WEEK FOUR

Before bidding farewell to Bath, we biked into town for the last time. Grabbing a pastie and watching a busker out the front of the Roman Baths was a nice way to say goodbye.

We hit the road (along with everyone leaving Glastonbury) and headed back to London to see family again and also pick up our rego papers for Peggy (required to have before leaving the country).

We hadn’t been into Central London this trip as we’ve already seen all of the touristy stuff, so thought we would head into Shoreditch for dinner and some drinks. We stumbled upon The George and Vulture and it just so happened to be ‘Buy One Get One Free’ pizza night. Heaven.

After dinner, we walked to Brick Lane (eclectic street full of bars, eateries and shops) and met an old friend at The Cocktail Trading Co for drinks, if you could call them that (Moet Rose with Absinthe + Whisky, anyone?).

Tuesday was Nick’s (the Cousin) birthday. To celebrate, we hit Chinatown for some Dim Sum (yum) then Waxy O’Connors for some post-dinner beers (underground Irish pub channelling Hobbiton) before hitting G-A-Y (for the £1.80 drinks, obviously).

Note: Jack’s cousin lives in London, so we had a free place to park Peggy for two nights and a local telling us the best places to visit. Win, win.

Wednesday we (slowly) drove our hangovers to East Horsely in Surrey to visit a family friend who is currently living over here and working at The Duke of Wellington, no less. Fun fact: Isaac worked at The Duke of Wellington in Lambton before travelling. We didn’t have anything left in the tank so stayed down the road at Horsley Caravan Park (£24.50).

Feeling much brighter on Thursday, we decided to head to Brighton (lol). It was only a short drive and we arrived to more overcast weather, prefect for a day at the seaside…

First port of call was Brighton Pier which is everything you would imagine it to be. We walked through the arcades and past the shops selling all the junk food you could want before reaching the rides at the end of the pier.

After we’d had enough of feeding 2p coins into the arcade games, we walked down to the (pebbled) beach for fish and chips and a milkshake. After a quick stroll through the city and past the Brighton Pavillion, we set off for Dover where we wild camped at the marina overnight.

On Friday morning we explored Dover Castle. The £19.40pp entry fee warranted spending half the day here, so we did. The grounds were enormous and being set so high above the city, the views were incredible. Some of the structures were mind blowingly old (1st Century AD Roman Lighthouse) and some not so old – the Wartime Hidden Tunnels were created for and used throughout WW1 and WW2.

From here, we travelled to Folkestone and said farewell to England. The Eurotunnel to Calais was £156 and after some delays, we finally set off in reach of France and the true European summer we’ve been waiting for.

We arrived into Calais late and decided a caravan park would be the easiest option for tonight. The closest one was L’Escape Camping and cost €17 for the night.

Saturday involved a huge drive (and many (one-way) shouting matches with Google Maps) from Calais to Normandy. We finally arrived at Omaha Beach, for one of Jack’s history lectures and aside from the giant sculpture on the beach, it was just a beach. No remnants of a war gone by, just people going about their day and enjoying the sunny (albeit frigid cold) weather.

On our way to Juno Beach (another of the D-Day beaches), we luckily made it to the American Military Cemetery right before closing. All of the movies and popular culture that romances these sorts of places doesn’t remotely compare to actually standing there. The sheer amount of loss was heartbreaking, every tombstone had a name and a place of birth and a 1×1 meter allotment of the ground they died on. We’re fortunate to have experienced it.

At Juno Beach, we found a little oceanside carpark that allowed ‘camping cars’ to stay for free overnight (no facilities). We wandered around the beach (with real sand) before calling it a night.

On Sunday we visited the real life Disney Castle aka Mont Saint Michel. Its hard to grasp how huge and impressive it is – you can see it from the highway 20 kms away. We visited three times in total as the €17.20 overnight carpark fee included unlimited free shuttles and adventures to the fairytale city which is open 24/7 (as are the toilets). Must see if in France and definitely the highlight of our trip so far.

Things we have learnt since arriving in France:

• Driving on the opposite side of the road is not as hard as it would seem
• The language barrier is real and English signs/prompts etc are not a thing
• Bags of ice are SUPER rare (have had to ask the deli for shredded ice for the esky)
• Camembert cheese tastes different

Until Week Five. Au Revoir x