3 December 2022 - Waiting for a train

Miles driven today = 47

Total Miles to date = 4,775

If I don't leave France tomorrow I will have overstayed on the 90 days I am officially allowed, so all the way home from Southern Spain we have factored in a time allowance in case something went awry which resulted in us being delayed.  We therefore arrived in Calais this morning almost a full 24 hours before our train departure tomorrow and to a certain extent have been kicking our heels today as a result.

We started the day with a spot of booze shopping at the Aldi in Merlimont.  We are nowhere near the limits we are allowed to bring back to the UK but nevertheless there are now a few cases of vino rattling around in the garage.

Then it was a case of retracing our steps through Etaples and around Boulogne to the €10 a night secure aire at Calais.  I topped up the diesel shortly before we arrived.  Prices have gone up here over the last 3 months but I'm pretty sure they are still cheaper than the UK and we probably didn't have enough in the tank to get us back home anyway so prudence rules.

If the weather had been any milder we could have gone for a stroll on the beach but it's been absolutely brass monkeys, not getting above 4 degrees all day.  So we decided to walk into town instead to see if there was any interesting festive stuff going on.

My recollections of Calais from previous visits were that it's a rather dreary place and that its only saving graces were a few mildly interesting pieces of architecture.  Things haven't really improved I'm afraid but the Town Hall with its totally OTT clock tower is always worth a look.

In front of the building was a virtually deserted and rather tacky Christmas themed area, complete with a couple of bored looking donkeys.

The Grand Theatre also had a Christmas Fair of sorts complete with antique Jules Verne themed roundabout, but this was equally poorly attended.  Admittedly it was lunchtime and a few of the shops were closed but we couldn't work out why there were so few people out and about on a Saturday barely 3 weeks before Christmas.

We made our way back to the van via the Tour du Guet, a watchtower which dates back to the 13th century.

I decided to have a little snooze when I got back.  It's fairly quiet here at the aire but for a while all I could hear was the roar of dozens of motorbikes.  Lisa spotted them and reckoned they were all kitted out in Santa suits.  But peace has now returned for our final night of the trip.

4 December 2022 - Safely home