Still here? I'll continue then.
Dad picked me up at 08:00 and we started the long journey down to Folkstone. The weather had been miserable for the past few days but today was quite sunny. It was early in the morning but the temperature was already fifteen degrees. It would be sods law if the weather in England was going to be nice for the next week and not nice in France.
We set off and the sat nav was saying our arrival time was going to be a lot sooner than we expected. Our calculations were a bit off, Folkstone wasn't as far away as we thought. No harm no foul, I don't like rushing, it stresses me out. Hence why I got up an hour and a half before we left.
The roads were fairly empty and we had a fairly leisurely and relaxed drive, as there was no danger of being late for the train.
Even though the motorways were quite empty, everybody chose to drive in the right hand lane. I thought we were in France already but then remembered, it's a British tradition to drive in the right hand lane on the motorway.
We arrived at Le Shuttle with over an hour to wait for our train. Fortunately my Uncle and his partner Kaz arrived a few minutes after us. What are the chances they would be going to France on the same day, getting the same train and would be staying in the same villa.
Our train came up on the screen 'now boarding' and we took that as a subtle hint and headed for our cars. Within a few minutes we were in a small line of cars, presented our passports to a gentleman in a booth, had our car searched and headed for the train...via a mahoooosive traffic jam. It looked like the abandoned freeway in season 2 or 3 of The Walking Dead'. Most of these cars did have people in though. Those that didn't were standing around in the warm sun.
Sod's law was a worrying possibility.
Sod's law was a worrying possibility.
An announcement came over the Tannoy, boarding was about to start. Car engines started switching on, people standing outside started walking briskly to their auto mobiles. The cars in front moved forward and it was our turn to keep the traffic moving. There was one small problem with that. We were in a DS. It's not the 1st time this car has acted like a toddler throwing a tantrum and refused to move, or just turned off mid drive leaving us stranded until the early hours of the morning.
"Do you want some jump leads?" A helpful woman calls over.
"No thank you, it's the computer refusing to start the car. It sometimes does this." Dad replies.
After a few minutes the car's stuck behind us breathe a sigh of relief as the temper tantrum subsides and we start moving.
We're ushered onto the bottom floor of the carriage, sit in our car for half an hour and hey presto we're in France.
The first thing I noticed was how big France was. I know that's quite an obvious comment. And how could I notice that just staring out of the window of a car? Well, it was 15:30 and the motorway was fairly empty. As the journey went on there were times when we couldn't see another car. Some things don't change though, everybody still drives on the right!
Sod's law had come to fruition, as the relatively nice weather we'd left behind hadn't followed us across the channel. It was dry at least, but there were clouds in the sky. I hadn't signed up for clouds.
As the night drew in and we got closer to Paris the traffic became more and more congested. The sat nav was giving us simple instructions like "turn right" but there would be no right turns, just several roads forking to the right taking you to different parts of Paris. Fortunately, Dad somehow took us in the right direction and managed to stay in convoy with the two hangers on we met at Le Shuttle. We had reached our stop for the night - Brit Hotel Privilege Paris Rosny-sous-Bois.
