Tuesday, September 23, 2008
So this was the last day of Nick's and my France road trip! It was good. We packed up at Fontainebleau in the morning, and headed out. On the way, our cat from the night before made an appearance and jumped into my lap again, which was good -- it meant that it didn't die from the raw chicken it stole the night before. Also, we're pretty sure we saw, across the campsite, an English couple that had camped near us at Orpierre. We were in a rush, and they looked like they were too, and we weren't 100% sure it was them (Nick and I debated), so we didn't say hi -- but I think it really might have been them.
After packing up the campsite and eating breakfast, we drove off to Versailles. The plan was to spend 3-4 hours there, and to go into the palace, but when we got there, the ticket line was extremely long. Really, really, really long. It would have taken several hours to get a ticket. So Nick and I gave up and decided to wander around the grounds instead.
The grounds were nice, but chilly.
Unfortunately, there were a number of fountains on the grounds that weren't running. Nick claimed that they probably only ran occasionally on special-event days in the summer.
We also got a nice view of the Orangerie, which we didn't initially realize was the Orangerie.
At this point, Nick and I wandered back around to the front of the palace to see if the ticket line had gotten any shorter. It had not. We decided that visiting the palace definitely wasn't going to happen for us today, and also decided that next time we would buy tickets ahead of time, because if you already had tickets there was no line to enter the palace. It appears you can do this at FNAC or SNCF, whatever they are. That would definitely have been a successful strategy.
So Nick and I took a few more photos before we headed off.
At this point, Nick and I gather up our stuff and head off. On the way out of town, though, we drive past the Orangerie again, and decide that it would be a good place for lunch. There also appears to be free parking nearby -- on the sidewalk. Tons of other cars have done this too, so Nick does the French thing, drives right up on the sidewalk, and parks. So we eat lunch right next to the Orangerie.
From there, we have a rather boring drive to Dunkirque. When we approach Paris, I do get to see the Eiffel Tower from a distance.
The Périphérique proves somewhat exciting, and also challenging for Nick's GPS system, which at one point sends us straight through Paris (I did see what appeared to be the L'Oreal headquarters). Eventually we manage to navigate our way through.
Interestingly, Nick's GPS is as temperamental as he is. While it was fine on this day, because it was so overcast, the day before when it had been sitting on the dashboard in the sun, it occasionally would stop charging its battery because it would overheat. Nick loved that excuse to turn up the air conditioning -- "Even TomTom is hot!"
We made it to Dunkirque immediately before loading ended for the 6:00 ferry. We were technically booked for the 8:00 ferry, but we were hoping to get on the earlier one so that we didn't get back to Baldock too late. As we were waiting in line to check in, with only two cars ahead of us, the "Next Ferry" sign changed from 18:00 to 20:00. However, Nick was determined.
So we checked in, and were assigned a lane to wait in for the next ferry. Then we went through immigration, and it was actually by far the easiest time I've ever had at immigration from France to England. So we headed to our lane, but Nick's strategy was to just attempt to follow the cars in that lane for the earlier ferry, which were still being loaded. The car in front of us seemed to also be in our position, and also take our strategy. So, we acted clueless and just kept driving in behind the 6PM cars -- and were successful! We made it onto the earlier ferry and didn't get kicked off.
The ferry ride back to England was actually pretty tough, though. It's a 2-hour ride on this Norfolk Line, and the seas were bumpy. It was really poor weather outside, with lots of wind and rain. There were some pretty high waves we had to go over, too. At first, Nick started to feel seasick, but then I did too. So we walked around the ferry in circles for a while. Well, staggered. We definitely couldn't walk straight. At one point I noticed a sign mentioning "crockery" -- which appears to be quite a popular British word.
Eventually we finally made it back to the port in Dover. At this point it was pitch dark outside and icky weather, but we made it! From there, the drive back to Baldock was really pretty uneventful. Nick had no trouble readjusting to the left side of the road. Nick's parents were still on vacation in Portugal, so we had the house to ourselves to do laundry and generally spread stuff all over the place. (Also, we had to leave for Cambridge first thing the next morning, so unfortunately we seemed to leave a bit of a mess for his parents -- Nick's mother said "I was quite surprised to come back from Portugal and find a tent in my bathtub!")
So that was our trip! Next step is to upload residual photos to FB. Stay tuned.
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