Our first big road trip to France in Doris.
All in all, this little trip consisted of 4,280 miles in total from door to door.
I can safely say we had an amazing excursion into the relatively unknown, taking in four countries in the end… the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, then back through Spain and France to head home again.
Doris was a trooper throughout, she never let us down once, she just ate through the miles like they were nothing and kept us safe, secure, warm and happy. ⭐️
Well, this is another first for me, we decided to give the channel tunnel a go after speaking to someone in France, who said it’s a doddle, pretty much the same price as the ferry and a lot faster too… you’re on the other side in 30 minutes.
As per usual, it didn’t quite work out that way for us.
We booked the ‘Le Shuttle’ the night before our crossing, it was about £50 more expensive than the ferry, but that’s not too bad is it?, given all the plus points for taking it over the ferry.
Once we’d arrived and checked in, we parked up outside the terminal and went to check out the duty free offerings from the shop… it would have been rude not to right?
We grabbed a couple of bargains from the liquor department, nipped to the loo, made and ate a sandwich in Doris and grabbed a coffee to go… so far all good.
It was around this time we saw an update on the departure board… our particular group along with a couple of others, had been delayed by 20 minutes, this was later updated again to be another 20 minutes.
Once we’d finally squeezed onto the train in Doris, we could chill out and read for a while.
Before we knew it, we were on the other side and rolling off the train to our next destination… not bad at all.
All in all, I think I’d recommend taking the tunnel to anyone who asked me… yes it perhaps costs a little more, but you do have a better experience, ie you can take a look around the duty free shop, grab a bite to eat or a drink, stretch your legs, then use the facilities (if required), not to mention the time saved from the typical 1.5 hour ferry crossing.
Plus, being in a motorhome allows you to do anything else you might want to do in the meantime, like starting to pack things away, getting something to eat, or drink from your own fridge / cupboards… which you couldn’t do on a ferry, as you have to leave your vehicle for the crossing… so yes, I liked it and would definitely do it again.
Not a typical view of Calais, France perhaps, but a nice one none the less.
This was taken down the road from where we stayed for the night, a quick stop for ten minutes, to soak up the sea air before heading back to the UK.
Jánine being amazing and lovely as usual, said she would do some of the driving this trip, first to give me a bit of a break and second to make sure she keeps her hand in on the driving front so we both know she can drive Doris if required to do so.
Of all the miles we’ve done so far, I think it’s safe to say, she had more ‘events’ than I did by far.
It started off with the sat nav telling us there was a hazard in the road, so we were alert and looking for something, whatever it may be. I don’t think either of us were prepared for what we did actually find though.
It was a large truck wheel sat right in the middle of the road!… which Jánine had to navigate around, while at the same time putting the hazard lights on to try and tell the traffic behind us that there was a problem ahead, all while doing about 60 mph down the road.
For the following, please bear in mind that travelling at 65mph in Doris feels like you’re doing 90mph in a car, as our Doris, bless her, being 7.5 metres long and nearly 3 meters high, isn’t quite as nimble as a car.
We were travelling down one of the motorways in France when the sat nav advised roadworks were ahead, so Jánine slowed to the legal limit of 80kph or less and we carried on into the now single coned off lane.
…Then it got interesting.
We realised the single right hand lane we were in, was being diverted to the other side of the roads left hand lane… ie a contra flow, at which point, Jánine was asking rather enthusiastically ‘what do I do?’.
I said to just follow the car in front and slow down to go through the central reservation area.
As we were coming up to the crossover point, I mentioned that I think we should slow down a little more and perhaps do it a little quicker than we already were.
Initially, I thought she hadn’t heard me with all the noise from the air conditioning fan, the road, traffic and all the other things rattling around inside Doris, so I repeated in a louder voice that we needed to slow down some more… quickly!
I’m not sure if she was suddenly possessed by Lewis Hamilton or something else, but it seemed that she actually hit the accelerator instead of the brake!
I think it’s safe to say, that this little episode made some parts of my anatomy tighten up so much, I don’t think I’ll be going number two for about a week.
After I could breathe and speak again, I asked what the heck was that all about?
Her response… she did try to brake, however, she accidentally hit the accelerator instead! 😲 at which point the drive turned into more of a fast paced black level slalom run of a quick left turn, right turn than a drive down a motorway.
Another episode we encountered, was while on another motorway, going about 65 mph and coming up on a small lorry.
Deciding to overtake, Jánine did the usual mirror, signal, manoeuvre actions as you’re supposed to.
She pulled out into the left hand lane (driving on the right over here of course), we were perhaps 20 feet from his rear bumper, when he started to drift over into our lane quite sharply!
Jánine had to slam the anchors on to avoid hitting him, making both our heart rates jump ten fold in the space of about a second, at which point he’s realised what’s happening then quickly pulls back into his own lane again.
His only indication to us that anything actually happened, was the nonchalant (trying out the local lingo there 😉) raise of his hand that was hanging loosely out his window… wow!
The final point (so far), was how Jánine took the last leg of a trip to our next campsite, which would be the first one in Spain.
It involved going from motorways, down to carriageways as we got nearer to the site, all of which abruptly ended in a right turn into the site (shown above) and the entrance looked rather small compared to the size of our lovely Doris.
After checking in, we were asked to follow someone to the pitch, this involved another right turn (also shown above)… this time, around a couple of parked cars on our right, then through an iron gate which looked even smaller than the entrance.
Let’s just say Jánine nailed it! 👏👏
She swung her wide around the cars on our right, missed all the people and plant pots sat outside the bar on our left, squeezed her through the gate, then parked her up on the left. Nice work!… that’s my darling. ❤️
I’m not sure this could actually be classed as a home away from home, as it’s probably only the size of most toilets in the UK, but I guess that’s all you need if you enjoy life out on the water… which there was a lot of here as we were next to a large lake.
This site was rather interesting, we arrived around 9:30 at night, which meant reception was closed and the barrier was down, however, they had an electronic kiosk near the gate which you enter your details into and it gives you a receipt to prove you’ve paid, along with a pitch number to go.
…Not bad, 👍 I’m liking that, no muss, no fuss, no translation issues after selecting English. 👍
Jánine spotted this bike at a service station and said I needed to pull over for a photo to share on the blog, she was right, this looks great, it’s even towing a small ‘caravan’ to sleep in at night.
I know I’m tall, but how small are the people that shop here?
‘Not all who wander are lost’… so fitting for us at this moment in time, but even if we were lost, does it matter if you find a local patisserie?…
… nope!, our thoughts exactly! 😂
The Apricot and Pistachio tart that happened to follow me home was very nice too!
Even the package it came in looked amazing… I don’t think I’ve even seen such a nice looking package at Christmas. 😂 …
Seeing this small cottage in France made us realise… we’re not in Nottingham anymore, check out this beauty!
It was our first morning in the shower block at Nenuphars, when I saw this hanging from the wall, a soap on a rope… have they heard of Covid-19?, everyone’s literally dirty hands touching and rubbing this germ magnet, then thinking “ah that’s better, my hands are all clean and fresh smelling again”… Wow!
Treasured Timeout 