I’ve done some minor updates for previous days, but here are the entries I forgot for Rouen ….

You remember how in Reim, Orléan and Tour we found ourselves driving on to pedestrian areas near/by hte catherdrals ? Well guess what we also managed in Rouen. This was partly down to there being road works near by that meant it was nigh on impossible to get to the hotel (we managed it in the end, but only after about 5 or 6 loops of the inner city plus a couple of pavement trips).

And yet more forgotten bits …

When we stopped for lunch, post Chenonceau, I grabbed for my packet of pastil sweets that had been sitting on the seat behind me. What I found was a solid mass. In the heat of the car, all the sweets had turned into a molten goop that merged together then hardened.

We had decided that we would look to hit a Michelin star’ed restaurant on the final night. Well Rouen has three of them, one 2 star and two with 1. Turned out the better place was closed during the 1st two weeks of August so we set off for the nearest of the other two. Les Nymphéas had a superb menu, our problem was to be narrowing down our choice. It became moot in the end as it was full. The second place, L’Écaille was primarilly a fish restaurant. I think Pak was happy here, but I struggled with their menu choices so instead we went to a local place slightly nearer the hotel. It was a very nice meal and in the end meant that we had eaten traditionally French on every night.

Having mistakingly thought the ferry back was at 17:30 rather than 16:20, we decided to lie in this morning. Even with that mistake we still should have had time to grab a lunch at the Flunch at Citée des Europe before hitting the Carefour then going to the ferry port. In the end we found ourselves increasingly running out of time. By the time we got to Calais we had under an hour so we grabbed picnic stuff at the hypermarket as well as our final shopping. Imagine our surprise, then, to arrive at the ferry terminal to discover that our ship had been delayed by an hour.

The final return leg was uneventful beyond that. In the end we worked out we had done close to 1115 miles in the round journey, consuming some thing like 65 gallons of 97/98 octane fuel.

If you’re wanting to follow the details of this holiday and are only seeing today’s entries, then you need to view my pages as tonight (our final night over here) is the first time I’ve had access since that first day.

A live update at last.

The drive to Rouen was peaceful, though after a week of barely seeing another English car, today they were every where. We picked up sallad stuff and bread on the way and had a relaxing lunch at a picnic area about 2 hours out.

On arrival we went to look through the Michelin red book for a hotel. Looks like Michelin does not rate Rouen as while there were a good few places, virtually all were at a basic level. Parking was important else we’d have to stay outside and drive in for food. There was one place – the Hotel Meridian Central, the most pricy place, but as it is the last night and previous places have been cheap, I managed to talk Pak in to it. The room is really nice, though we’ve paid the penalty for me trying to speak French. The receptionist gave us the nicest rooms on the 4th floor, and they really are nice, complete with conencting balcony, however they are out of range of the WiFi base station, so I’ve had to come down to the lobby to type this up. I did ask in reception, and could have swapped rooms, however the hassle was not worth it, plus the rooms would have been smaller and less ‘classy’.

Not sure what we’re doing for food tonight. We had talke about doing one expensive meal, however last night’s ended up being more than we originally planned, plus we’re spending more on the hotel. I have the Michelin guide next to me, and once I’ve finished being online I shall have a peruse back in my room while writing postcards.

Ok the original plan for today was to hit a chateau in the morning, another in the afternoon, then on to Chartres.

The plan started off fine. We went to Chenonceau, a beautifull chateau famed for spanning across a river. It is a very popular tourist destination, with the result that there was a hell of a queue to get in, but it was worth it. By the time we came out it was lunch time so we grabbed some bread and cheese and set off.

Lunch was partaken on the bank of the Loire facing the medieval ruined castle at Montrachard. All we were missing was some red wine, but I had to drive so Pak had to suffer 😀

Our next stop was The Big chateau, at Charmond. Now this took us longer to get to than we expected, so we didn’t park until past 15:30. It is massive both inside and out, and I’m still not sure we fully explored it before it closed at 18:30. The drive to get there was fully justified, however Chartres was not out of the equation as it would be between 8 and 9 before we’d arrive to find a hotel.

We decided to head towards Rouen and after about an hour look for a hotel. 45 minutes later and we’re just entering Orléan, so we headed for the Hotel D’Orlean again and spent a second night there.

Food wise we set off and decided on a paella. Well it sounded like a good idea, however it took ten minutes to get a menu, the table behind us got theres when we sat down, and some 10-15 minutes later still no one had come to take either of our orders so we left and they followed. We went to the traditional French restaurant next door and had a very nice meal, though possibly more expensive than we originally intended.

The original plan for today was to drive to Bois, then Amboise before hitting Tours for the evening.

We stopped for lunch at Chaumont, eating some pizza we picked up from a boulangery on the way, the had a look round the chateau. It was a bit small and not worth then entry fee, especially considering the steep hike to get up to it.

After that we decided to skip Bois, though we did drive through it, and instead went to Amboise. A pleasant couple of hours were spent there, though we did make the mistake of going to Leonardi da Vinci’s house instead of entering the Chateaux. It wasn’t bad, but it was packed and lacking on displays. If we’d had time spare, I think we would have hit the castle.

