Where's Bertie? He is, once again, at the Aire at Wissant, just a few miles along the coast from Calais.
Weather: Increasingly sunny as we travelled north and warmer than forecast at 17 degrees, but windy. Rain from 1630.
I forgot to mention something yesterday. When we planned our journey home from Badajoz ten days ago, the key feature of the plan was to visit Chartres on the way. Every time we've driven past (which is quite a few times now), I've looked at the cathedral that stands so prominently, visible from many miles away, and said that we should stop by for a closer look. However, each time we've been driving south we've been in a rush to get somewhere (usually to the sunshine) and every time we've been heading north we've also either been on our way to an appointment or the weather has not been conducive to sight-seeing. On this trip we only scheduled part of a morning for the excursion, but I'd located somewhere we could stay and, being generally bad at visiting cities, a couple or three of hours would give us time to see the cathedral close-up.
Yesterday evening we were to arrive in Chartres and this morning we were to do our sightseeing. Tonight we would travel on to Neufchâtel-en-Bray.
So, what happened? I'm a fair weather tourist! Including Turquant and the troglodyte houses into our journey home had put Chartres a tiny bit out of our way, but not enough to worry about on its own. However, if you combined the extra distance with a poor weather forecast, then it became significant. Did we really want to take a detour to find ourselves walking around Chartres in the rain? No, was the answer. Chartres was thus left on the 'must visit' list.
Today's plan was also modified due to the weather forecast. Was there any point in doing a 2-hour drive today, to sit indoors whilst it rained, then doing a 2-hour drive to Wissant tomorrow? We may just as well get to Wissant in a day and not have to drive anywhere tomorrow, we thought.
The drive here was uneventful, save that 35km from our destination I realised that I'd forgotten that we were meant to be filling up with LPG today. LPG is hugely more available in France than in the UK, but even so, I feared that my realisation had come too late, and our Chunnel on Saturday morning is too early to get some at Coquelles en-route. A quick interrogation of the 'mylpg.eu' App showed there were two stations between us and Wissant. I chose one, but our mission was a failure (unmanned petrol station, but LPG pump has no Pay at Pump terminal. Tried to pay at the adjacent pump but got 'Card type not accepted' message even though Mastercard was a listed card type*). The other gas station was a little out of our way, but by far less than a LPG-chase in the UK would involve. No problem filling up there and the only problem with paying was that the drive-through payment kiosk was not designed for a vehicle of Bertie's size!
Arriving in Wissant a short while later, we wasted no time in going out for a walk. It was difficult to believe, as I took this snap along the beach, that rain was forecast in an hour's time:
By the time we got back to Bertie, clouds were starting to appear...
The capacity here must be around 40-50. We've arrived on a Wednesday in low season before and found not a single space to be had. Yet today we brought the number present up to 5.
...and at half past four the rain started. It's now decidedly wet out, with a gusty wind buffetting us. We'll not be venturing out again today. (later: except that Mick had to nip out to take the dish water to the drain. It's not far, he wore a waterproof jacket, and came back dripping. He decided the rubbish can wait until tomorrow to go out.)
(*Yes, that's the third time this week our card has been declined, including the two failed payments with the same Autoroute operator. I'm convinced it's not a problem with our card, as we're using it to pay for other things with no problem.)
Weather: Increasingly sunny as we travelled north and warmer than forecast at 17 degrees, but windy. Rain from 1630.
I forgot to mention something yesterday. When we planned our journey home from Badajoz ten days ago, the key feature of the plan was to visit Chartres on the way. Every time we've driven past (which is quite a few times now), I've looked at the cathedral that stands so prominently, visible from many miles away, and said that we should stop by for a closer look. However, each time we've been driving south we've been in a rush to get somewhere (usually to the sunshine) and every time we've been heading north we've also either been on our way to an appointment or the weather has not been conducive to sight-seeing. On this trip we only scheduled part of a morning for the excursion, but I'd located somewhere we could stay and, being generally bad at visiting cities, a couple or three of hours would give us time to see the cathedral close-up.
Yesterday evening we were to arrive in Chartres and this morning we were to do our sightseeing. Tonight we would travel on to Neufchâtel-en-Bray.
So, what happened? I'm a fair weather tourist! Including Turquant and the troglodyte houses into our journey home had put Chartres a tiny bit out of our way, but not enough to worry about on its own. However, if you combined the extra distance with a poor weather forecast, then it became significant. Did we really want to take a detour to find ourselves walking around Chartres in the rain? No, was the answer. Chartres was thus left on the 'must visit' list.
Today's plan was also modified due to the weather forecast. Was there any point in doing a 2-hour drive today, to sit indoors whilst it rained, then doing a 2-hour drive to Wissant tomorrow? We may just as well get to Wissant in a day and not have to drive anywhere tomorrow, we thought.
The drive here was uneventful, save that 35km from our destination I realised that I'd forgotten that we were meant to be filling up with LPG today. LPG is hugely more available in France than in the UK, but even so, I feared that my realisation had come too late, and our Chunnel on Saturday morning is too early to get some at Coquelles en-route. A quick interrogation of the 'mylpg.eu' App showed there were two stations between us and Wissant. I chose one, but our mission was a failure (unmanned petrol station, but LPG pump has no Pay at Pump terminal. Tried to pay at the adjacent pump but got 'Card type not accepted' message even though Mastercard was a listed card type*). The other gas station was a little out of our way, but by far less than a LPG-chase in the UK would involve. No problem filling up there and the only problem with paying was that the drive-through payment kiosk was not designed for a vehicle of Bertie's size!
Arriving in Wissant a short while later, we wasted no time in going out for a walk. It was difficult to believe, as I took this snap along the beach, that rain was forecast in an hour's time:
By the time we got back to Bertie, clouds were starting to appear...
...and at half past four the rain started. It's now decidedly wet out, with a gusty wind buffetting us. We'll not be venturing out again today. (later: except that Mick had to nip out to take the dish water to the drain. It's not far, he wore a waterproof jacket, and came back dripping. He decided the rubbish can wait until tomorrow to go out.)
(*Yes, that's the third time this week our card has been declined, including the two failed payments with the same Autoroute operator. I'm convinced it's not a problem with our card, as we're using it to pay for other things with no problem.)
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