Short post today, I promise.
We spent almost all day driving, so not a lot to tell. There was a lot to see along the road, alas very few photo opportunities. I set options in the GPS for ‘no motorways, no tolls’ and the sweet little dear took us on a tour of all the back roads across Normandy. Fabulous, I loved it. There are some fantastic old cottages, tricky little village streets and a lot more to keep you amused. Also very little traffic.
It took us about 3 hours to cover the first 200 kms, so after lunch the girls made me untick the no motorways/toll option. The next 100+ kms was covered in record time, as the motorways mostly allow 130 km/hr. The roads weren’t too busy, thank goodness.
I am finding the driving on the RHS okay, it’s only the roads themselves which are testing, as they are often very narrow. I don’t think it matters what side you are driving on when you only have 6 inches to spare each side. On top of this are all the unusual and unique road layouts at intersections. All this helps keep you awake on the trip, especially so when we got to Lille. It got really busy around then, close to peak hour maybe?
The GPS at one stage insisted I get over to the rightmost lane in the next 800 metres, when I was in the leftmost lane of 5! Then almost immediately had me cutting back to the leftmost lane. This happened about six times. We had an extended tour of Lille, as I missed a few of the more intricate lane gymnastics.
Never mind. Here now. Just went out and got some groceries for dinner. Discovered the largest supermarket I have ever seen. I didn’t bother counting rows or checkouts, but it beats anything I have seen by several times over. I think there was an entire milk aisle, not section.
Today’s effort from Lille:
The only touristy thing of note we did today was visit the site of the Battle of Agincourt, where the English gave the French a hiding in 1415. The site of the battle was a bit of a disappointment, as it was planted with corn. Standing at the monument and looking across the road, all you could see was the edge of a cornfield. Not even worth a photo. Bugger. The museum at Azincourt (yes, Azincourt) was interesting though. I mean, where else can you do this:
Tomorrow should see us visiting some of the WWI sites around France/Belguim.
Until then,
Cheers, Steve J.