From there we went on to Tours where we drove over a pedestrian area outside the cathedral (see a pattern to this holiday yet ?). We found a basic, but new hotel (Hotel Mondial) off a small square (Place de la Resistance) very near the old quarter (3 minutes walk away). There was a public car park outside which from 6 p.m. until 9 a.m. was free. We met an English couple there who had come over to Tour on the spare of the moment. They had a problem, which was she was a vegetarian. During the 1990s, as the health food fad reached France it might have been easier for her to get a meal, but these days, forget it. Net result was they were having problems (or rather she was as he was as much of a carnivore as us).

We wandered in to the main square, checking restaurants out on the way. A drink there proved surprisingly difficult as most waiters seemed to be on strike, but after changing bar once we got a few drinks, then went to a rather good restaurant near by. We even noted it had both a vegetarian starter and main course, so we passed these details on to the previously mentioned couple.

Last night we decided that rather than heading over to Strasbourg (over 4 hours driving) so we could then cross borders to Adane/Nurburg (another 2-4 hours) just so I could do a couple of laps of the Nordshleif, was just pushing it a little, so instead we planned a new route
Reims -> Orléan -> Tours -> Chartes -> Rouen -> back

The drive to Orléan was nice. We had a stop off at a Carefour to pick up a few items we had forgotten plus some lunch, then headed on again. At one point we saw oncoming cars flashing, so I slowed down, and there, standing in wait, were two sun-glassed les flics awaiting with a laser gun. I smiled at them. On arrival we yet again found ourselves driving through a pedestrian way near the cathedral. We found a back street hotel with a car park, the D’Orléan. It’s nothing special and the rooms are set back in the 1970s (which is amusing as it’s 3 class stars were awarded back in 1971.

Orléan is quaint, but nice. We had a fair wander around, down back streets and up to the River. Most the restaurants appear to be in one street, which is where we ended up at a rather nice place doing modern French cuisine. I had a pave de bouef that was superb. It as a thick triangular slab of meat, 3 inches thick at the base, which while rare, was almost blue in the middle. Needless to say, it was fantastic. The evening was rounded off at a Cuban bar round the corner.

*** Post Script to the travel today.
We found a problem with using a sat nav around Paris. On the peripheric you often come across 2 or 3 roads running alongside each other, sharing the same junctions and swap over points. GPS is not accurate enough to differentiate between them with the result that it was too easy to take the wrong option. over all it probably only accounted for 3 or 4 changes in route and about an extra 5-10 kilometers, but it was frustrating.

Actually this is more on the day in general.

Did you known that the Cite des Europe in Calais is closed on a Sunday ? No, well neither did we until we got there. Worse still followed. I needed petrol, one thing that is still cheaper over here. Guess what, the petrol station there is only 24 hour for Frnech credit cards and the cash pumps (where you can use foreign cards) was closed for emergency repairs. We eventually filled up at the same place we grabbed lunch, about half an hour to the east.

The hotel we ended up in is the Grand Hotel Continental, a 3 star rated hotel, but with a lot of character. The rooms were comfy and rather atmospheric.

Well the new holiday has now started. Set off around 8 a.m. this morning with Pak, destination Dover, then France. 10 hours later and we are now in the Hotel Continental in Reims, just on a nice stretch of restaurants and hotels.
Been a long drive today – just over 350 miles with one stop for petrol, the car was well up to the task, though in France it has attracted a lot of attention (of a good sort, though not yet of suitably aged mademoiselles). My favorate was the renault 5 driver who started taking phone pictures of us at ~110 kmh, who then started to look round the car (I let him), while there were lots of waves then some egging on. I didn’t leave him dissapointed ;).

Got a new toy that has certainly made life easier. I’ve been toying with a Sat Nav for a while now, but not liked the prices, especially when you take in to account the European maps (which are a requirement for me). I’ve been watching eBay for about a month now and on Wednesday picked up a Navman CNi630, complete with full Euro maps (140 euros extra normally). At Calais I stuck Reims down as a destination and it got us right to the Catherdral. We even got to the hotel through it.

What we’re going to do tomorrow and where we’re going to head we’ve not yet decided. All I know is we’ve got free public parking until 9 tomorrow morning, but it’s only around 6 euros for the whole day. Suppose it all depends on where we decide to.

Well we’re back in the UK now and feeling tired. It was not too early a start, but we still went straight from the hotel to Shinjuku station, then on to Narita. As we both felt we’d spent less than we expected so we treated ourselves to upgrades to World Traveler Plus (30,000 yen each, about £150). For me it was worth it as you get extra room, and full leg supports. I got the feeling that while Dave was happy for the extra room, it wasn’t such good value for him, but then he paid the penalty for being some what taller than me.

Got a few more pictures I’m hoping to upload tonight, then that will be it. In the end I’ve got 333 on my hard drive, and probably deleted another 60-70 more. Some, like an action series from the baseball game, were never going to be put online.