…and so to France. First stop Baie de Somme.

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Surprised last night, that following a rather glorious, if brief, sunset, it then rained all night. Heavy Pitter patter on the roof of a motorhome is really rather loud !
No problem, we had to be up at 6.30 (trusty alarm clock, used only a couple of times a year comes in handy again) and away by 7am to catch our early ferry. This was the P&O 8.10 – the latest we could catch and still get super low fare (£76.58 return Dover / Calais for a motorhome + 2 adults is cheap !). The ferry port was heaving when we got there and for the first time ever we had to queue. We had not allowed a lot of extra time and were getting a bit concerned after queuing for more than half an hour but did at last get to the ferry with 15 minutes to spare. Discovered we were on the new super big one again, Pride of Britain, which explains why there was so much traffic as it was full to the brim. This is a bank holiday weekend in the UK and there is also talk of a channel tunnel strike.
In Calais we were straight off the ferry and out onto the road, not having shown our passports to anyone at either end. Weather grey and drizzly but we valiantly cried, “it’s ok, we need the rain” as we drove through Normandy to ever increasing rainfall. We stopped for a stretch at Audresselles, a little fishing town and astonishingly the rain stopped and the sky went blue for a while. Amazed that after all the mist we had just driven through we could see the white cliffs of Dover quite clearly. We had jambon, frites baguette for lunch as Bob spotted that the frites kiosk had just opened. Had a long wait for the frites as the fat had to heat up but well worth it for our first taste of real French frites for 2 months.
Rain started again as soon as we set off and came down like “cats and dogs” for quite a way as we drove down the coast road past Boulogne and Le Touquet. Contemplated heading further south fast as the rain continued but decided to stick to plan A and arrived at our campsite in St Firmin, in the Baie de Somme mid afternoon.
Once the rain had stopped everything became much more pleasant and despite the temperature of only ‎17°, I went to the pool for a swim (I knew it was well heated as we stayed here once before in early May, 2008). Really need the exercise as have done no swimming since last trip and have discovered lots of achy bones of late.
Unless the rain returns, and it is forecast to be a bit better, we plan to scooter some of the way round the bay tomorrow (followed maybe by another swim).

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Photos

Tandy
Nice to see the Tandy refleccted in a window as we drove past in the docks at Calais

Audresselles
We could see the white cliffs of Dover across the water but sorry, can't pick them out on a photo this size !

Comments

[Sister Rose]

Thx Joy
You lucky things being there en France! Lovely day at last. Melissa sent info email about the children's school. They started on Tuesday and have been waiting expectantly to hear but she just got online Friday, when they got landline sorted out. . Am rather impressed & think will send you the school info. It is a file (? ) so I don't think it crams up yr inbox. Tell me...Love R xxx