Where's Bertie? After spending Thursday night at the Aire in Bergues where he's been a number of times before, on Friday he returned for another night at the Aire at Canterbury, where he had spent the preceding Sunday night.
Weather: Sunny intervals and warm enough, but breezy.
Our haste towards France on leaving the motorhome dealership on Thursday night had been in pursuit of wine. We failed to bring any back with us when we returned in March, which was remiss considering the price difference between the same wines in Lidl UK versus Lidl France. We thus headed straight to Bergues in France, where we were thrown by the obstacle of a 2.2m height barrier guarding the supermarket's car park. We weren't at leisure to defer the shopping trip until another time (aside from anything else, it was now gone 6pm and we needed to buy something to eat). After two goes around the adjacent roundabout and a drive up and down the road, Mick dropped me off, I shopped, then he came and picked me up, by which time the garage next door had closed, allowing him to borrow their land for the few minutes it took to transfer from trolley to boot.
Two minutes later we pulled into the Aire, which was quieter than we've ever seen it.
An early alarm was set for Friday morning, but I awoke even earlier still (0430!) and was unable to get back to sleep. So, I got up a little earlier than intended, giving time to make hot drinks for the journey.
As painful as the early start was (moreover with the shift back to UK time), the ease with which we passed through Eurotunnel check-in, border control and customs at 0640 made it worthwhile. There was no queuing at any stage, and we were the first vehicle onto the train - and thus the first off at the other end.
Back in the UK before 7am, the first stop was another Lidl, this time for a full grocery shop. The UK's rules on importing food are much more relaxed (sensible!) than the EU's, so I could have stocked up in Bergues, but food is so much more expensive in France than in England that I postponed the job. Even with that stop, we were in Canterbury around 8am and soon after we were sitting in rush-hour traffic on a Park and Ride bus into the city.
Our main objectives were coffee and breakfast, but once we'd fulfilled those requirements, we headed over to Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, which had been closed during our visit to the city on Monday. Entrance is free, and it was an entertaining enough way to spend some time.
We were back at Bertie by lunchtime, whereupon we set about trying to effect a temporary fix for his leaking toilet seal. We failed. I need to order a new one.
To the best of my recollection, the afternoon otherwise involved hand-washing some running gear (which dried nicely on and in the windscreen), and having a siesta. Even after the latter, we were still on our way to bed at 2100, looking forward to more of a lie-on on Saturday morning than we'd had during the rest of the week...
Weather: Sunny intervals and warm enough, but breezy.
Our haste towards France on leaving the motorhome dealership on Thursday night had been in pursuit of wine. We failed to bring any back with us when we returned in March, which was remiss considering the price difference between the same wines in Lidl UK versus Lidl France. We thus headed straight to Bergues in France, where we were thrown by the obstacle of a 2.2m height barrier guarding the supermarket's car park. We weren't at leisure to defer the shopping trip until another time (aside from anything else, it was now gone 6pm and we needed to buy something to eat). After two goes around the adjacent roundabout and a drive up and down the road, Mick dropped me off, I shopped, then he came and picked me up, by which time the garage next door had closed, allowing him to borrow their land for the few minutes it took to transfer from trolley to boot.
Two minutes later we pulled into the Aire, which was quieter than we've ever seen it.
An early alarm was set for Friday morning, but I awoke even earlier still (0430!) and was unable to get back to sleep. So, I got up a little earlier than intended, giving time to make hot drinks for the journey.
As painful as the early start was (moreover with the shift back to UK time), the ease with which we passed through Eurotunnel check-in, border control and customs at 0640 made it worthwhile. There was no queuing at any stage, and we were the first vehicle onto the train - and thus the first off at the other end.
Back in the UK before 7am, the first stop was another Lidl, this time for a full grocery shop. The UK's rules on importing food are much more relaxed (sensible!) than the EU's, so I could have stocked up in Bergues, but food is so much more expensive in France than in England that I postponed the job. Even with that stop, we were in Canterbury around 8am and soon after we were sitting in rush-hour traffic on a Park and Ride bus into the city.
Our main objectives were coffee and breakfast, but once we'd fulfilled those requirements, we headed over to Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, which had been closed during our visit to the city on Monday. Entrance is free, and it was an entertaining enough way to spend some time.
We were back at Bertie by lunchtime, whereupon we set about trying to effect a temporary fix for his leaking toilet seal. We failed. I need to order a new one.
To the best of my recollection, the afternoon otherwise involved hand-washing some running gear (which dried nicely on and in the windscreen), and having a siesta. Even after the latter, we were still on our way to bed at 2100, looking forward to more of a lie-on on Saturday morning than we'd had during the rest of the week...
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