After camping in almost 40º heat, we spent the next two days with Nora, Colleen’s friend from their Joburg days, her husband Peter, and their daughter Kristel. They live on a wine farm in the French countryside in a setting from a movie. In fact, during this visit, they told us how their new lifestyle was inspired by the Russell Crowe movie, A Good Year. On our previous visit, Kristel introduced me to Burrata, a delicate version of mozzarella, and on this visit, she taught me how to poach eggs and not end up with a pan full of runny egg snot water. And how chili oil makes a poached egg taste next level. And Nora taught me that ordering champagne online and by the case is obviously the only way to do it.
Two days later, and after 10 hours of travelling, we arrived in Saint-Malo in Brittany. It’s my favourite place in France. The interesting thing about the town is that the tide goes in and out very quickly and, once a month when the moon is right (or wrong?), the otherwise mild Atlantic converts itself into a raging monster and tries to swallow the town whole. We missed that spectacle this time, but we happened to experience it three years ago when the sea attacked the hotel we stayed in and tried to swallow the bar kiosk on the terrace. This is one of the few places where I don’t begrudge spending the extra money on a seaview room at a beachfront hotel.
After two lovely days in Saint-Malo, we headed for Honfleur, a small town at the mouth of the Seine. I don’t have much to report other than a beautiful triptych sculpture at the harbour which is for sale and which I will go and buy when I win the lottery.
The next day we arrived in Calais to take the Eurotunnel for the first time, yay! I’d booked us into a cheapy hotel right next to the tunnel and when we arrived there, a large part of the parking lot was filled with police trucks and armoured vehicles. There must have been 50 in total, with policemen (no women) walking around. It was clearly a hub of sorts. We know about all the police activity in Calais, but seeing so much of it at the hotel was unexpected.
We bought two cases of French red wine in Calais, and two camembert and a brie. The camembert stank up the van and are now stinking up the fridge.
Oh wow, the tunnel experience! So far, this is the highlight of our trip. All we knew about the Eurotunnel was that we could take our van on it, but not much else. So here’s some background. Each train is 800m long – that’s almost a kilometre long! We drove into the compound, were given a sticker for the window, and diverted to lane 8. Then we joined a long queue that first took us past the toilets, then French immigration (or in this case, emigration?), UK immigration, and then the train, which was split apart so we could drive straight in. The whole process from arrival to take-off took less than an hour and the journey itself was only 35 minutes. We stayed inside the van the whole time even though we were allowed to get out and walk around. It was surreal to think of travelling by train underneath the English Channel. And what was especially bizarre is that my phone had really poor reception throughout France, but it had excellent reception 40m below the sea!
I’m happy to report that the weather has been cool and mostly cloudy since we’ve arrived in London and my Zen attitude to life has returned.
