France holiday Day 1 - Calais to Epernay
Van packed in perfect time and ready for the Eurotunnel journey. Despite some M25 slowness from an earlier accident we made with almost an hour to spare. As soon as we parked up another campervan driver came over to smooze us over the van and kept chatting for a good 20 minutes! Eurotunnel facilities weren't quite airport standard but liked the 'walkies' area for holidaying dogs to get a last stretch and pre-travel poop.
All went very well until we came off the train when a couple of warning lights showed up on the dashboard - service and airbag - but had to put it down to a loose wire. Bloody attention-seeking van!
Our first toll road was 21 Euros and was a great, unstressful drive to Epernay. Stopped a couple of times to change driver but couldn't handle the heat too long outside. The satnav on the tablet worked well despite the bright, reflective conditions but our cigarette charger didn't work so luckily I downloaded the same app on to my phone. When we arrived at Epernay it was fully booked but thought nothing of it as I had reserved a place. What I didn't read properly was that I had to confirm again by email or the place would be lost by 4pm. Luckily the English speaking receptionist was very friendly and allowed us on a non-pitch area with electric hook-up. Then offered us a proper place tomorrow.
By now it was nearly 8:30pm and we didn't really have food to cook. I tried going into town to find a supermarket but all was closed. Still, managed to see Moet's grand HQ before returning empty handed. Instead we went back to the snack shop onsite and ordered pizza and beer. For nearly 13 Euros it was an amazing Tex Mex and 7% larger.
All went very well until we came off the train when a couple of warning lights showed up on the dashboard - service and airbag - but had to put it down to a loose wire. Bloody attention-seeking van!
Our first toll road was 21 Euros and was a great, unstressful drive to Epernay. Stopped a couple of times to change driver but couldn't handle the heat too long outside. The satnav on the tablet worked well despite the bright, reflective conditions but our cigarette charger didn't work so luckily I downloaded the same app on to my phone. When we arrived at Epernay it was fully booked but thought nothing of it as I had reserved a place. What I didn't read properly was that I had to confirm again by email or the place would be lost by 4pm. Luckily the English speaking receptionist was very friendly and allowed us on a non-pitch area with electric hook-up. Then offered us a proper place tomorrow.
By now it was nearly 8:30pm and we didn't really have food to cook. I tried going into town to find a supermarket but all was closed. Still, managed to see Moet's grand HQ before returning empty handed. Instead we went back to the snack shop onsite and ordered pizza and beer. For nearly 13 Euros it was an amazing Tex Mex and 7% larger.
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