17.09 - Day 01. We Are Off !!

So up, not to early - into a heavily loaded Roxvanne and across the road to immediately grab some breakfast. Then just under an hour later we arrived at Euro tunnel Folkestone. We were due a 1030 crossing but the guy on the gate bumped us forward to a 0950, so just enough time to stretch legs before driving down to board. Loaded up and locked in we started our 35 min journey.
On the way over I managed to sort a few bits on the Roxvanne that I had meant to do during the week, but hadn’t been able to due to the last minute expensive garage visit she had undertaken!
Rolling off and into France we were immediately looking for the Bureau de Douane - Calais, the Customs office to get some paperwork authorised and stamped. Tre had seen a video on FB showing the way, however we realised on exiting the shuttle that the video related to someone landing by boat !! A quick Google search for Calais Douane and we were on our way for a 15 minute drive across Calais to the office. Just as we were nearing Tre noticed that my Google search also said as well as the location that the office was shut on a Saturday!! Slightly stressed and knarked at my failings (I had already moaned about having to go to the customs in the first place, so had now made this worse) I turned into a road in order to turn around. 200 metres down a very narrow road lined with cars both sides I found the road was a dead end with no turning point. Now even more stressed I reversed 200m down a very narrow road lined with cars both sides!! A slight re-compose and search of Google again as Tre was sure the Douane was open 24/7 we found the details and the address - back next to the Euro tunnel exit!! Another jaunt back across Calais we closed in on the office we needed. A slight delay in directions from my navigator meant we missed the turning we needed, so around the port we trooped finding our way back to that turning. Five minutes later we found ourselves on a road which was the loading road for cars wishing to get the shuttle to the UK. Slight panic gripped both of us and so I bailed off this road I to a maintenance road to avoid being loaded back to the UK. As we turned into the maintenance road there in front of us was a very large sign for Calais Douane!! Within five minutes we were in the Douane with our papers being examined. Felt a little strange being there with our little Roxvanne, whilst all the other ‘all men’ customers had bloody great artic trucks outside. Tre felt particularly out of place. Papers taken, signed and stamped - we were back in Roxvanne and on our way heading first to Epernay. So out of Calais and hitting the toll roads we headed south stopping briefly to fill the tank.
We had decided before the trip to make a playlist on Spotify while we drove the 9 hours to our final destination, so we got started on this, taking it in turns to each in turn think of a band beginning with A and a song by them, then progressing to B C D - you get the idea. Tre cheated and researched bands on Spotify whilst I drove and had to just think of mine. To be fair there are some dodgy songs on that list already . . . the link is below if you want a giggle. We managed to letter M on the playlist before we skirted Reims and a little further into Epernay.
Tre had always wanted to visit this part of the world due to her former job working in the wine trade, so this Champagne region was a must see and visit.
Rolling past Reims and into Epernay the vineyards are something to behold, stretching for mile after mile. Every building seems to have the word Champagne somewhere on its exterior, either bottling, transporting, or making the fizzy stuff.
If Calais hadn’t been a learning curve we made the same mistake in Epernay, driving to the wrong location before having to re-cross the town back to where we had come from to find the hotel. At least we have seen most of Epernay by van!
Our hotel was a very cheap and cheerful booking and we got what we had paid for - but it’s all we needed just to bed down for the night.
A ten minute walk into Epernay - determined to have a glass of fizz on our first night was probably what we really needed, a walk and fresh air after the day in Roxvanne.
We stumbled into a small bar restaurant - Le Parisien in Rue de la Porte Lucas, not really too hungry for food. Once inside we decided on a shared platter of antipasti and a glass each of Champers. It’s fair to say I’m not a huge fizz fan but the glasses we had were lovely and a fab finish to day one!
A little walk back to the hotel and we both crashed into bed.
That’s it we are here - everything we need signed up is signed up, stamped and authorised.
New beginnings.

Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7fSvAwK2nzhdZ…Read more