Nous somme en France!

On Monday, we travelled the final 74 miles from Kelvedon Hatch to Folkestone.  After some last minute shopping at Pets at Home and Sainsbury’s, followed by some last minute administration for Pete, we were Eurotunnel bound.

We were originally booked onto the 8pm train and had turned up ridiculously early having completed all other tasks earlier than expected.  Luckily for us, we were able to get on board an earlier train and as a result, we were France bound by 5pm and set up in our overnight spot in Wissant before 7pm.

The weather on arrival in France was the same as the weather we’d left behind in Folkestone; windy, rainy and generally miserable, but we were finally on our road trip, so it didn’t really matter – although I was relieved that we managed not to get blown over en route!!

The following morning, after a restful night, despite the howling wind, we took Powell for a well deserved walk to the beach in Wissant.  We almost had the beach to ourselves...no surprise given the beautiful weather.  There were quite a few windsurfers and kite surfers around, taking full advantage of le vent (the wind – my French is coming on....slowly!) and a small number of dog walkers taking their furry friends for their morning walks, but the beach was that big, it still felt deserted.

Despite the bad weather, or maybe because of it, the beach looked beautiful and Powell absolutely loved it.  He’s not been off the lead much in the last few days so he was running around like an absolute lunatic, burning off his pent up energy.

We headed north up the beach and came across a few WW2 bunkers, which have been left to slowly sink into the sand: a stark reminder of the all too recent history of this stretch of coastline.

Being a beach town, we’re well and truly into low season now, so most of the bars / beach shops have closed for the winter.  Lots of the houses are actually holiday homes, with shutters closed until next year, or at least until it stops raining..!  The upside to this though, is the complete lack of crowds, or people in general, which suits us down to the ground!

We got a bit damp on the beach so we’re now back in Dora drying off, having lunched on bagels with ham and cream cheese, followed by scones from our dwindling supply of food from the UK.  The quicker we empty the cupboards, the sooner we can fill them with tasty French treats!

Well, we’ve the rest of the afternoon to chill out and as this place is free, with a 48 hour maximum stopover, we’ve decided to stay until tomorrow.  Pete has started whittling some driftwood he found on the beach, Powell is snoozing and once I’m done on here, I think I’ll practice some French.

So for now,

A bientôt!

Where's Wally?

Nous somme ici

I met Doctor Who on the beach - he was kind enough to pose for a selfie!