Day two – Folkestone to Reims
| Distance today – 305 km | Journey time – 3h 20m |
| Total trip distance – 776 km | Total journey time – 9h 00m |
We woke in the Relish a bit tired as the bed wasn’t quite as good as it first seemed. Never mind, time for a shower. Or time to get water-boarded by leaking shower head. On the way down to breakfast we took a walk by the sea, a bit windy and dull. Then back for breakfast at exactly the prescribed time, 08:15. There were a few juices, pieces of fruit and bread for toasting available so we grabbed a few items before our ordered hot breakfast arrived – a very basic omelette and avocado on toast. So unexciting we didn’t take pictures.
We repacked the car (this is going to be a daily occurrence) and headed off to the Channel Tunnel, just 15 minutes away. My first time, Jo’s second, we waited a bit for boarding before driving towards the train in what seemed a bizarre and unnecessary sequence of roads, punctuated by waiting in line with at passport control (twice) or for other unknown reasons. Once at the train we boarded the “Large” vehicles carriage – a good job as it felt pretty narrow and I didn’t fancy having scraped alloys.
It was, however, a brilliant engineering solution for loading and unloading, so the maze of roads did seem to result in getting on and off pretty fast.
The journey through the tunnel was short (25 minutes) and generally uneventful. The only issue was the movement of the car in the train, and the movement of other cars when viewed from your car. Everything was bobbing around, making it quite a sea-sick rich environment. We just looked down at phones or other entertainment and avoided watching the sick-inducing movements.
Once off the train we quickly found the autoroute which took us to Reims, which was something like 2.5 hours on a double laned road at 130km/h with little traffic. It might have cost us around £20 in tolls but it was worth it for the ease of the journey.
Before finding the hotel we had a stop to make – our first motoring-themed location. Reims-Geaux is the site of an old racing circuit, with the grandstands and pit stops either side of what is now a regular road. The site went out of business in 1972 when it ran out of money, but the buildings are beautifully and eerily still there, and free to explore. They’re in remarkably good, if not faded, shape. Fascinating place, and a bit of a mecca for motorsport fans. Even Jo enjoyed the surprise stop (honestly!)
Then onto the hotel in the centre of Reims, where we dropped the bags at the hotel and then parked the car in its own snug bed for the night, in a private space nearby. Hotel rooms was nice, even if the tap wasn’t attached to the sink. I particularly liked the magazine rack next to the toilet, even if the magazine in it didn’t feel like the right kind.
We walked into Reims to find lunch, but found cakes, then wandered to the cathedral of Notre Dame. Pretty big place, with stained glass of various ages as some was lost during WW2 bombing.
Since it was Sunday, very little was open, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest before returning into the centre for dinner. We found a French restaurant which served only duck dishes, which we really liked despite it feeling quite modern and not as traditional as most French establishments (which were mostly closed!) We shared foie gras, then I had a minced duck burger and Jo had half a duck breast (which we decided was actually what we’d call a duck breast, but because it has two the French call it a half). With that, back to the hotel and bed.
