France, April 30th - May 3rd 2010 (May Bank Holiday)

A quick look at the weather forecast - "You know we were talking about going to Wales for the Bank Holiday? Well, it's going to pour down, let's go to France instead. The weather will be the same but the coffee's better!"

Friday 30th May, Bentlawnt - Dover, (404m)

We were both working on Friday but K arranged to come to T's ofice in Shrewsbury for 4ish so that we had a good chance of catching our ferry at 21.30. T had had to buy three new tyres for The Rosabella but was raring to go, despite a last minute work crisis that needed sorting out. The trip to Dover could have been smoother....... After the panic to get away on time, the rushing to get supplies from K's car into The Rosabella, the work crisis, the traffic around Birmingham, the worry about whether we'd get to Dover on time, the whole enterprise ground to a halt when we realised at Coreley services that the passports were still in K's car - in Shrewsbury! Back we went, a phone call to P&O to change the booking (for an extra £15 - good service we thought) and by 2am we were bedded down in a cosy little layby, just off the A2, for some much needed sleep before our rescheduled crossing at 5.55am.

Saturday 1st May, Calais-Arras (80m)

It was an early start and a great brekkie on the boat before we arrived in a very sunny Calais. We headed for St Omer, which feels like the first really French town after Calais and parked next to the river for a rest (T fettled!) before we headed in to town. The shops were closed for the Labour Day holiday but there was a busy and extensive street market which we duly mooched. Lots of people were carrying posies of flowers, bought on street corners or from children outside their houses. K spotted a cool, retro-style maxi dress which she tried on in the back of the stallholder's rusty van while T stood guard. It fitted perfectly and K reckoned it was a bargain and would be rude not to buy it at €20! Back to the bar in the main square for Leffe. The sun was warm, the beer was smooth and all that was needed to complete perfection was une assiette de frites.There were more stalls that needed viewing before we headed off back to the waterfront and The Rosabella.


We decide to stick to small roads and set off through sunny, flat countryside for the French National War Memorial at Notre Dame de Lorette, and maybe a pitch for the night. It all looked so,.... well, ....... French.

Standing on a ridge, high above the fields, just off the D937 is a huge, white monument in the shape of a lighthouse, marking the area that we know as Flanders, where much of the war of attrition happened between 1915 and 1917. The battle for the hill itself lasted a year, between October 1914 and October 1915. The French gathered together most of their dead from the area and now there are 20,000 identified graves and the remains of a further 25,000 unknown soldiers in mass graves, vast lines of crosses and headstones marking the burial places of mostly French soldiers, but also Moroccans, Russians, Belgians. Most are crosses but some are plain stones in respect to non-Christians, there is an area where headstones bear Arabic script for the Moslem soldiers who lost their lives, and also an area for Jewish soldiers, as was explained later to T by an homme en beret, one of the band of men who have pledged to attend the cemetry at least one day every year and who are there to help and advise visitors.

Whilst we were looking around we were hailed by a couple of gendarmes who told us that they were closing the site for the evening. T asked if we could stay over and there was an animated discussion between the two of them which resulted in an 'OK' as we only had a little 'camping car'.

As we settled down for the evening we noticed a cuckoo sitting alone on a cross, jumping to the ground from time-to-time and then returning to the cross - a great view of this shy bird.

We were so tired we slept for nearly twelve hours and awoke feeling hungover, or jet lagged or something anyway.

Sunday 2nd May, Arras-Amiens (68m)

Back on the road to Arras and what a surprise when we arrived! A huge square with Flemish architecture, rooves edged with curled gables and a walk to what we thought must be the cathedral, only to find out it was the grandest town hall we had ever seen. Behind this huge, gilded Gothic edifice was a glum-looking, grey stone building - the cathedral. Again, what a surprise! We entered this huge, light space. Warm and bright with atmospheric music piped tastefully, K thought it was the most beautiful cathedral she'd ever been in. A stroll back through narrow streets to The Rosabella and on the road again for Amiens.

All day we'd been passing war cemetries, large and small, British, Canadian, Australian, Polish, Czech, Newfoundland, and German. They were all different, but all the same - young men (and some women) who had died at war. We talked about how it must have been for teenagers, travelling from the New World to an adventure, with no idea what they were letting themselves in for, dying aged 16, 17 or 18 for countries they would only have heard about. What a leveller, and they all thought they were doing the right thing. It really brought it home when we visited the German cemetry - the baddies - the same young men, not knowing who or what they were there for but all with 'good' on their side.

"When two men meet on the field of war,

They both ask 'what are we fighting for?'

And haven't we heard it all before..........?"

At Amiens we stopped by the side of the Somme, our first town centre aire. We did a quick recce, which involved, of course, a glass of Leffe in a cocktail  bar on the water's edge, before changing (K in her new dress!) and dining in Le Porc Saint Leu for an excellent meal of pork tenderloin. The waiter told T that his (T's) French was excellent and he was relieved because he'd been serving English people all day and it was 'doing his head in' (T's rough translation!)

Monday May 3rd, Amiens-Bentlawnt (408m)

Another peaceful night and we set off to search for 'facilities' on a cold and blustery morning. We found a lovely, warm coffee shop where we were given croissants and pain au chocolat fresh from the oven. Then into France's largest cathedral where the wood carvings around the facade are said to tell every story from the bible. It was very grand, very 'balanced' and there was even the head of John the Baptist on show, in case we needed a motivation for pilgrimage. T set off around the maze on the floor of the cathedral, which, it is said, can be completed in lieu of a trip to Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela, but was thwarted by a group of elderly lady tourists - thats another year without salvation then!

Back to the van, a stop for brunch outside Amiens and pushing on for the coast and our 20.25 ferry home. The route we'd originally chosen was to take us to Le Touquet and then to Calais via the coast road. Another quick squint at the guidebook and we decided to give Le Touquet a miss and head straight to Wimereaux, a nice place with eclectic, quirky architecture, very breezy, waves crashing against the breakers and a nice salon de thé on the promenade where we OD'd on chocolate with crepes and chocolat Liegoise.

On to Calais, the coast road more attractive than we'd expected. We were very frustrated trying to find somewhere to fill up with diesel (much cheaper in France than the UK) and wine. We eventually found Carrefour at Cité d'Europe but couldn't get The Rosabella in to the height-restricted car park. We eventually dumped hera nd raced in to the centre to buy wine, K really flagging now. We decided to eat, omelettes from the coffe shop opposite the hypermarket, served by a charming, helpful woman, and then raced to the port,worrying we would miss another ferry. The boat left late on a rough crossing and we had a marathon drive home, taking it in turns to sleep, arriving back in Bentlawnt at 3.45am. We were worn out but it was an excellent weekend - great idea T!!


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