We are grabbing a two week holiday in France before the arrival of a first grand daughter curtails our travels for a while. She’s not expected till October 5th but France is close enough to get back from if we needed to.
We were up and out of the house at 0630 and en route to Dover for the 0815 P&O ferry. Getting through the formalities wasn’t too bad and we were parked on the dock by 0710.
The ferry was quite busy with a lot of families and small children. I guess they are grabbing a last chance to visit Disney before school starts again. P&O have an entertainer on board who puts on a show for them.
Weather is fine, clear and flat calm. It’s due to be hot and sunny in our areas till Wednesday and then rain is forecast for days and days. Maybe that’ll change…. Our first heading is south to Tieste-Uragnoux in the Gers region to stay with our old friends, Mike and Sheila. We haven’t visited for 8 years so there will be a lot of catching up to do. It’s too far to drive in one day so tonight we are staying near Tours which is about half way.
Had a pretty good drive down. We’d asked CHATGPT to devise us a route that was fast but avoided most tolls. It was a good route, nice scenery, A roads for the most part and little traffic. We stopped a few times for breaks and to have a picnic and we got to Tours at just after 6pm. So I guess it took us about 6 hours from Calais.
We are staying in a budget chain hotel called Kyriad Tours Chambres Sud.https://www.kyriad.com/fr-fr/nos-hotels/france/centre-val-de-loire/hotels-tours/?sr=SEA-KY-FR-BING-BRAND&msclkid=b8cdbbe2c4af15c41ed2d349a6783464&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ASUC%20-%20KY%20FR%20T1%20-%20Bing%20-%20%20-%20Marque%20%2B%20Geo%20-%20FR%20-%20Channable&utm_term=kyriad%20tours%20sud%20chambray%20l%C3%A8s%20tours&utm_content=KY%20FR%20T1%20-%20Marque%20%2B%20Chambray-l%C3%A8s-Tours%20-%20FR It’s like a Premier Inn. Smallish room but very nice comfy large bed and good super modern bathroom. We popped across the road to an Italian chain restaurant called Bellacita for dinner. Bob had spaghetti with tomatoes and burrata. I had tiny pasta parcels stuffed with ham and cheese covered in a rich gorgonzola sauce. It was just yum and we washed it down with a beer and red wine.
Pretty tired after all that driving so we are glad to turn in. Another 4.45 to go tomorrow to get to Mike and Sheila’s! So looking forward to arriving.