Hilarious, challenging, stressful but when you get you're head around it, actually pretty good.
And an amazing improvement on England. Basically because there's far fewer trucks. The roads are just as narrow, everyone drives on the wrong side, including me most of the time but there's far less congestion and it's all pretty smooth.
Bicycles. It seems they own the roads and can do whatever they want with complete impunity. Everyone slows down and patiently waits for a chance to go past. They ride 2 or 3 abreast, taking up whole lanes and no body cares. Amazing, but I suppose understandable when you consider how popular it is here. In UK the bicycles take their life in their hands and are just crazy, here they are a protected species.
Motorways. Three points to make here.
1st no one travels in the left (inside) lane. They all sit in the outside lane, move over to overtake, and then back again. It makes things really easy and there's never any angst.
2nd, they tailgate like you wouldn't believe. Seriously! If I wasn't warned I'd freak out, but it's very normal apparently.
And 3rd, the speed limit is 130 in the dry and 110 in the wet, and the road is narrower than our lovely Hume Highway. Ive had numerous arguments over the years about the stupidity of holding everyone at 110 in Oz. This place proves it and I rest my case.
But seriously, it's incredible to see a train of half a dozen or so cars, belting along at 130kph, nose to tail with only half a meter or so between them. Snaking out to overtake, then back in again. All holding station and speed. We could learn so much from them.
I don't know if they're actually better drivers, they just all follow the same conventions and it works. It really does.
Roundabouts. Weird. Well, the same as at home really, but everything goes the wrong way and it's so hard to get used to. You have to look the wrong way! I nearly took out a nice Merc the other day in the middle of Caen, simply cause I looked the wrong way. Good thing he was alert cause I wasn't.
The other thing is more often then not there's more then the normal number of entry roads, in any possible variation of angles. And the GPS doesn't recognize motorway exits as one of them. Counting and early preparation is a must.
Navigation. Thank god for our GPS. We'd be lost without it. Literally. We hear "recalculating" an awful lot.
Driving on the right. All good, most of the time, but there's been a couple of moments and I'm so thankful to have Janelle to remind me. I cant imagine what the on-coming cars think.
And I've left the best till last...
Crazy one way streets in crazy little fishing villages where any semblance of a logical road layout disappeared centuries ago.
Watch the video. Nuff said.
Hire Cars. We've swapped the Renault Megane for a Ford Focus. I want to drive a car, not a brick. Both were manual/diesel, seems most everything is here. The Focus has this awesome party trick. If you stop in neutral and take your feet off the throttle and clutch, the engine cuts out, then restarts as soon as you touch the throttle. It takes some getting used to.
Anyway, we've been here almost a week, traveled over 700 kms on all kinds of roads and I haven't hurt anyone or marked the car (touch wood) so between Janelle as my extra set of eyes and chief road sign interpreter, we must be doing something right. She hasn't got her head around actually driving here yet, but her day is coming. Watch this space.
Did anyone notice that I missed a day. I hope not.
Ok, this was a big one.
The building of Mont St Michel was commenced over 1000 years ago, and has undergone numerous restorations since. There's part Roman, part Gothic, part medieval, and part French Revolution.
Out of all the clips I took, I've put together 2 vids.
The first is just random stuff as we climbed up higher and higher, the second are bits and pieces of the guided tour we went on, including the entire intro. There was no point filming the tour itself, too much and too crazy, but these clips will give you an idea.
And a bunch of random pics in no particular order.
This first lot are pics of the gallery photos on site.
And these are the shots I took along the way. Don't let perspective fool you. This camera has an amazing zoom.
We were left in awe of the engineering, the effort and the amazing scope of it all.
However, tips for young players. Be prepared for large bus groups all traveling together and blocking the roads. And Americans who know everything. Seriously. I even overheard one conversation about seeing England just across the bay. Don't these people ever look at a map?
Apologies for leaving Mont St Michel tonight, but it's late and we have an early start in the morning. A big day of D Day sites and memorials. And a few military cemeteries too I'd imagine.
If I try and tell you about the amazing Mont tonight I wont do it justice. So tomorrow ok.
The town is Villers sur Mer, meaning Village by the sea. So this is (completely unofficially) Chateau sur Mer. However, we're nicknamed it Chateau Scary.
You've got to admit, if you drove up here at night, especially a dark and stormy one, add lightening bolt on que for effect just as you open the creaky iron gate, and well, you get me?
But no, that's not the reason.
And yes, it's very high up. And those (like me) with vertigo shouldn't lean too far over that balcony.
But no, that's not the reason.
Basically, it's the stairs. Yep. The twisting, narrowing, creaking, 200+ year old, complete with lion (read gargoyle) wood carvings... and that view from the top down the middle. It's to die for. Literally!
