Ducks have right of way

We were up early ready for breakfast and then our journey further south and east towards the Channel Tunnel. As has been customary over the last few years, we headed first west around the M25 past Heathrow airport and then under London. This route takes approximately the same time as the northern route but avoids having to go over the QE2 bridge!

On our journey we experienced one of the most bizarre events of this (or any) year’s trip: the M25 coming to a complete halt to allow a duck and her 6 ducklings to walk across the motorway to reach the central reservation! Only in Britain is this sort of thing likely to happen I suspect!

Surprise surprise, beer is involved!

Having crossed under the channel we stopped to visit the euro shopping centre on the outskirts of Calais… surprisingly (not!) there was a 3 Brasseurs brew pub where we stayed for lunch… and a small beer

Whilst eating lunch we received a phone call from our hotel for the night at Boulogne explaining that we could only have one room due to “technical difficulties”, we decided that we would take this but would discuss with the hotel when we arrived later.

Chasing Bonaparte

On the outskirts of Boulogne there is a large column with a bronze statue of Napoleon on top which is where the first Legion d’Honneur were issued. So just to prove to my friends who think I am only interested in World War 2, we decided to go and have a look at it.

Suitably impressed, we then moved on to Boulogne (note to those wondering… no, I didn’t climb up the stairs to have a look from the top!!)

On arriving at the hotel we were informed that the problem was with the water in one of the rooms as there had been a leak. They allowed us to look at the room that they had allocated to us but it was quite small and given Glyn’s and my snoring capabilities we ask them if there was anything else that they could offer.

Unfortunately they did not have any other rooms, however they arranged for us to be accommodated at another hotel approximately half a mile away in the centre of Boulogne. This worked really well, once we were eventually able to park outside of the hotel unfortunately Boulogne has an intricate one way system designed such that you cannot get to where you want to be!

Also, to say that the lift was “snug” is an understatement!!

Having dropped our bags we had a wander around Boulogne and a few beers, eventually ending up with a “hot dog American” and chips. The plan was, as we had eaten well at lunch time, for this to be more of a snack but the foot long sausage in a foot long baguette with a huge pile of chips gave a new definition to the word “snack”