June 2015 – Second visit to France in a Month

We had returned from France for Gerry to have a series of medical appointments including his second session of rituximab which took 6 hours.  Annie and Gerry both decided they wanted to get away again before everywhere got crowded in the school holidays.  We both agreed to return to France and to the exact same mobile home we had left a few days previously. Bookings were made and we were just about to set off when P&O Ferries sent a text to say Dover was closed because of industrial action in Calais.  Annie managed to re book the ferry for the following day and Gerry managed to transfer the hotel booking for a day later.  Our journey to Dover the following day involved detours for road works and road closures to accommodate parked trucks that had not been able to get on a ferry.  We managed OK and were then horrified when we started to drive out of Calais and saw all of the immigrants trying to get into the backs of parked trucks and then a blocked motorway in front of us.  Gerry saw the traffic jam in time to take an exit and we travelled across country to our overnight hotel in Montreuil.

Our journey to Moulin La Geneste the next day went smoothly.  The next week was spent walking every day in glorious weather (perhaps a little hot on occasions (high 30s Celsius)).  We were both pleased with what we managed to achieve.  The walks were very peaceful and often required us to manoeuvre ourselves through overgrown footpaths and across quite rickety bridges.  One walk was described as a nature walk but we only saw dead animals; badger, mole, snake and hedgehog.  However, the walk itself was very pleasant.

On other walks we also came across the Rapunzel tower, various statues dotted around the countryside including a laughing cow (vache qui rit), frogs and a couple of calves that had just been born.  In fact, as we were watching the calves, the farmer arrived to make sure that they could stand up and that their mothers were happy to accept them!

During our stay we also picked up the news that Calais was once again hit by industrial action and that this time it was lasting for at least three days.  The chaos at Calais was apparently far worse than when we travelled from England.

We decided that for peace of mind and the avoidance of delays and traffic jams etc we would try and book another ferry crossing.  We managed to get an overnight sailing from Le Havre to Portsmouth on the Friday and so were able to return to Fairford without hassle and a few hours earlier than the much longer drive via Calais and Dover. Not worrying about the return journey meant that we were able to really enjoy the last few days of our holiday and also a bonus of a few hours in Honfleur before getting the ferry.