The journey from Canterbury to the Chunnel was uneventful until we were just about to take the slip road onto the access road into the terminal where we found the road closed and a diversion in place as part of Operation Stack. As a consequence we missed our 9:20am departure time and were put onto the 9:50am train instead (whilst we had heard on the news in Dubai of the problems at Calais and also Operation Stack, I had not appreciated quite what an impact it was having on travel and transport around the M20. All the time we were in Maidstone we were hearing stories about the problems it was causing and the delays to travel in an around towns close to the M20. We were very fortunate to avoid any major problems). We arrived in Calais at around 11:40 having played Boogle with home made letters through the whole journey (I was the winner.....)and spent a fruitless 20 minutes trying to find our way into what looked like an open supermarket in Cite de L'Europe - we had made our usual misjudgement in arriving in a European country (other than UK) on a Sunday so the main supermarkets were closed. However, we could see loads of cars and people happily shopping next door in a compound surrounded by barbed wire and had therefore searched for the entrance. It eventually transpired that it was the Eurotunnel reception and shopping area on the French side......! We therefore decided to head off for our first night on French soil at Bayeux , stopping off on the way for lunch at one of the motorway aire's (for some ham and chips which became a bit of a staple for all of us).
The campsite was in a lovely location just outside of Bayeux in the grounds of a chateau. It had a swimming pool (allegedly heated) and a fishing pond as well as a shop (where we sourced some bread and butter) and a restaurant where we booked our evening meal. The swimming pool was an odd shaped affair with a deep end in the middle (a trap for the unwary as one literally stepped off the edge and disappeared under) and two shallow ends. The water was emphatically not heated - two tiny children, blue with cold and shivering by the side of the pool being testament to this fact. This did not stop V. jumping straight in as is her custom and I followed shortly thereafter. A. was more circumspect but in the end we were all in and did a couple of brisk lengths. I then had to warm up the kids in the hot showers which were in a block next to the pool entrance and so we arrived back at the motorhome very clean and , whilst not exactly warm, at least not freezing cold. By this stage it has started to rain so we headed off to the restaurant where the kids became acquainted with the pool table and the table football while E and I waited for the table in what was very busy restaurant.
Eventually we were seated and we had a great meal (steak for me with pomme fries - a nice change from pork!) and we eventually got back to the motorhome at around 9:30 for an early night. Next stop Bayeux to see the tapestry.
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