Flamin’ SatNag!

Those of you who know me well will know I never like to complain … well not normally. Yesterday morning we had a lovely walk around Sète. We discovered that it is very pretty and charming in many ways but that the restaurants that we saw open were not open on an evening. We also discovered that if you are on one side of the canal it is quite difficult to get to the other! We did have a jolly good look around the town though and even went to the station where we have stopped on the way to Barcelona a few times (that’s when we get the train to Barcelona which is unlikely at the moment due to a) the requirement to wear a mask for almost seven hours and b) the prices have gone through the roof in the last year!) and where we have looked out and thought that we must visit. As you approach Sète by train, you literally look straight down the canal and see all the small boats moored up ready to be used at some leisurely point. It is, as Great Uncle Bulgaria would say, “Very picture squeak”!

I guess it is equally important to say that we have seen Sète on the telly a few times. The infamous Rick Stein has been to Sète on his travels. I still maintain he is a better travel writer and presenter than he is a cook! That said he went to Sète in August when the famous boat jousting takes place. Whilst I strongly suspect he didn’t stay in the Hotel Imperial almost two miles from the town centre, he probably didn’t actually walk around as much as we did and probably didn’t see as much either. In general I believe that Captain Clarke and I enjoyed Sète but I am not sure we would be rushing back again. For our walk around Sète we parking in the ‘Parking du Canal’. They weren’t lying, it was directly beneath the canal! It was good and central and an ideal place to park whilst we explored the town a bit more. On leaving the parking we put our destination in the SatNag as Clermont-Ferrand. There were two reasons for this, the first being that Clermont-Ferrand is almost equidistant from the north and the south of France so when you get there you feel you are making progress in whatever direction you are travelling, but secondly, and more importantly, it is on the A75 which meant that we would be driving over the Viaduc de Millau or Millau Viaduct.

We used to drive to Spain at least once a year and we saw the Millau Viaduct being built. It is an incredible structure, the tallest road bridge in the world at its time (sadly superseded by a couple of bridges in China now). Standing at 343 metres tall and spanning 2.5km of the valley, it was designed by Sir Norman Foster, the respected English architect. What we didn’t know was that he was supported by a French team of engineers rather than his own. Likewise, we only learned on our visit to the exhibition centre that it only took three years to build. It seemed like it was about ten years when we were watching it rise out of the ground! However, for the moment I digress. Why is this blog called ‘Flamin SatNag’? Well because it has let us down badly in the last 24 hours! As we left Sète we drove towards Montpellier on the A9. Since we had arrived on the A9 and we were effectively leaving via the same route that didn’t seem that wrong. However, as we approached Montpellier I pointed out to Captain Clarke that I would have thought we would have turned off the A9 and onto the A75 but the SatNag was telling us to go straight on. Since we needed a charge for the car, we assumed it was for this reason. After nearly 40 miles travelling in the wrong direction the SatNag tried to get us to turn around. We realised that we were travelling in the wrong direction and so turned around. Almost two hours and 80 miles lost to the fact that the SatNag failed to direct us correctly.

Direction corrected, we got our charge and headed in the general direction Clarmont Ferrand. The scenery is stunning and the French roads really are a pleasure to drive on. After what seemed an age, we finally arrived at the Viaduc de Millau. It really is the most amazing structure! The bridge follows a 20km radius in order that those driving across it, like us, get the feeling of distance and grandeur as they progress. I remember watching a TV programme about the construction and the fact that the bridge was built in two halves which were eventually pushed together one half from each side of the valley. They had a tolerance of just 3mm for the two halves to meet and when they did, they were just 1mm apart! As the two halves were finally ‘married’ a bottle of champagne was placed between them which finally exploded as they came together.

