PAGE TWO
Cité Europe and Wimereux - Andrew (and work colleagues) - 2000
It had started off as a day trip to Calais with a few people from work, an extension of the social evenings we had already been enjoying. It slowly grew into three cars full of nine people (not in each, in total!) spending the weekend in France. The nine people being yours truly, Heather Walmsley and Andy Barrett in one car, Kelsey Hand and her partner Martin Shah in the second and Janson Woodall, his partner and daughter and her friend in the third.
We had intended to arrive in Calais, have something to eat in town, then head to a hypermarket, stay somewhere nearby and come home the following afternoon. But you know what they say about the best laid plans...
The first 'hitch' was that Calais was completely
booked up - and we had nine people to try and find accommodation for! Typically
we had picked the weekend that a big Bicycle Triathalon competition came
to Calais. Eventually we got booked up in a place called Wimereux,
nearer to Boulogne than Calais.
Various people made their way to Dover and loaded their cars onto the Ferry (I was about to drive on the Continent for the first time ever). The various groups met up on the Ferry and agreed to meet in the Place d'Armes in Calais.
I was travelling with Heather and Andy, and confidentally headed into Calais - at which point everything went a little crazy.
The Cycle race, it seemed, was due to travel right
through the middle of town, and to make this possible the French authorities
had closed both the main streets through Calais - one of which gives access
to Place d'Armes. After about an hour of struggling around unmarked
backstreets in Calais we decided to give up. The final straw had been finding
somewhere perfect to park not too far out of the centre of town only to be
told almost instantly that we couldn't park there. We had no way of
contacting the others, but we had to leave Calais - we weren't making any
progress at all. It later transpired the others had made it
to Place d'Armes after some struggling, but only happened across each other
briefly.
So, somewhat concerned about whether we would see the others again before the end of the day, myself, Andy and Heather arrived at Cité Europe, the massive shopping centre near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, sorry Tunnel sous la Manche. Kelsey had recommended this as a destination (being a keen shopper and an 'old hand' at cross-Channel shopping jaunts). It has to be said she was right. There are some magnificent shops there, so much cheaper than in Britain. The highlight must surely be the astonishingly BIG Carrefour hypermarket. There are quite literally walls and walls full of wine, amazing cheeses, wonderful foods of all kinds - we only explored half the shop. I vowed to come back here sometime soon with a bit more money!
Vague plans had been made to meet up in "The English Pub" in the centre to possibly see England play Germany in the last match at Wembley Stadium. Andy, Heather and myself found the pub, in truth called "The John Bull", but no football was in evidence (which in hindsight was probably a blessing as the game was an embarrassment). We waited for some long while for Kelsey and Martin, but no sign of them seemed forthcoming. After a while we gave up and headed for some more shops. Inevitably we then immediately bumped into Kelsey and Martin. Shortly afterwards we also found Janson's group and the trip began to get back on track.
The need to get away from spending anymore money (plus the need to get to Wimereux) eventually made us leave Cité Europe at around 6 pm. We had all been much more impressed than we had expected, and my car was now full of foodstuffs, wine and designer clothes bought at the sort of prices you couldn't imagine in London.
I chose to take the coast road to Wimereux as much as possible, this took us through some virtually deserted roads and tiny villages scattered in the folds of the Pas de Calais landscape, much prettier than we had expected it to be. Eventually we came down through the impressive looking (it was getting dark by now) Slack Dunes and into Wimereux. We found our Hotels easily and we checked in. Heather and me staying in one Hotel right on the seafront with the others all staying in a bigger hotel further inland, but on the same road.
We decided to eat at the Hotel the main group were staying in, and it was
a GOOD decision. The meals were excellent and the company entertaining. I
had seabream with rhubarb sauce and
a brilliant shortbread, strawberry and cream thing
for sweet - some of the others had a chocolate moose to die for. Thus
fortified we all went off for a quick walk around the town - which didn't
take that long Wimereux is not vast. Some of us then went into La Squale
(a pub) and had a few drinks before eventually calling it a day at around
midnight and heading back to our respective places of rest. Heather
and I arrived back at our hotel to find it locked, a janitor with a mop (straight
out of a film noir) was cleaning up in the restaurant and we had to bang
on the window to get back in. My room was above the green neon sign of our
hotel, so my room was cast in eerie green all night (reminiscent, I thought,
of detective films set in small town America with buzzing neon signs and
so forth).
