A visit to see Charlie

And so it was that we left our Ace Hotel (it transpires that Ace Hotels are a Czech group of hotels with quite a number in France) and made our way north again. One point that we should make at this point was that there was some serendipity in the lack of charging stations on the previous evening. Had we not missed that Aire with the 350kW charger, had the charger at the shopping centre been there, had the 50kW charger been delivering more than 16kW, we wouldn’t have found ourselves at the Aire de Vérités. We wouldn’t have had that lovely meal in the restaurant and we wouldn’t have stayed at the Ace Hotel which really was quite ‘Ace’ both for the price and the facilities! As we had a full charge we didn’t need to stop for a while but the front of the car was so covered in dead flies that we decided to stop at the first Aire to try and. clean some of them off. It isn’t so much the front bumper and the bonnet, but the windscreen. It was in such a state that visibility was being impacted! Although we had had a reasonable breakfast at the Ace Hotel, I also fancied a coffee (I haven’t drunk coffee for over 2 years but have re-found my taste on this trip!). The Aire only had coffee out of a machine and I don’t drink coffee out of paper cups so, alas, no coffee!

The drive northwards was pretty uneventful as we drove towards Paris. The roads were relatively clear, we stopped for a quick charge before we reached Paris and all was well with the world. Now, I should say at this point that I have a love hate relationship with Paris. When I haven’t been for a while (as is the case at the moment) I love Paris, but when I have been a bit too regularly (for work I used to regularly visit Paris and probably will again soon) I have a loathing for the city! Paris has lots going for it but it also has quite a bit against it. It can be dirty, dog poo is a real problem (there are only two dog wardens employed for the whole of the city which has more dogs than children … that’s a fact, Google it!) and there are an awful lot of dropouts in Paris. That said, it is beautiful, the architecture is stunning and the atmosphere is great. If you can ignore the arrogance of the Parisians it can be a wonderful place. There is one thing though, that no-one, not even a Parisian, can like … the Boulevard Périphérique! On a good day it is terrible, on a bad day it is horrific. If you absolutely have to drive around the Boulevard Périphérique, you should always try and use the western side. The eastern side of the Périphérique is horrendous at all times.

Entirely my own fault, I checked the SatNag about five times to ensure that we were going to drive around the western side of the Périphérique. When the SatNag said it was re-routing “due to current traffic conditions” I looked and said that I didn’t know what it was talking about as we would still be joining the Périphérique at the same junction. I didn’t check the route! It transpired that it had re-routed us to go around the eastern side of the Périphérique. That side is horrendous at all times and on a Friday afternoon it is just horrible! This was Friday afternoon! It was horrible. It can only be compared with driving towards Paris many years ago in a brand new BMW and saying to my friend and navigator, “I don’t mind driving anywhere but I do not want to drive in the centre of Paris” only to find myself an hour later driving around the Arc de Triomphe! You know who you are!!! The Périphérique is a horrible road but is the only way around Paris and, having been re-routed to the eastern side, we spent a wonderful couple of hours trying to a) negotiate the traffic and b) trying to avoid getting smashed by a motorbike (they tend to drive at top speed in between the stationary traffic with their hazard lights on) or by a Parisian who tend to consider having a dent in the side of their car or van as a right of passage or a trophy!

We made it to the ‘other side’ and eventually found ourselves driving on familiar ground on the A16. We know the A16 well as it is the road that would lead to our house in Tortefontaine when we had it. We decided that, as we were a little ahead of schedule, in terms of where we hoped to be (despite the best efforts of the Boulevard Périphérique!), that we would try and visit our neighbours in Tortefontaine, Norman and Irene and, of course, their dog Charlie! Charlie and I have known each other since he was a puppy and we have a ‘special relationship’. When we arrived Norman came out of the house and Charlie was at the door. He went bonkers! When Norman let him out he came running to us and couldn’t hide his excitement! Charlie is a ‘bouncy’ dog who just loves to run around you and bounce up and down! He and Monty are friends although they haven’t seen each other in a while. He couldn’t decide whether to cuddle up to me or jump all over me. In the end he decided on both!!!

Charlie is quite a character but he is also very, very obedient (make note Monty!) and will do exactly as he is told. Given free reign he has a wonderfully bouncy time but if he is told to do something he will do it immediately. It was with a heavy heart that we left Charlie and started to make our way towards Saint Valery-sur-Somme. It isn’t that we weren’t looking forwards to going there but Charlie is such a special dog. We drove past our hold house. It is clear that no-one is living there at the moment. I asked Captain Clarke what he felt about it and we both agreed that the 12 years that we had that house were fabulous and that we had some fantastic memories but we were both of the view that we sold the house at the right time and we have no regrets. We noticed that the willow tree is getting very overgrown and needs pruning (that’s about €800 a year!) and some of the outside is looking a bit sad. A 17th century farmhouse takes a lot of looking after and costs a significant amount to maintain. Yes, we had a great time but we don’t regret selling it at the time that we did!

And so we made our way towards Saint Valery-sur-Somme. Saint Valery was somewhere we visited so regularly we were almost regarded as locals when we had the house! We used to visit one particular restaurant almost every weekend we were there (which was every other weekend!) to have our fix of mussels and chips (Moules a la Marinière). We headed to our hotel which we had booked back in Sète when we had had the really rather unpleasant Moules a la Marinière and checked in. They seemed a little surprised that were weren’t booking into the restaurant … but we had plans! We got ourselves sorted in the room and then walked down to the town. We went straight to the restaurant that we always used to use. Sadly, it has changed hands and the atmosphere is not quite the same. That said, the food was superb and our faith was quickly restored in mussels! One small, but important, point about Moules a la Marinière … contrary to many English chef’s claims and recipes, Moules a la Marinière do not have cream in them! So many English chefs believe that they do which makes it impossible order them in an English restaurant.

Just for the record, mussels with a cream sauce are called Moules a la Crème!! It isn’t exactly rocket science!!! For those of us with a cream allergy this is quite an important distinction! So, Le Bistrot de Saint Val’ is no longer, but the restaurant still serves excellent Moules a la Marinière. On a scale of Sète to 10 where Sète is 1 and off the planet is 10, the Moules a la Marinière last night would score a good 9! We washed them down with a bottle of Rosé Provençal followed by a Noisette de Café and a cognac. Altogether a jolly good meal! So, today we will begin our journey home. Not too quickly I hasten to add. We have some shopping to do … Douriez bread (an absolute essential!), followed by a trip to Aldi so that Captain Clarke can get some laundry liquid (he really does rate this French version called Tandil) and I shall probably pick up a couple of bottles of ‘Trois Cypres’ rosé wine. We are then having a second excursion to Auchan to pick up a few items that you simply can’t buy at home. We will then get a Eurotunnel train back to the UK and make our way home. This has been a good trip but we are looking forwards to seeing our beloved Monty when we get home. There will be just one last missive after this one as we will need to remember our journey home! It is, after all, RudyMenTerry!