Before the bridge was built it used to take about 1½ hours to drive through the valley, now it takes about 3-4 minutes to cross it. Speaking to a Frenchman at the conference and telling him that I was going to drive across the Viaduc de Millau, he told me it is very impressive but that when you are driving across you really can’t appreciate the true beauty of the structure. He was, of course, right! The other thing that he told me was not quite so good – it has completely killed the tourism trade in the Millau valley. There used to be lots of B&Bs, Gîtes and small hotels as well as restaurants and cafés that people would stop at as they wound their way across the valley. Now, nobody goes there because they drive across the viaduct and, at best, stop at the visitor centre to see the exhibition (as we did). Progress is great, but there are almost always casualties along the way. Mind you, talking of casualties, the amazing health and safety record on its construction resulted in just one reportable injury. Sadly it was a death but it was caused by the person involved ignoring the safety procedures of working at such a height! We have loads of photos of the viaduct but hopefully from here you get a flavour!

Continuing our journey northwards we experienced the only wobble with our electric car throughout the entire journey. We were approaching an Aire with a 350kW charger as we drove on the A75 towards Clermont-Ferrand but, looking at the gauge, we really didn’t need a charge at that point. We decided to carry on and chose an Aire about 40 miles north. For some reason, when we got to the Aire we both missed it! We still can’t understand how that happened but it did. No problem, we thought, we’ll follow the SatNag to the next charging point which turned out to be in a shopping centre near to Clermont-Ferrand. When we got there we discovered that it didn’t exist! It literally wasn’t there and nobody knew anything about it. It was showing on the SatNag map but it just wasn’t there. We were getting a bit low on power so we started to become a little more stressed. Using various apps for confirmation, I eventually found an Aire with a charging station about 20 miles further on. Deciding to go to this Aire would mean we only had a margin of about 20 miles if there was any problem. We arrived and discovered that it was, indeed, working but that it was only rated at 50kW. 50kW chargers are OK but they time quite a time to charge. When we eventually plugged into this one (we had to wait for the first time ever on this trip) we discovered that it was only delivering power at 16.4kW which is very slow!

We have found that charging stations vary in quality. The one we were using was a ‘Total’ charging station, a brand that has been consistently poor throughout the journey. The best network, by far, is Ionity which we have used by choice as much as we can. They are almost always 350kW chargers, they are almost always all working (there are never less than 6 chargers at any location) and they are very fast! We got enough power into the car to get us the 78km to the nearest Ionity charging station and left. Driving to the Aire de Vérités, I was a little worried that I hadn’t left us much margin again but I needn’t have worried, the Ionity chargers were all there and working. There really hasn’t been any stress regarding charging of the whole trip! The Aire also had a decent restaurant – something we have really struggled with during this trip – and there was a pretty decent hotel called the ‘Ace Hotel’ which was adjacent to the ‘Ibis Budget’. We got our charge, had a really good meal and then checked into the ‘Ace Hotel’ which gets very good reviews. Conversely the Ibis Budget gets terrible reviews! The room was clean, spacious and comfortable … in fact, at €61 for the night, it beat the hotel in Monaco where we were paying €350 per night!

So, today we find ourselves about to depart to drive north once more. We have about a six hour drive (well, five hours plus charging) to Saint Valery-sur-Somme where we already have our hotel booked for the night. After the mussels in Sète we were so disappointed that I got onto Booking.com whilst we were in the restaurant and I booked the hotel there and then. We will stay in Saint Valery-sur-Somme tonight and, without question, will be having mussels and chip for dinner! Depending on time, we may visit our old neighbours in Tortefontaine this afternoon. We want to pop in and see them (and Charlie the dog) but we are not sure whether we will have time today or tomorrow. We also want to do a bit of shopping before we finally depart for home. Not least of which is some Douriez bread! Only those who visited our house in Tortefontaine will know what that is, but those that do will know why we want to get some! Captain Clarke also wants to pop into Aldi to get some laundry liquid … that’s the glamour of this life!!! So, now it is time to depart once more. We just need to Wordle and go! The weather here is sunny and quite warm still but we don’t anticipate that we will have much more now. As we head north, the weather will deteriorate and get cooler … it’s RudyMenTerry!