Morning brought crunchy French bread and succulent croissants before myself and Heather went to join the others. We timed it perfectly, just as I got my camera out to take a picture the heaven's opened and we got quite thoroughly drenched (neither of us were dry by the time we got home). After a while the weather eased off a bit and we tried again.
We all went for a walk around Wimereux, heading first for the promenade above a large but windswept beach. Although short of the necessary people we had a brief attempt at playing chess on the big chess board on the promenade. Then we turned the corner and headed back into the main street and explored all the very French shops in the Town, including a superb fromagerie and an excellent boulangerie which equipped us all with croissants and baguettes to take home with us.
OUT AND ABOUT IN WIMEREUX
Eventually the time came for us to head back to Calais and the boat. Once more we all found each other on the Ferry home and docked in Dover in quite sunny weather, ironic considering the wetness of the whole weekend on the other side of the Channel!
Despite the chaos at the start of day one everything turned out hugely well and a good time was had by all, what more could you ask for? On a personal level the trip helped to restore some of my faith in France as a holiday destination after the struggles I had on my Picardy trip.
Paris - Andrew and Jacqui - 2002
It was accidental, but the trip Andrew and Jacqui did to Paris in August 2002 marked their first month together. This time it was by Eurostar. Having passed through to the train at Waterloo with no sign of a customs check we assumed that it would be done at the Gare de Nord. Although the train was very smooth it was suprisingly unluxurious inside and the buffet car was no more interesting than one on an Intercity train might be. We actually wandered down to the buffet car just as the train disappeared into the ground at Folkestone.
A very few minutes later (well, about 25 but it surely didn't seem that long) we emerged into France where night had already fallen. So it was that we saw little of the industrial north of Paris (not too bad a thing) before we pulled into the Gare de Nord. We bundled off the train and wandered out into the station, still awaiting a passport check. Unless it was meant to be done in the taxi rank there was none. Hailing a taxi turned out to be a little trickier than expected as the taxis lined up outside the station waived us in the vague direction of up the road in that dismissive way that the French display with aplomb. Eventually we found someone willing to take us to our hotel.
This, you would imagine, would be a simple task. But, oh no, today there were hundreds of rollerbladers and rollerskaters protesting about some minor law or another which stops them using their little forms of transport in the City. We sat at a crossroads watching them zoom by in a never ending blur of lycra. Eventually the last stragglers zipped by and we crossed the road, about 30 metres down the other side of the crossroads the taxi stopped outside our Hotel. We paid up and went inside and were greeted by an extremely stressed looking conciergie.
"Ah, Mr and Mrs Müller, I 'ave some good news and some bad news."
We didn't bother to correct his mistake but enquired about the bad news.
"The 'Otel is full."
Our jaws dropped and a suddenly tiredness began to roll across us.
"But ze good news is that we 'ave another 'Otel nearby which we can put you in."
This other hotel turned out to be one star up from our three star booking and a taxi was ordered for us. The Hotel we eventually arrived at was the Hotel Bradford (nice name!) and it was very much just off the Champs Elysses. The Hotel was beautiful, the room magnificent. We were happy bunnies indeed.
More will be coming soon.
Words coming soon.
Le Touquet - Andrew (and relatives) - 2002
Text coming soon.
Rodez - Andrew and Jacqui - 2003
Notre Dame Church, Rodez
Rodez Cathedral
Chapelle Royale
St. Aman's Church
In and around the Cathedral
Narrow winding street in Old Rodez
More views of the Cathedral
Text coming soon.
© Text copyright - Raving Loony Productions and Andrew J. Müller
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller, Jacqui Harris, Kelsey
Hand and Heather Walmsley
© Web Design and Layout - Andrew J. Müller
2004
