July 19 - Channel Crossing and the French Coast

We were up early this morning for a very mediocre breakfast at the hotel before driving to nearby Dover to catch the cross-Channel ferry to France.I'm going to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank whoever designed the Dover ferry terminal, because it is the model of efficiency. Our license plate was scanned as we drove up so that our tickets were waiting for us once we'd cleared French border control (which took seconds) and a minute later we were in the correct lane (out of over 200) to board the ship. The whole thing puts the Marine Atlantic terminals in the Maritimes to shame I'm afraid.




The crossing itself was also lovely; the boat was clean and comfortable, the weather was great, and we got some amazing views of the White Cliffs, like this one!

And this one from the middle of the Channel!

And then just as we were nearing France, this one!

Although the French coast isn't as recognizable as the one behind us, it is just as scenic.

Our first impressions of the country were mixed: we drove along a beautiful coastal road, but got lost several times along the way as the highways are really not signed very well. Views like this made the few detours worthwhile, however.

Although you can't see it in this picture, this hillside is dotted with Second World War German pillboxes, which adds an very different mood to the otherwise glorious coast.










 After stopping for lunch in a nice little seaside town we continued on to Wimereux Communal Cemetery, where Lieut. Col. John McCrae, author of In Flanders Fields, is buried. This was the first of many military cemeteries we would see in France, and it was a very sobering experience for all of us.












We then drove a little further south to Boulogne to meet up with the main motorway, and what did we find? A giant eggplant. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it being there, but it wouldn't make it any less weird.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived at our bed and breakfast, the Domaine de Vadancourt, around dinner-time. The eighteenth-century chateau was destroyed in World War One and was rebuilt in the 1920s - I would saw they've done a pretty good job!




We tried to find a nice dinner in the nearby town of St.-Quentin but for some reason everything was shut, so we ended up at "Quick Burger". That was a little bit of a disappointment, but it was certainly better than nothing. We'll hope for better luck on the food front tomorrow as we tour Vimy Ridge and the battlefields of the Somme.

GWV