La Faisanderie Calais

... way to Boulogne. After parking the car and getting settled in at the hotel, we went for a bit of exploring.

Boulogne (which is pronounced 'ba - loin'...at least to us English speaking folk) is an old town which has been settled for around 2000 years. Like many towns around Europe, there is an old walled part of the town, with subsequent urban sprawl around the outside. Inside the walled off part of the town, we found a 'car park' (it's official ...

Boulogne is a town that seems to have grown a lot. Its old city center is still surrounded by its old fortress walls. The city that sprawls outside of this is somewhat drab and uninspiring but within the walls there is a great feel for what it used to look like with its cobbled stones and old city hall building. We stopped at a small café to warm up and then we walked along the walls of the city enjoying the view of the city ...

Next stop was Calais, sort of. We didn't really stay in Calais but we kept getting drawn back there for one reason or another. It is the closest city to the U.K at just 34kms of water in between the two. We first decided to stop there to stretch our legs and grab a bite to eat. The city isn't huge and besides a few nice buildings there wasn’t too much to see. We got some good food at a restobar ...

18th September

Staples 2 Naples – Day 1 – Calais to Sarnen.

Last night I was well fuelled up on continental 6% European blond beer! Real lethal stuff, it was served in 3 litre tubes, we had 3 of these between 4 of us!!

Not a good mix after just 1 hour sleep in 2 days!

After drinking this and signing up for the rally, with a few more beers, i was told we are heading for a ...

... was rather a unique experience. The last time we were here, we headed over via the Channel Ferry. This time we went under the Channel rather than over it. With the winds as they were, it was probably a better choice and definitely faster. We were in the Calais train station within about 30 minutes. There is a very large mall just outside the train station, so as we had already toured that area ...

... 1 litre every 40 seconds and we took almost 50 litres. 30 minutes I had my finger presses to that damn "fill" button! So we are on this ferry, now heading back to Dover for reasons as yet unknown!!


- Injuries

It turns out we damaged an crew member on our departure so return to drop him off with A&E!
On our way again, 45 mins late

... when all cinema tickets will be fixed at 3.50 Euros. They are a wonderful nation, always something unexpected happening... I wasn't waxing quite so lyrically when the wind reached the point of buffeting the car uncomfortably and the rain meant that visibility was just too poor for me to carry on driving. I guess I was quite tired but I definitely felt unnerved so pulled off and waited for a while for it to subside. Felt pretty ...

... lady takes me around and explains its architectural and artistic features, explaining that it is the only church outside of England that is designed in a Tudor style. Down at the port I go through British customs, where I am put through the usual 20 questions, and the woman officer asks me how I am supporting myself while travelling, and I lie to her and cheekily say I'm quite well off, and she smiles and lets me through, no doubt thinking that I'm another brash Australian.

... added benefit that we kept to similiar schedules: we needed about the same time to get up in the morning to be ready for the day, we went to bed a roughly the same time, we were crazy party girls. After getting the room assignments, a number of us rushed back down stairs and hopped back on the coach to make it up to Montemartre, the highest point in Paris. Tanya and a couple of Oregon girls tried to bolt for the top to catch the twinkling of the Eiffel ...

... cheap place to shop. Heck, Calais is even a cheap place to shop for Americans. The grocery store at the mall was much like a Walmart Super Store in the states, except this one had the largest liquor section I have ever seen: 6 aisles the depth of the store and one wall the wine was stacked 15' high. I have never seen so many varieties of wine and spirits in one place either. I was able to buy Absythne here, which is illegal in the states ...