Beauvais

This morning at Newhaven the sun was shining, and after discussing this fact with a fellow lady van owner, she informed me she was off with some friends, to a meeting of Morgan and other classic cars which was being held on Saturday just south of Paris, and that we could expect to see the cars arriving for the ferry shortly.

It was not long before we could hear the throaty engines of the classic Morgans approaching, they were a real sight, and some over a hundred years old.

Besides the Morgans, there were other classic cars waiting to board the ferry, Lotus, Mini, Morris, Land Rover and more, some of them were on a car transporter destined for sale at a garage somewhere in France.

And as well as all these wonderful vehicles, there were of course many cyclists, all eager to arrive in Dieppe to begin cycling the 'Avenue Verte' to Paris.

With Marge safely secured on the vehicle deck of the ferry, we settled into the lounge and enjoyed a coffee, and whilst doing so, the cheery captain of the ferry came around and greeted us all with a 'bonjour'. The announcement of the public address system said the crossing would be moderate, so to be careful if you ventured outside. Still being on English time, we decided to head down to the cafeteria for a cooked meal at 1 pm (English time), but of course the ferry being French, they were running an hour later, so all the meals had finished. So for John and Angela, it was cold pizza left over from lunch yesterday, boiled eggs, crisps and nuts, eaten hastily as we departed Dieppe ferry terminal. Welcome to France!

As we drove south east from Dieppe, the swallows darted in front of Marge, it won't be long and they will be sighted in gardens back home in England. Now today should have been an easy drive in Marge, her being left hand drive in a country that drives on the right, but no, having mastered driving Marge in England yesterday, suddenly panic, unhappy driver and passenger. So back to basics, water bottle time, line it up with the centre white line, but then oh dear, 'don't drink the water in that bottle' now line the bottle up again! They say it's good to do something scary once in a while!

Tonight we are on an aire with quite a few other vans, including some English.

It is sited just above the town, and early evening we walked down to take a look at the large church, and the cathedral behind it, together they looked quite a sight.

To return to Marge, we had to climb up many steps, so we've decided to nick name tonight's stop 'High Nook', after somewhere we've heard about in south Wales.

This evening, with the sun shining brightly, we sat in Marge with her side door open, enjoying a much needed meal of chorizo and butter bean stew. Tomorrow we will travel south east around the top Paris, hopefully are nerves are now settled, just no one move the water bottle on top of the dashboard!