less dense - I pretty much stuck the Cruise Control on 80mph for the majority of the way and we ate up the miles and actually arrived at our first Airbnb at 16.15 which is much earlier than I expected given our late departure. I felt like I could have driven another 100 miles. Whilst on the Autoroute I pointed out to her ladyship the Radar Controlle signs and explained that the cameras in France are not bright yellow and to look out for the grey box, I spotted it and pointed it out to her and as I did the bastard thing flashed me! I looked at the satnav and hadn't realised the limit had just dropped from 130kph to 110kph - hence the camera - DOH! More muppetry! She thought it was hilarious and that I'd organised it as a demo. We also spent an hour or so listening to a teach yourself Italian CD, so I know how to say hello, goodbye, good evening, good night, how are you, excuse me, I am well, I don't understand and most importantly where is the bar. I just need to work on my inflection and arm waving for that full Italian authenticity. Alena's Russian accent while speaking Italian is a strange brew!
As we approached Clermont-Ferrand there was a lot of snow on the fields and on the higher ground and the temp dropped from about 8 to 2/3C.
Our first stopover is in Thiers and our host, Jacques couldn't wait to show me his 2CV collection, one from 1985, one from 1958 and the last one is 1961 and he also had hundreds of models of them in his garage, many in cabinets and lots of larger ones on shelves, I guess he has a bit of an obsession - here's a few pics and a pic of the house. We have a conjoined room to ourselves with private entrance, fridge, microwave, cooker, kettle etc and it was stocked with bread, milk, yoghurts, coffee and other goodies for our petit dejeuner the following morning.
Her Ladyship cooked us an early dinner as we had given lunch a miss and had nibbled on energy bars and fruit on the move so we were pretty hungry - as soon as dinner was had she crashed having not slept at all well last night. Meanwhile I am typing this.
Stats so far.
Aggregate mileage 552
Mileage today 398
Avg speed today 65mph
Fuel consumption 45mpg
At our first full up in Europe the cost per litre was €1.90 which given the current exchange rate is about £1.66
Tomorrow we head for Italy and a stopover in Alessandria - we have less mileage to do, about 340 and will be heading off earlier so I can probably take it at a slightly leisurely pace.
Ciao bella!
The drive down from the Midlands to Pompey was totally uneventful; the bummer was the rescheduling of the ferry departure from 22.45 to 02.00, as we sat in the queue at the ferry port waiting to embark the clock ticked past midnight to January 27th and my 68th birthday, happy birthday to me! We boarded and headed straight to the cabin to get some shuteye, the first problem was that I could only see one bunk - WTF! A quick visit to information only to be told that the top bunk folds up flush into the deckhead and you twist the little grey handle on the deckhead and down it comes - DOH! Seems obvious now but why not put a little note on wall. Off to bed to try and sleep, at 2.30am they are still making the safety announcements and sounding off the warning siren and the car deck is out of bounds blah, blah, blah! Fuck off we just want to sleep.
Well, neither of us had a great kip, and the ship's alarm went off at 8am (which was really 7am GMT) so we were lucky if we had 4 hours. Had a passable full English and a strong cup of coffee followed by a hugely satisfying dump and I was ready for the world.
Around 9.30 ish we were docked and as we were waiting for the exit ramps to open we saw this grand old lady next to ours - a 1962 DB4, the owner's dad bought it in the 70s when nobody wanted them, it's restored, in beautiful condition, original paint scheme, uprated brakes and suspension and the engine has been fettled. The owner said he just considers himself the guardian to pass it on to the next generation, which is a wonderful sentiment. I did a quick google on values and in the USA they can go for millions!
We eventually left the dockyard at 10.30am and were on the road heading for the Caen Peripherique in heavy rain, I made two navigational fuck ups on the Peripherique which added a few minutes and a couple of miles but after redressing my supreme muppetry we eventually exited and found ourselves on an Autoroute heading South. It was also the first test of the toll booth electronic tag and it works like a dream, head for the barrier marked with the t and 30 sign and boom up goes the barrier with no need to stop and through, every time I giggled like a schoolboy having my first post -pubescent fumble up a girl's blouse.
Simple things eh!I know Autoroutes are considered the Devil's work but when you need to cover some decent miles in one day I think they are so much better than our motorways. The lane discipline is great and the traffic is so much less dense - I pretty much stuck the Cruise Control on 80mph for the majority of the way and we ate up the miles and actually arrived at our first Airbnb at 16.15 which is much earlier than I expected given our late departure. I felt like I could have driven another 100 miles. Whilst on the Autoroute I pointed out to her ladyship the Radar Controlle signs and explained that the cameras in France are not bright yellow and to look out for the grey box, I spotted it and pointed it out to her and as I did the bastard thing flashed me! I looked at the satnav and hadn't realised the limit had just dropped from 130kph to 110kph - hence the camera - DOH! More muppetry! She thought it was hilarious and that I'd organised it as a demo.
We also spent an hour or so listening to a teach yourself Italian CD, so I know how to say hello, goodbye, good evening, good night, how are you, excuse me, I am well, I don't understand and most importantly where is the bar. I just need to work on my inflection and arm waving for that full Italian authenticity. Alena's Russian accent while speaking Italian is a strange brew!As we approached Clermont-Ferrand there was a lot of snow on the fields and on the higher ground and the temp dropped from about 8 to 2/3C.
Our first stopover is in Thiers and our host, Jacques couldn't wait to show me his 2CV collection, one from 1985, one from 1958 and the last one is 1961 and he also had hundreds of models of them in his garage, many in cabinets and lots of larger ones on shelves, I guess he has a bit of an obsession - here's a few pics and a pic of the house. We have a conjoined room to ourselves with private entrance, fridge, microwave, cooker, kettle etc and it was stocked with bread, milk, yoghurts, coffee and other goodies for our petit dejeuner the following morning.
Her Ladyship cooked us an early dinner as we had given lunch a miss and had nibbled on energy bars and fruit on the move so we were pretty hungry - as soon as dinner was had she crashed having not slept at all well last night. Meanwhile I am typing this.
Stats so far.
Aggregate mileage 552
Mileage today 398
Avg speed today 65mph
Fuel consumption 45mpg
At our first full up in Europe the cost per litre was €1.90 which given the current exchange rate is about £1.66
Tomorrow we head for Italy and a stopover in Alessandria - we have less mileage to do, about 340 and will be heading off earlier so I can probably take it at a slightly leisurely pace.
Ciao bella!
. Good start and good stuff Your Lordship.
.
eyes
On a brighter note, the electronic toll tag worked in Italy also, I did order one that covered Italy but I wasn't too sure if it would until my doubts were proved unfounded.
