We leave home in moderately good weather, but, it only lasts as far south as Yorkshire.
Soon it is raining.
We stop off at Huntingdon for Sunday lunch, at a place called the "Old Bridge Inn". I had found it on the internet, and new it was going to be pricey. But, what the hell I thought, you only live once. Pricey is a bit of an understatement £42 for Sunday lunch for two, just one course, a pint of bitter and a half shandy. I don't know about only live once, I think we will be only going there once!
They must have a death wish, cars etc hurtling past at 70mph, and nothing to protect the cyclists.
The weather only gets worse, sleet, then snow.
Despite the weather, we arrive at the Tunnel early, we are booked on the 18:20 train, but, we are there in time to be switched to the 17:20 train.
Sitting in the line waiting to board, we see a new word on the information board. The train is delayed by a few minutes to 17:28, but, the information board reads "Train retimed to 17:28". Retimed, I suppose it sounds better than delayed. I did not know that Euro Tunnel had employed Peter Mandleson.
We spend the night at Gravelines aire (N50 59.310' E2 07.363'). Not nearly as busy as usual, lots of empty spaces.
Monday 18th March 2013
It rained all night, and is still raining when we leave.
South on the A16, towards Abberville, leave the motorway, at the point the toll starts, no point paying to do 60mph, you can do that for free on the "N" roads.
Kathleen has retired the Tomtom, for the day, because she is bored and fancies map reading. It makes a nice change for me too, instead of getting instructions like "turn left in 300 metres", I now get, "you should have turned left 300 metres ago, you will have to turn around".
We negotiate Rouen, right first time, and stop for lunch at Pont de l'Arche. We knew there was a Municipal Campsite there, but, there is a small Aire too, we found. Marked out spaces for four vans, what looks like a free electric hook up, and a service point.
As we head south the unremitting rain and sleet do ease off a little, we even get a brief spell of sunshine, which allows Kathleen to wear her sunglasses, for the first time since Yorkshire. It does not last long.
It is decided, tonight, we must have electricity. Kathleen is concerned about using too much of our gas, in case we run out before our 12 weeks are over. So, despite checking out a couple of promising Aires at Cloyes Sur Le Loir (N47 59.512' E1 13.936') and Vouvray (N47 24.549' E000 47.812'), we actually go to:
La Ville-aux-Dames, Les Acacias (N47 24'7" E0 46'48")
from the ACSI book. We have been here before, about five years ago, it has apparently changed management since then, and is better for it.
Free wifi, hence the blog update, but, we find the signal is not good enough to sustain a Skype conversation.
