Day 1 of 45 France all aboard.......

93/05/2018 Soissons France Première Classe Hotel Room 002. (1 SZ)

Up and packed had taken bags out last night... Today the next part of our adventure begins, with our trip to France via the Chunnel that goes under the sea. How exciting is it for us to do this, for so long we have heard about and read about the tunnel made to take people, cars and trucks under the sea..and today we actually get to do it.......
Driving off towards the Chunnel our first sight over the hills is the massive Dover Castle, what an impressive sight this hour of the morning the sun is out today, can you believe it just as we are going, and the glow it gives the Castle makes it really stand out....

Down through Dover seeing the white cliffs one last time. Shame we couldn’t have had another day here, as we go through town I spot other interesting sights we could have investigated.... but not to be!

We make it to the Channel Tunnel entry point and have to punch in a code we were sent to get out boarding print out that goes on the dash. The identity card to let you through..... then drive up to the reception area it’s a big centre filled with shops etc like an airport but for the Chunnel Train.... people everywhere.... there is a massive screen outside in the car park as well as inside with the time you are set to go giving you the count down to when you can get into your car and head off to line up... ours isn’t for another 35 mins... you are not allowed to line up before this, very organised..... So we have a cuppa I tired to call a Jill in the phone to talk to Mum as they had just got home from Kate and Kristian’s after mum being in Hospital. However for some reason I could hear Jill she couldn’t hear me... so as our time was up I had to give up trying to connect...

Off we set, going through sign after sign saying France this way with big arrows pointing us in, it felt a bit surreal to be honest.... having to go through check point one that’s where they check you passport, got through that ok, then the sign says France. Another check point this time we are now in France and yep they check our passports as well. It isn’t until we get through it and are in France we realise no one has actually stamped to prove we have gone into Schengen Zone... but it was digitally scanned... we just aren’t sure how this goes when checked at other entrances to countries... So this now leaves us pondering how it all works...

The actual time on the big train was only about 30-35mins..... it is big train ver wide to fit wide cars. Car after car drive into it and you drive up into a carriage about 6 cars per carriage then they lock you in, but it’s entered by way of a huge door all going in 2 sections an upper and lower section down a long corridor that once your parked they close up after each 6 cars, ... they must fit heaps on each train, with trains go every 20-30 mins, fascinating really... that’s not counting all the massive trucks being loaded onto another train.... plus all the Ferries going back and Forth the traffic between countries is unbelievable....

Another world all this international travel, so different than going over the border... mind you they didn’t ask about any food stuff we were carrying like some of our borders... we bought fruit yesterday and had it all on board and no questions asked... they did have a check point after our first passport check to see we didn’t have any fire arms, Customs officers everywhere just checking the under if the cars asking questions but none actually took anything out of our car and we sat in it the whole time... they do have cameras everywhere, I mean everywhere so I guess if you were up to no good they might cotton on, but it would be so easy to smuggle something through... not that we would or want to, just seeing how easy it was you would wonder how often something or someone is snuck through...

Anyway before we knew it we were driving off the train, we thought there would be another check point but nope straight out and into the crazy fast Hwy of France... It did feel surreal compared to air flight with so much checking etc.....

So here we are in France our trip to our destination was long and a bit boring, mainly rural countryside with heaps of canola being grown... it’s very green and very orderly... village after village from the road was seen but being on the Hwy we didn’t get to go into them until later when the Nav John had set her not to go on Toll roads... we were having heaps of issues trying to get some money from a hole in the wall... they just don’t seem to have any.. We did a couple of stops at service centres to get some money there, but they didn’t have any ATM’s.... We finally found one but a John said it had something in it... It was between 1-3 pm when all the shops were shut, we were to discover they even shut the ATMs during this time... We had sat in our car to have a cuppa and a bite to eat with food I had on board when we spotted a man drive up to the ATM John had just tried he cleaned it well and truly and drove off... I said to John maybe he has unlocked it give it a go, so off he went to try and sure enough it was 3.05 pm and yes it was unlocked... how unreal... mind you this was the only ATM we spotted in any village we had gone through... At least we had some Euro’s now...

We did notice that the villages weren’t as close together as they are in the UK, plenty of them, but further apart. And their homes just looked like little boxes not a lot of character at all... so e really I,d homes did have some character, but they seemed to be only in the bigger towns we went through....

The Highways are busy very busy, and the main speed is 130kph, 110 as you get closer to towns, then down like ours as you go through... but they sure speed along on those Highways.

As we were heading through some smaller villages around 4pm we noticed signs not easily in French, but did wire it out that there were War Graves from different countries... Brits, American’s then just really quickly the 4th Infantry Division Memorial... we were to discover it finally after bumping along a very narrow dirt track there it was surrounded by canola fields but huge sitting on a hill looking over the valley below... A beautiful spot... it had a neat hedge trimmed all around it with neatly mowed grass, someone must look after it... Little Aussie flags hanging off the lower section and someone must have just out a wreath for ANZAC day there it said so in a little card.... it felt very humbling to see it knowing our young men had died in the fields around us... and they were young men... there were information stands with pics of our guys over there... it made it all the more real.
So glad we stumbled across this spot. Worth visiting...

So our last leg took us through Saint Quentin Township a huge town, I would say a city... we had followed these signs for ages to get here... reminding us if our dear friend Q Parker, I don’t know why he was Scottish not French... but never the less worth us going through, even if it was to just think fondly of him.....

Onto Soissons we didn’t get see anything here as we arrived too late... I did spot a huge Abbey/Cathedral ruin as we drove through, if time permits tomorrow maybe I can have a quick look... however our hotel is quite a distance away from the centre. The hotel Is a loud bright colour and very, very basic, but at $50 a night what do you expect. The reception ladies neither of them could speak English but we managed, they got their money we got our room... deal done no English needed...

We had a bit of a look around the shops near us, a Reject type shop, so managed to get our power converter, inhale blown up our main one early in the peace with my hairdryer, John has fixed it but it can’t be used in big power stuff... so hence the cheaper, let’s hope it dies what we need it to do.... then onto Aldi where we decided to get some meat and olives to go with cheese I have and have a simple dinner... So thats what we did.... the Hotel is filled with French workers mainly male and all outside smoking with their beers in hand fir a big night... Good thing the rooms are Fairly sound proof... all in all the room even though very cheap is quite comfortable. downside nothing to use on the floor in the shower, which is just next to the toilet no shower curtain or screen, so water goes everywhere, no divot on the floor to stop the water from going all over it and without a bath mate it made it very hard to get dry... the actual shower head was plonked fair in the middle of the ceiling, shower head straight on the roof...some how we got it all to work out and were able to dry off... but a challenge indeed.... so time for bed and all in all it wasn’t as bad as we first thought....Read more