Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
8
Bienvenue En France
“Looks like we've brought our great British weather with us then.”
Jack was right. The train trundled out of the tunnel into a very soggy Calais terminal
where we were greeted by steady drizzle and cotton wool fog patches.
“Never mind, darling, it's not good for Biff to get too hot in the car anyway.”
“Bloody dogs.
Always
the bloody dogs. Does he need another wee? Or shall we wait
until we've reached the fast lane of the autoroute?”
“Now you're just being silly. He's fine … I think.”
Our route would take us via Paris. Not everyone's choice, because it meant doing battle
with the dreaded
périphérique
(the orbital motorway that surrounds the city) but we've nev-
er experienced any serious problems. The journey time was nearly ten and a half hours and
we would cover around a thousand kilometres. With our long history of driving in France,
we had become quite selective about the routes we would take.
There are four main road categories:
autoroutes, routes nationales, routes départemen-
tales, voies communales et chemins vicinaux
. These roughly translate as motorways, nation-
al roads, departmental roads, local/rural roads. On this occasion we chose to use autoroutes,
rather than the
route nationale,
which is basically a trunk road. Speed, rather than sightsee-
ing, was the priority. The autoroute system in France is excellent, the only downside being
that it mainly operates on a toll system. It criss-crosses the country providing around 12,000
kilometres (7,456 miles) of high quality roads with excellent access to most of the important
locations.
Jack, now fully revived, set the ground rules for our journey. It was a long 'hack' down
to Capbreton where we were staying, so we should only stop to refuel combined with a quick
team 'loo break'. This seemed an eminently practical idea. Amongst us were some potential
prostate sufferers and, in my own case, the opportunity to take a precautionary leak should
never be turned down.
The main autoroute service stations were the obvious choice for stops and I love them.
They abound with interesting things that provide limitless opportunities for time-wasting.
As well as the usual amenities, there is always a shop offering ranges of products that one
