Well, that was an interesting day. At the time of posting this entry, I have yet to upload the post from yesterday, and this will make more sense when that is done.
Waking up with a full belly turned out to be important. After getting ready, we went downstairs to find that breakfast was being served before we had been told it would. We met up with the others staying at the B&B a family travelling to a similar area to us, between Bordeaux and Bergerac, they had brought the grandparents (I presume to baby sit). This was over breakfast, which was in essence, a croissant and a brioche as well as a café au lait. The setting of the B&B was amazing, but when it comes to value for money, and the stress we had, the Ibis would have been a much better place to stay in. But hindsight is one thing and on paper, this place did look wonderful.
We left Tours today, to return to the garage and have our wheels replaced. Having had the chance to look at the maps in the morning and last night, I realised that we had not been taken along the most direct route to our B&B. A slow trip through Tours took us to the garage and I got us there 30 minutes late, but they were great and if you ever are unfortunate to break down around Tours, visit them.
When on the road, the issue of contacting EuroTunnel was raised. My wife was driving, so when I was sure that I would not be needed for directions, I made the call to them. Unfortunately, I did not ask the questions the way she wanted them to be asked, but before I was cut off with poor reception, I found out that we could delay our departure, but that there would be an additional fee to pay. Again, once past some more navigational hazards, I rang again, but this time was placed on hold and once going through a poor reception area, lost contact with them again. However she pulled over at a service station, which we had been to earlier this holiday when heading south. But this time, as it was not when we usually went to them (i.e. before lunch) there was an issue with car parking as well as having to wait in line for food and the toilets. But my wife got the food while I hunted down a parking space and then found them. While eating lunch she made the various calls that were needed to delay our departure so that we could actually arrive on time and then we set off in good time.
But then we had decided to fill up with petrol in Rouen. Which on paper sounded great, but my iPhone, which would direct us to the relevant petrol stations was out of action, and the iPhone of my wife was using Google Maps as a SatNav, While this is great, it is no competition and due to a few more failings on my part, we wasted a lot of time there searching for petrol that we had hoped would be cheaper than on the motorways, but ended up paying more as well as losing time. And that was a big issue as now we had little margin for error. Fortunately, traffic was on our side and we made it with time to spare. We thought that we would be able to visit Duty Free, as my son had saved his holiday money to buy something there, but were ushered straight to the train. Cue a nap there, and then on the other side, freedom in England!
I am now at my in-laws house, with still no internet access (I am using the iPhone of my wife for this), and hopefully, if all goes well, it will be a trip to see my mother and then home.
