We made it!!!!

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If the Daily Mail is to be believed ( and really, why wouldn't you believe such an impartial, well researched daily journal........) France is a mediaeval throwback full of immigrants and angry farmers and Dover is currently like Guantanamo bay. It isn't. We may have been lucky but the journey to Dover yesterday evening to the camp site there was uneventful to say the least (apart from the horror of Ash not getting his promised chilli sauce in the pub which is still affecting him deeply today, the weeping has only just stopped....). Once at the campsite the usual teething troubles we face every year, this time with the telly and a couple of fuses, happened but somehow my limited electrical skills and the fall back of a fire extinguisher meant that all was OK and we could watch a bit of pre sleep telly. A six thirty alarm this morning was not exactly welcoming but a necessary evil to bget to the half eight boat. Unusually for me we left at the exact right minute, five minutes earlier and we'd have been caught in a revival of operation stack, five minutes later and we'd have missed check in. Simon the sat nav was ddetermined our route should involve the M20 but the lorry driver running at the van suggested otherwise so we managed to turn around from the lorry park that is the M20 junction and find a different route through the back of beyond but with no traffic. Dover was uneventful and we checked in a whole three minutes early setting sail with a free breakfast thanks to p and o. Once in Dover I was prepared for burning tyres to be thrown at us but no.....nothing....not complaining like but it all seemed a bit too easy!! We headed to le Mans in the ever worsening rain but at least this time we had actual windscreen wipers and not me throwing a bit of damp serviette at it every now and then in between crying and praying like last year. Win. After a long journey thanks to Simons confused route ( set to scenic not quick) we landed at a hotel in the middle of le Mans university. Not plush but there is a pub and a MacDonald's in walking distance, its not Dover and there are no burning tyres so who cares. Next stop la Rochelle

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