The FERRY

The conundrum started as soon as the ferry booking was made, Tassie (our campervan) lives in a storage yard and access is from 7am, the Portsmouth - Caen ferry is booked for 8am.

A 90 minute drive from storage to the ferry port, points to a Plan B requirement.

Finding a place to stay overnight close to Portsmouth was preferable, needing to be at the port around 6.30am to check in and go through security (more of that later)... the challenge is most camp sites are gated and barrier entry / exit is not permitted between 11.00pm & 7.00am.

Thankfully local to Portsmouth is Port Solent with free overnight parking in one of their public car parks, a call to the security staff on the day of use is all that is required to get permission to park subject to availability on arrival.

Knowing we would be sharing the same bays with patrons from the amenities around Port Solent Marina - the question was.... would space be available in a busy car park with poor camber for sleeping!

The thought of a relatively flat bay for a few hours sleep would be taken as a win, especially parked alongside the departing midnight revellers from the cinema and various bars and restaurants.

The back up plan - a cabin was booked for the 6 hour crossing - to help catch up on any missed snooze time.

As luck prevailed Tassie found a decent spot in a packed car park, and a 6 hour sleep was roughly achieved... hurrah!

Alarm set for 5.45am, just 20 minutes later we were packed up and off to check in at the port .

On arrival at the port of Portsmouth, just a couple of vehicles were ahead of Tassie and then directed to a waiting channel for the security / customs check. The last time we were here we waited for about an hour, so expected a bit of a wait.

Thinking about breakfast and not knowing when the catering outlets opted up for business when aboard, I offered to make some cheese rolls. There is some mixed views on taking dairy products to France - post brexit!

About 3 minutes later - cheese - rolls - butter all out - Jo announced "we are being called forward" quickly everything was stashed apart from a sharp knife which got put into the glove compartment !!! Well I was under pressure of time to sit back in the passenger seat and it was still in my hand!! My only defence m'lud.

The security chap then asked us to vacate the vehicle for him to made an inspection - dutifully he had a look around... he either ignored the cheese crumbs as he poked his head into the toilet cubicle (looking for extra non paying / non passport passengers perhaps), or he had no interest what was until a recent change in rules reversing some of the post brexit rules - our dairy contraband.

His final question was "do you have any sharp knives on board" which is an odd one given that there is a full cutlery drawer, the obligatory "No" was given almost in unison, to which he seemed content at, not knowing had he opened the glove compartment there would have been a bit of explaining to be done!

On board 30 minutes before the departure of the eco friendly Hybrid -LNG boat the "Guillaume de Normandie" (named after Normandy's favourite son), he is also buried in Caen- better known to Brits as William the Conquerer.

Despite an overcast sky, the sea was in a calm state, we were quickly and serenely passing by the Portsmouth naval yard, Gunwharf Quay and out into the Solent around the 1860's built round sea forts towards the south eastern edge of the Isle of Wight, before heading south west towards France.

A few hours sleep, a coffee and a cheese roll later, it was almost time to disembark at the Caen port of Ouistreham.

Tassie was the 3rd vehicle disembarking the 15.00 arrival time, at 15.06 we had cleared french immigration - passports stamped, and we were out on the roads of Ouistreham, satnav set to our next stop of Granville aka the "Monaco of the North" we were back in France on an adventure road trip... off we went ... first a stop at a Leclerc supermarche for more supplies!Read more