Our French and Spanish Adventure - September 9th - 23rd

Paris, here we come!

After a reasonable night's sleep, we were up and out by 8.30am. It was a grey and drizzly morning but as we wore down the miles on the autoroute, the sun came up and the skies cleared. After a bit of debate, I had eventually agreed to drive to Wimereux via Paris. I wasn't totally happy about the decision, but with Trish, Keith, and Sophie helping, I thought it was the best, most direct route to the coast. I was just hoping that the traffic wouldn't be too bad!

We stopped for coffee and pastries at an aire and watched a policeman lovingly polish his high-performance car with meticulous care! We hadn't seen many police cars on the autoroute, thank goodness, but I dreaded being caught by one!

We arrived on the outskirts of Paris mid-morning, and my hopes of a quiet journey were dashed as the roads were very busy. I concentrated on Trish's instructions, and with Sophie looking out for cars zipping in and out, and Keith making sure I was in the right lane, we did well. 

However, at one point, Trish took me off the main périphérique route through the city and onto the N104. We encountered some dodgy people standing at traffic lights, trying to coerce motorists into letting them wash the windscreens of their cars, so we hung back until the lights turned green. The road from then on was a little rough and we were all highly aware of who was around all the time. It was a huge relief to find the A16 and get onto this autoroute that would take us all the way to the coast. The great thing was that we had seen the Eiffel Tower in the distance, which Sophie was very pleased about!

Lunch in Wimereux

The A16 was lovely and quiet and we saw several buzzards on the fences lining the road, much to Keith's delight. The weather was so clear as we approached the coast that we could see the white cliffs of Dover across the channel.

We managed to park easily on the street in Wimereux and walked down to the front to see if we could get a table at Les Oyats for lunch. Sophie was looking forward to having a Welsh in one of her favourite restaurants, but they were full. The weather was beautiful and had probably lured people out to the town, and eating with a sea view had proved to be very popular!

We decided to go back to Au Comptoir where we'd eaten in May. I chose the chicken Normandie, Sophie managed to get her Welsh Complet and Keith chose fish and chips, something he'd been yearning for! With Affligem beers, we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch and we all managed a dessert - I had an ice-cream sundae, Sophie had profiteroles and Keith an Irish coffee.

The restaurant had emptied out and we were among the last diners to leave. We popped into the Carrefour opposite the Airbnb we stayed in a few years ago and bought chocolates to take home.

It was with genuine sadness that we bid farewell to Wimereux and France and arrived at the Shuttle terminal. We were offered an earlier train and I bought a couple of bottles of Duty-Free whisky. Our train left at 6pm, so we arrived back in Folkestone at about 5.30pm UK time. 

Our journey home was fine, but with an hour to go, I started to feel tired... it had been a long day! We parked the car on the drive and removed all the luggage but unpacking would have to wait until tomorrow!