Metz - Le Mans

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Well, it's been a while, hasn't it! We have been quite busy over the last few days, After leaving Metz we headed into Belgium to visit Musee Herge (the Tintin Museum) and had a great time looking around and learning more about his creator and his other works. We then visited the Tintin shop before we left and I found I was treated like royalty by the staff. Funny that - probably something to do with my ability to increase their profit margins this month!. Anyway, I fulfilled another dream, which was great. We then stayed in Lille for the night before continuing for a relatively short drive to Calais, visiting Dunkerque on the way. We stayed in Calais at a hotel complex at the entrance to the "Chunnel" and visited a huge shopping complex so Carol could make up for my indiscretions at the Tintin Shop. I was blown away by the size of the Supermarket - the size of which and the range of products you could purchase absolutely blew me away! We has a nice meal (I had a camembert fondue) with a huge dessert at a local restaurant, before heading to Le Havre for the next evening. On the way we took the coast road for part of the way and visited Cap Gris Nez, a lighthouse and huge complex where the shipping lanes through the English Channel are controlled from, as well as rescue operations and monitoring of all French vessels worlwide. We even caught a glimpse of the white cliffs of Dover! We stayed in Le Havre last night, but that consisted of a meal at the Hotel as most of the evening was spent bubble wrapping my stash and repacking all the suitcases in preparation for our trip home the day after tomorrow. We had to buy an extra suitcase! Because of this, no photos are forthcoming of Le Havre, as we decided on an early arrival at Le Mans so we can have a look around and update you all. We have just booked into a quaint old Hotel here in Le Mans. Full of character!

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