Day two didn't start that well. We planned to have brekkie in McDs, it didn't open till 9am. Plan B, LIDL to get some pastries, supposedly opened at 8am. Didn't actually open till 8:30. Eventually found a supermarket by our fuel stop. Pastries and a drink consumed.
That wasn't the only problem though. I experienced a real Wagatha Christie event, when the Tomtom lady and the headset lady unfriended each other and I couldn't get them paired again. That meant I had to navigate to the fuel stop in silence. Once there though, I got the ladies talking again. More than can be said for Coleen and Rebekah!
Those issues aside, the day soon became a good day to be alive. The sun was shining and the roads were practically deserted. Cruising along at 50mph, it was just perfect. That feeling, you can't get in a car. We were at one with nature, me more so than Grizzly, as I had a big buzzard in the road in front of me at one point, flying out of the way just before I arrived at the roadkill it was feasting on, then later on, a young dear ran across the road in front of me. We couldn't have asked for a better ride. I really enjoy riding through France. I may just do a tour of France on its own. There is so much to see, the roads are great and the country is like most of the population has been abducted by aliens! Wherever you go, at whatever time of day, villages are deserted.
On route, we stopped in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, the home and final resting place of Charles de Gaulle. After that, we stopped off to take some photos of the Chaumont viaduct. It's not especially old, 19th century, but an impressive 3 tier structure.
From the bridge we had about a 40 mile journey to our coffee/lunch stop, McDs. Whilst we were in there, the heavens opened, not totally unexpected. Before we left, Grizzly put on his waterproof trousers. I rolled the dice, deciding not to tog up. It was raining lightly but the sky was brightening up, so I looked to have got lucky. No! The respite was short lived and I was forced to get the waterproofs on. It rained pretty hard and it looked like the day would end as bad as it had started but the last 40 minutes or so to the hotel had the sun out again.
We arrived at the hotel about 17:45. It was an auto check-in. I'd never used one like it before but managed to navigate my way through checking in and getting our room number and access code. All fairly painless.
As we are in an IBIS Budget hotel, there's no restaurant, so we went next door to the IBIS. Gammon and chips and 2 more beers were despatched. Beer count 4!
Here's some Day 2 pics.
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| The De Gaulle Monument |
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| A Mirage MK IV |
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| De Gaulle's Tomb |
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| The Chaumont Viaduct |
We have brekkie at the hotel tomorrow, so no chasing around to find a LIDL. Day 3 will see us heading into Italy, destination Vercelli. Till then. .
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