We survived the night by leaving the air-con on which was not so bad. Breakfast was very nice and I enjoyed the fruit not having had to cut it up myself (last enjoyed in Monschau on our first morning in Germany!). It was a quick check-out and after the length of the walk into Reims last night, we had decided to take the car in, parking in a covered multi-storey I had found last night on Google maps. What wasn’t clear was exactly how tight both the entrance and the ramps up between each level… or the spaces when we eventually found them. Somehow I managed no scrapes but I was holding my breath.
We walked to the cathedral and managed to somehow circumvent huge queues of people waiting for tours to go in by going the end of a Viking Tour group and splitting off when we got inside. I may be in the minority but we are lucky to have visited a number of cathedrals across Europe and this one in certainly not in the top ten as the guide books suggest. A large number of the figures and gargoyles are damaged on the outside of the cathedral and inside, the cathedral is quite dark in places although the stained glass is nice. I enjoyed the modern stain glass designed by Marc Chagall. It just wasn't very impressive. Sadly, the similarity between Reims and Paris is in name only. It started to rain and so we walked briskly back to the car, me worrying about the downward drive but managed yet again to avoid a scrape and I was well revived to reach the road.
The final part of our grand trip was to finish up in a French hypermarket with a view to replenishing wine and cider supplies. This D L’Clerc one was massive - probably the biggest we have visited out of all of those last September. In the end we had a trolley and spent well over an hour here although we did buy a picnic lunch as well. Colin even bought four Maigret duck breasts which involved also buying a chiller bag and two bags of ice to keep them cold until we got home. It took quite a bit of reorganisation to fit everything in although at least this time we didn’t have to hide items as we will not be leaving the car anywhere on our return journey.
I was back in the driving seat for the last stretch of the journey on the continent and it was a long drive. Luckily most of the way was on the motorways - sadly no autobahns now. We planned a detour just before Calais and stopped facing the sea at a little seaside town called Wimereux. Actually a very nice little town and we finally got to eat our picnic from L’Clercs.
Colin took over for the stretch to Calais and the long wait to board the shuttle back to Folkestone and then - having to revert to the left side of the road - drove the last hour and a half back to Teddington along the M20 and M25. We notice the difference in driving and also the slower speed limits.
Goodbye Germany and France. We’ve travelled a total of 1,720 miles door to door and 183,621 footsteps in total - an average of 9,181 a day which is good as a number of days were spent driving from place to place. Time for a rest - I think we need a holiday now!!
