We left Paris and found our way North despite the sat nav being slightly confused by the French capital. Since it has given up working when plugged into the car to charge (for some reason it thinks it’s plugged into a computer and sits patiently waiting for an update) we have to play an elaborate game of charging it when we don’t need it and hoping the battery will last when we do!
Since we were on the A16 which follows the coast we stopped for a lunch of fresh crab at Le Touquet but the cold wind and squally rain drove us back to the car without much further exploring. We popped into Auchan in Boulogne for the all important shopping, with small lists from Mum and Rachel and some ideas of my own. John restrained me from going too mad and the wine prices are such nowadays that there isn’t much point in filling the car with stuff that we could as easily buy in Majestic. However, we did get the confit de canard and the tinned pommes dauphinoise which are not so easy to find in Sainsbury’s!
For the final night of our epic trip we’d booked a room at L’Escale owned by the Bourdon family (bumblebee in English) and just a stones throw from Cap Blanc Nez and the channel tunnel. It’s something of a Chambers family tradition, since Mum and Dad first discovered it many years ago as a VFB stopover hotel and has been revisited many times. I last went there two years ago with Mum and Isobel for my birthday and we keep coming back as the food is excellent and the hotel provides exceptional value for money. We had a room in the old building which had a separate small bedroom attached in case we wanted to invite a guest!
We went for the full gastronomic menu – a fish starter, foie gras, duck, cheese and crème brulee and I had a glass of Cadillac and we had a bottle of Tavel which was great since we’ve stayed in both places on the trip. Then we retired to watch the new series of ‘New Tricks’ on a BBC1 satellite channel.
They are clearly still doing very well as the hotel and the restaurant were both packed with returning English and Belgians as well as French.
It was a great finish to what has been the most wonderful trip. Looking back I can’t believe the number of places we’ve managed to visit and how lovely it’s all been. I don’t think we could ever buy a place in France as I don’t think I could possibly choose one place, just about everywhere we’ve been I’ve thought ‘it’d be nice to have a place here’. We have enjoyed exploring it together and, whilst it’ll be good to go home and see our families and get things organised in Manchester, I’ll never be fed up with wandering around France with John by my side.
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