But our little apartment in what was the attic... It's simply beautiful. Small, clean, modern, and equipped with everything we need, including that million dollar view. It completely belies the building from the outside. I wouldn't have thought is possible, but here, see for yourself.
Now, of course, being the only aussies in town, that we know of anyway, it's important to let them know we're here. We thought you might enjoy this little edit from the main street. Note please the go-kart track and public swimming pool.
The really amazing thing is that 90% of the town is boarded up. Summer is over, everyone has gone back to work, and well, this is now a quiet, peaceful village.
Except for those stairs, there's nothing peaceful about them. I promise you. Here's another look just in case you were wondering.
We came across from Portsmouth to what we thought was Caen, but was actually Ouistreham, Caen is 15kms inland. We left UK at 2200, and arrived at 0730 just on dawn. It was very eerie really. The place was completely deserted except for the ferry foot passengers, and a continuous stream of cars trucks and bikes (sigh) past the customs office.
I managed to get 2 vids. One on the deck as we cruised past Portsmouth. You'll note HMS Victory which was Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, and is still in commission today!
Now come with me for a sneaky little wander through the ferry, stern to bow, and back to the bar. If you're quick you'll see Kevin keenly gazing out the front window.
A word of advice if I may. If you plan on doing this either get a cabin with a real bed (they were all booked up) or if you only have a "reclining chair", then bring a blow up matress and sleeping bag, and do what all the smart seasoned travelers (kids) did and stake out your bit of carpet.
We didn't, and our muscles regretted it for days. I managed a few hours on the bare carpet with a parka for a pillow, Janelle stayed in the chair and is still paying for it. You have been warned.
Walked so far today. Climbed thousands of stairs. Drove 300 kms (on the wrong side of the road).
Bed now.
Rest day tomorrow. Will catch you up lots then. Including this awesomeness. Mont st Micheal
Goodnight
Still editing up the France vids including a hilarious 5 minute drive through some crazy (but adorable) seaside village, that we just have to share with you.
For now though, here's a couple from our last day in London.
The first is when I wandered down to the nearest coffee shop for a couple of takeaway latte's, I figured I'd just take the camera and let you see what I see.
And this is a short clip of the traffic (both vehicle and human) on Sunday afternoon at London Bridge. Yes, the London Bridge. The ship is HMS Belfast which is moored there as a floating museum. In the 10 minutes we took to walk across the bridge and back, a) the traffic jam hardly moved, and b) hardly any conversation I overheard was English. Many were in fact eastern Europeans, which we're told are flooding into UK. A point of major contention apparently. It's all the EU's fault. If England bails soon that will be one of the major reasons.
Anyway, as always, sorry about the shaky vid, but the zoom is just too good not to use it.
Vids of France tomorrow. After we get back from Mont-Saint-Michel. Really looking forward to this one!
A little hideaway called Villers-sur-Mer, just a tad east of Caen, on the Normandy coast.
The ferry trip was a a bit exciting, the drive up here on the wrong side of the road was a laugh a minute, and shopping at their equivalent of Superbarn (about 12 kms away) was an education in itself.
On the outside this house would be well suited to the next Addams Family reunion, but this little flat has been all modernized and is just perfect for us to hideout for a week. I'll be careful of the stairs, promise.
Now I've taken a load of vids in the last 36 hours, of leaving London, the boat, the drive, the town, the drive through the town, but really... we've just got back from a walk on the beach following another one of Janelle's awesome pasta dinners, and honestly, the video's can wait. Well, all except 1.
This is how we enjoyed dinner tonight on the balcony in a perfect shorts and t-shirts 25 degrees. Unfortunately the camera doesn't do the light justice. Amazing doesn't quite cut it but you'll get the idea.
Time to move again. but this time it's not just to fill in time. We're taking our holiday back.
We'll shortly be saying adieu to Paul and Alan and gorgeous Little Venice for a couple of weeks and taking an overnight boat to Caen. Actually, it's a train from London to Portsmouth, a ferry to Caen, and then we're hired a car for a week to head to a little hideaway called Villers-sur-Mer in Normandy.
Thanks to Airbnb we've rented the top floor of this little Chateau. (Follow the link and check out the view. Seriously!)
In other news, my shoulder is much improved, Ive a lot of movement back and it doesn't hurt anywhere near as much. The scans in Chesterfield showed no serious damage and the doctor has advised our insurance company that traveling again is fine.
In fact in a couple of weeks riding shouldn't be a problem, if only we were taking the riding gear. No room in the luggage I'm afraid. Probably a good thing cause I'd certainly be tempted to sneak over to Nurburgring.
Anyway, we're not sure of the internet availability on the train or ferry, so might not be able to update this till we're lying on the beach in northern France. Hey, someone has to do it.
