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  • Day 5

    London to Lille, France

    August 31, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Although we are travelling light, we thought it best to avoid the peak hour in the tube, so packed up early and were on our way to the tube by 6.30am. We had to change lines a few times (and a few more than necessary since we got on one going in the wrong direction, got off at the next stop and backtracked). Ended up at the Eurostar well and trully ahead of schedule and then boarded the train for what turned out to be just over an hour from London to Lille. Impressive! Claustrophobic boy survived, barely aware that we had just passed under the English Channel, whilst the kids got some homework done.

    Picked up the hire car and now for the hard bit - driving it!!! Craig's job (yay) which was not helped by the fact that the minute we drove out of the car park we were on a 6 lane motorway and it his first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road... I was in the nerve-racking position of being his navigator and getting us to our AirBnB with lots of really hard French names in the way of success, so our marital bliss was at stake. Happy to report we are still talking.

    Our converted farmhouse accommodation is lovely and all Frenchy. Pascale, our host, offered to drive us to the supermarche so we didn't need to brave the road again. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    We stopped at her recommended bakery on the way where bread is sold by the kilo! Grocery shopping was a lot harder than you would think it should be, but we ended up with pate, cheese and sausage for lunch, and provisions for dinner including the very necessary alcoholic beverages. We also discovered that milk is not available in French supermarkets in any great quantity.

    Now chilling out for the rest of the afternoon - Craig is serenading us on the guitar and the children are working out how to live without a telly so are making up their own games, which seem to be getting increasingly violent in a fun-loving way ;-). Oh, they are progressing to making up their own jokes now.

    JOKES:
    Q: What did the cow do when he got to London?
    A: He went to the moo-seum.

    Q: What did the Carribean horse say when he went to the Notting Hill Festival?
    A: Hay man.

    Q: What did the sheep say when he got to London?
    A: Can you point me to the Temple Baaaa.

    ROFL?
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