Well in the end we had a 3 day trip to the Loire, P & O Dover-Calais and set the Tomtom on avoid toll roads and headed for Amboise which is northern Loire near Tours and had the advantage of avoiding Paris on a Friday evening.
The route took us accross to Rouen then due south passing the banks of the Seine and heading towards Evereux, Chartres, peeling off just before Tours to arrive at Amboise, passing through villages en-route. French roads are fantastic and easy to drive, tree lined (apparently Nepoleon wanted shade for his troops - so I was told - although quite why he put in so many roundabouts I'll never know
- the French do love their roundabouts), passed endless fields of wheat and occasional sunflower, oilseed rape and barley- the French clearly look after their farmers - which was great to see - our government and the supermarkets could learn a lot from the French.
- 07.1 tree lined road.JPG (194.58 KiB) Viewed 5151 times
- 08 - sunflower field.JPG (211.06 KiB) Viewed 5151 times
1 tank of gas easily did the 300 odd miles from Calais all the way down to Amboise - and filling stations were frequest if we had wanted them - although the price of fuel varies enormously - there is a chain called Elan - which I know lots of people have heard of - which seemed to do the most expensive fuel, whereas supermarkets seemed to be over 20-30% cheaper.
The non-toll option had the advantage of max speed of 110km/h (70 ish) on Dual Carriageways - of which there were few after Rouen, single carriageway roads were 90km/h(55) -which is a great poodling pace (and was reduced to 70 or 50 kmh as we went through villages and towns) rather than the 130 max on the toll roads. With the roof down, 130 (85 ish mph) sustained speed can be a bit uncomfortable if you have hair (like my beloved), besides we wanted a relaxing pace.
Roof down all the way - it was fantastic!
The BRG behaved impeccably - and got loads of admiring looks and even a few comments - we only saw one other Lotus (Elise) on the entire trip, we stayed at the Ibis in Amboise - one of the less exciting hotels I know but being as the weather is so changable this year we wanted to have the option to cancel at the last minute without being charged - we figured we could just head for the sun if it came down to it, it was relatively cheap and the town of Amboise was close by if we had wanted to pop out for a meal.
The following day we had a drive round the local area and looked round the Chateau Chenonceau followed by a late dinner and then drove back the day after having filled up with well over a dozen bottles of wine.
Fantastic break, now planning another trip before Summer ends - probably going to do Le Shuttle this time (well it would be a shame to spend the Tesco vouchers on anything else) so the crossing will cost us £6 plus the vouchers - and poodle off to Belgium or more likley Monet's gardens at Giverny - just outside Paris - tempted as I am to do the Champs Elysee for a giggle I think I'll save that for another trip.
, this will take us near to Lille and down - 9am from Dover - lunch somewhere in France and then get down to Champagne region for the evening.
, champers 
and the wind in my hair 
, for me the joy is the hood down and cruising 
