THE FRENCH CONNECTION
We managed to score an unbelievably cheap deal online to hire a little ‘toy’ car for a few months so we picked up our little Citroen C1 from Heathrow and headed for the white cliffs of Dover. We had a night in a cute, quaint and cozy B&B and plotted out a bit of a plan where in Europe we wanted to check out. We agreed that we’d almost had enough of big cities and both longed for some countryside scenery and to get off the beaten path that has been abused more than Tina Turner. We took our little “Vic” (named him that as he was about the same size as a Blue Vicks Vapour Drop” onto the car ferry and kicked back on the voyage across the channel to France. Two hours later, the three of us (Vic being the third) were acquainting ourselves with the French roads of Dunkirk – and followed our iPad maps toward the south. We dodged the craziness of Paris and decided to come back to it on our return to France on our final leg before going back over to Blighty. We went through possibly thirty or more adorable little villages just that day, stopping at some and walking around, maybe a coffee and croissant and some goodies to snack on along the way. We were having an absolute blast on the winding little roads through incredible countryside until we accidentally ended up on the auto road which quickly became boring and uninteresting… and impossible to get off for ages! By this time it was late and dark, the iPads had run out of battery, fuel was low and we had no idea where the nearest town with accommodation was. What we did have were our sleeping bags from our Machu Picchu trek, some food supplies for the road trip and two bottles of wine. So that night, we did the unthinkable and camped off the side of the road down an RTA-type access route… And had a bloody ball!!! Of course, Ads was in his element thinking he was Bear Grills, setting up a little campfire and makeshift cooktop with some foil food packaging so Kez could rustle up some dinner. We felt like we had the world to ourselves as we sipped on some local Cab Sav and solved the worlds problems with classic radio tunes in the background. As the fire died down, so did our energy levels so we set up our ‘beds’ in the car and had a surprisingly good sleep.
WIN:
Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” coming on the radio as we laid back looking up at the stars. Then Genesis’s “I Can’t Dance” came on and Kez lost it – J’Dore FM just became the best radio station in the world.
FAIL:
Waking up to what we thought was WWIII. But it was in fact council workers cutting down trees beside us; so much worse than what we’d initially feared.
theflightclub 