Day 9: Chartres to near Chantilly

 A leisurely pack up and thank you to our hosts

A man arrived on a fancy electric unicycle - Kevin was eyeing this up ! 


Headed off the scenic route and found yet another diversion.

Buddy needing a fuel stop so we all called in en route

The poppies are just starting to come out along the route


We then hit Chartres - roadworks everywhere, every signed car park was underground then we suddenly spotted on under the trees where, miraculously we ll for parked

We had lost Martin somewhere in the traffic but he used the location tracker for Robin and did a great job to find us - and a space!  Will be great when he gets his hand held CB radio when we meet up with Patrick as we do have some interesting and useful chit-chat along the way

Robin had some strange noises coming from his vehicle and realised it was a flat tyre - a very rapid wheel change took place as we were ready to go and explore the town. 




Our plan was to go for a Plat du Jour at lunchtime - we failed as just needed to sit down after climbing the huge hill so ended up at an Italian. Robin is cooking pasta tonight using anything we have left over so we mostly went for Pizza and salads - and some very strong beer!


Duncan nearly lost his pizza as Steve took it to the supermarket to verify whose it was rather than back to the restaurant!







Martin tried to put Wendy off her pizza marinara by talking about Octopus tentacles… 

We did get a free pizza though as it turned out Duncan’s had accidentally been made with Mozarella which he did not request - this is th one that Kevin is ceremoniously delivering in the photo 

 

We went around the Cathedral and it was unfortunately having works outside to stop terrorists… what a sign of the times. All the lovely old stone pavements being ripped up and replaced with new stuff. 

 





Lucy also discovered she was in camouflage with Sunder…


Kevin found a sign which matched him…. 


It was getting late so we set off for the planned France Passion site.  A few hiccups on the way with navigation but we eventually arrived after 8pm - weary travellers so dinner was an ‘all on the table’ with what ever we all had in the cupboards coming out for sharing.  Cheese, biscuits, bread, ham, pickles, cucumber, wine, Cidre and watermelon - Wendy’s treat whenever she can

 

The camp disbanded around 11pm. The weather is warmer but still predicting lots of rain unfortunately

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 18: Last day abroad…

Image
  Amazingly most people rose relatively early and we were packed and parked up in the car park by 10:30. Patrick re-arranged his camp nearer to the hedge to get some shade as he is staying another night and all the rest of the vehicles were left for the day in the campsite car park from where we walked and then took the tram into the town of Rotterdam The apple wars continued - this has been ever since we were in the last campsite where Wendy was parked almost in an apple tree and gained baby apples every time she moved - these have been ‘stashed’ unseen between Patrick and Wendy’s vehicles (and maybe some in Robin’s) on a daily basis - Patrick may well still have a few to find - hopefully this is discovered by sight not smell… This was the lovely Bon Voyage parting gift for Wendy..     We had some nice smoothies to set us up for a walk through the park and to the amazing mirror building which was full of modern art (apparently)   The rabbits made us laugh..we...
Read more

Day 17: to Rotterdam

Image
  We set off as planned - the guy at the campsite videoed us leaving as he said he loved our vehicles which was nice We used the motorways to gain some distance but then Wendy said she was low on fuel so we turned off - straight into a traffic jam… We eventually reached the fuel station to find that it was very expensive, only 4/14 pumps were working and then discovered that Sunder had sprung a water leak… So we bought lunch paninis from the garage shop and had an early lunch while we waited for Sunder to cool down so that the hose could be re- It turns out the exhaust has also disconnected itself before the silencer as well but there was no way of fixing it so Steve and Dianne had a slightly more noisy rest of their journey It was hard work on the motorways: firstly knowing which lane to be in and also negotiating the traffic lights and later the cyclists when we finally got into Rotterdam We had not managed any other stops other than at the Services for a drink but at least ...
Read more

Day 19: and we’re back home..,

Image
  The exit from the ferry went relatively smoothly - Wendy was allowed to join the cars which meant she joined just behind Jenks at passport control. Martyn’s fridge had sapped all his power from his leisure battery so his step wouldn’t work.. Robin got asked what engine and what diffs he had by a Landrover fanatic at customs! No one got searched so the stashed booze didn’t  need to be unpacked and checked   We met as planned at McDonalds for our final breakfast before all departing back home.   We have tried to work out how many miles we have actually travelled - but the speedos clearly need recalibrating as we currently have somewhere between 1000 and 1600 miles which is quite a variance!!   Thank you for reading this blog - we have had fun, frustration, food, frequent drinks and breakdowns but the team has done well and all returned back safely and with some great memories and photos!! (And maybe a few extra inches around our midriffs!)   We w...
Read more