Ordeal by autoroute

Thursday 7th July  -  Calais to Honfleur

There is a classic car rally at Le Mans this coming weekend so for the first part of our journey we are entertained by a procession of UK registered sports cars coming from the ferries and Eurotunnel.

I'm going cross-eyed trying to spot them in the mirror and then snap them as they pass so we stop at a convenient rest stop ("aire") and admire (and photograph) those parked up. Here's a red a white and a blue but there were many more.

My favourite, always

Then at 3pm this ominous sight:

And here we stop, and sit, engine off most of the time but with the odd few metres covered now and then, for the next 5 hours!

There's been an accident and apparently a lorry is on its side across the central reservation so the A28 is closed in both directions. Traffic chaos!

I could make this sound more colourful by saying there's a circus trailer involved with 12 camels and some donkeys trapped for 4 hours but I'd be lying 'cos that was yesterday. No kidding - at almost exactly the same spot just 24 hours ago.

Google Maps is reassuring, only ever admitting to a 1h30 delay, so the time passes. We have bread and cheese and water and music and sunshine, truck doors open, cooling breeze and friendly people to chat to. After 3 hours we have limped along for maybe a mile and are down to single lane and diverted at snail's pace off the motorway.  

7pm: we are still gridlocked on the exit slip road and we read on a bulletin online that the motorway will reopen at ... 7pm. There is no re-entry slip road so we are committed to a long slow diversion and are tortured by a view across the fields of the motorway now moving freely. Aarghh!

We've given up on the idea of getting to Honfleur by now and have researched a campsite nearby.  We reach it at 8.15 but predictably it's full. 

Next idea is to get back to the motorway and pull up at an "aire" where they will have loos and showers and allow overnighting. First aire is so full of lorries out of time on their tachographs that we can barely squeeze in to get out, again let alone park up.

Honfleur it will have to be after all and we finally pull up at our campsite at gone 10pm. It's taken us 10 hours to cover 170 miles. This is in fact over 3 times faster than our best effort might have been over the same distance by water but we had reason to hope for better.

Reception and the barrier both closed hours ago, so we park up for the night in the waiting bay outside and head into town for a late supper.

Thank heavens for French late eating habits and for Euro 16 which ensures that the town is hopping despite the hour. Congratulations France on your place in the final but could you stop all that rowdy hooting now please - some of us have had a very long day.