Following the abandoning the of The German Job, we decided to take the bug over to France for a few days in mid September. The plan was to visit my Great Grandfather’s WWI grave at Guillemont Rd Cemetery on the 95th anniversary of his death. In the few days before we were due to sail the wind was blowing a gale, and not being particularly keen on the prospect of being on a ferry in that sort of weather, I booked us on the Eurotunnel instead, hoping that the fact that the car is lowered at the front wouldn’t cause us too many issues…..
Having loaded up with spare bits and pieces and plenty of spare oil (and double checking the European breakdown cover!), I think we were as well prepared as we could be. The first leg of the journey was a straightforward 250 mile trundle down to Kent to Dee’s parents’ – being only 40 or so miles to the coast it would be the ideal place to stay before an early crossing the following morning.
Betty’s 40th birthday greeted us with glorious sunshine, and before you know it we were on the continent (Eurotunnel rocks!). After a slightly stressful hour or so trying to find somewhere to fill up with petrol and also for a “comfort break” (I was in quite a bit of discomfort!!), we eventually managed to locate our first stopping off point, La Coupole, a WWII V2 rocket facility. I’m not sure that Dee shares my enthusiam for bunkers……
From there it was on to Arras, and the next few days were spent immersing ourselves in WWI history, and some rather good food and drink. Apart from the veal kidneys, but that’s another story!!
Betty behaved impeccably the whole trip, so I’m hoping that Dee won’t require too much in the way of persuasion when I suggest taking the bug away again!
