And so, we return …

Yesterday we arose relatively early, did a quick Wordle and left our hotel. We did not choose to have breakfast there as we did not feel encouraged to do so. We were given a slip of paper on arrival and told that we must choose our breakfast that evening and hand the slip to reception. We had to select a time for our breakfast from half hour slots between 08:00 and 10:00 and what we would choose to eat. Breakfast was €20 each. When we looked at the choices there was nothing there at all that I could eat, no continental breakfast, no croissants, and the only thing that Captain Clarke could eat was bacon and scrambled egg. We took the decision that we would not take breakfast at the hotel and, instead, take it at an Aire. We wanted to go to an Aire and charge up for the last time so that we had sufficient power for our drive home. We decided on the Aire de Baie de Somme on the basis that it had a 350kW Ionity charger. Driving towards the A16 we discovered a side road that was sign posted to the Aire. We followed it but discovered that, whilst it did get you to the Aire, it did not get you to the facilities of the Aire! You could park up and go and have a cup of coffee, but the chargers, fuel station and other facilities were not within reach. Discovering this, we left and continued to the A16 where we joined and drove to the Aire. Whilst we charged the car, we went in and had a cup of coffee and a croissant for €6 for the two!

Leaving the Aire we went on a very important mission to procure bread from our favourite bakery of all time in Douriez. Arriving just before it shut (like all French businesses, it shuts for a long lunchtime break!) we bought the last three loaves of bread. (Two were for us one one for our neighbours who would never have spoken to us again if we hadn’t got them one!) Then it was off to Aldi in Hesdin for Captain Clarke to pick up some laundry liquid (Tandil) and me some Trois Cypres Rosé wine. I’m not one to complain but it has gone up in price and is now nearly £3 a bottle!! From Hesdin we drove off to Boulogne and to Auchan. (We know how to live!!!) The mission in Auchan was to procure pulses that are in jars rather than tins. Pulses (such as chick peas, haricot beans, etc.) are much, much better when they are jarred and haven’t been through the canning process that involved intense heat. Having procured the said pulses, we loaded them into the car and proceeded to try and procure lunch. Obviously, of the four food outlets in the complex, two were no longer serving lunch (it was just after 2pm), one served only bread products which are no good for Captain Clarke’s diabetes as they are pure carbs and no good for my digestive system as I simply can’t eat bread, so we ended up in Flunch!

Now, Flunch used to be quite a good food outlet. There used to be a range of dishes on display which you could choose from. You would select your meal, pay for it and then go and collect it. Not anymore! Now there are a small range of starter type dishes (a salad, a small selection of meats or cheeses) and the rest is a closed shop. There is no menu, no indication of what you might get to eat and, when Captain Clarke asked at the till how one might know what was available, the lady just informed him that she had everything on her screen at the till. It was all very disappointing! Captain Clarke had a Caesar salad (he had quite a lot of these during the week with the very disappointing foods available at the Aires … and he doesn’t even like it that much!) and I had a small plate of cured meats. It was, frankly, as disappointing as the food in the Aires that we had experienced over the week. The conclusion we have drawn from the travel over the week is that the French have given up on the delicious home cooked local foods that used to be served in all of the Aires and, instead, have fully embraced the fast food rebellion and now live off McDonalds and Subway! All very disappointing!

The one good thing at Auchan was the electric car charging station. Although we had enough charge to get home it seemed almost rude not to use the free charging station. It guaranteed a parking space near to the entrance and we left the car charging whilst we shopped and had lunch (if you can call it that!). Having had our lunch we got back into the car and made our final journey to the tunnel. I commented to Captain Clarke that it seemed strange to be doing this as something a bit unusual as for 12 years we did it every other week! We made our way to the Tunnel sous la Manche and checked in. Apart from the inevitable queues for Border Control (Brexit, what Brexit?) we passed through without incident. As we were travelling ‘Flexi’ class we were able to take the next available train (we had booked Flexi as we had not idea when we were planning the trip what time of day we would be returning) and so we were also first onto the train. The biggest problem we had when we got back to the UK was keeping to the speed limit! Throughout our journey we had switched the car to kilometres, so we were regularly driving at between 90kmh and 130kmh. I switched the car back to miles when we left the tunnel and then had to check myself when I realised I was driving down the M20 at 90mph! It didn’t last long though because we soon hit the 13 mile contraflow that is almost permanent now to deal with the lorries queueing to complete the paperwork introduced following Brexit. And so, we return. Our journey is over, we have proven beyond any doubt that a fully electric car is absolutely no problem on a long journey, we have had some great food and some terrible food, we have had some good hotels and some not so good, but overall we had a great time! We had house sitters for the first time on this trip. We returned to a wonderfully clean house and a very tired dog. We will definitely be doing that again! Now, we are back to life as normal … until the next time (June and Barcelona!) but for now, it is time for me to return to my slumber … it is, after everything, RudyMenTerry!