Talk about good timing! France locks down at midnight Friday and we are on the last ferry - well, just about! Another dry, if grey, morning as we exit Les Sables d’Olonne northwards. I purchased delicious buns in Ste Marie de Ré yesterday just in case we fail on the boulangerie front and we have to get breakfast before we hit Loire Atlantique because they are in Zone Rouge where bars are closed. Nip and tuck, dear reader, as we got as far as Beauvoir sur mer before stopping. Ironically we probably could have driven down to our moules frites caff at Port du Bec for coffee but thought that would be just a touch too nerdish. Instead a noisy PMU bar as usual with three tvs on different channels, one of which is always MTV, and today the unlovely vision of a young Mick Jagger contorting himself.
Across the Loire at St Nazaire again. Very murky and the first rain for a while. Didn’t last long however and the rest of the slog up was mostly bright. But sooooo busy! We reckoned people must be stocking up before lockdown and everyone dashing back from half term too. Somehow I made a wrong decision re luncheon. My image had been of us partaking of soupe de poisson and shellfish on the terrace of some picturesque beach shack. But we didn’t get to a suitable turn off until after 12.30 because of traffic. It was Concarneau, a nice town with many restaurants near the water. But no - I thought it would be too busy and sent us off down winding roads towards a little port. This proved to be less than pretty, though it did have a few eateries. One was big and busy, the others looked dreary. We tried big and busy but they were heaving and told us to wait on the terrace and someone would come. Fifteen minutes later no one had so we used the facilities and left saying oh well we’re not really that hungry. Then to rub salt in the wound ended up going through delightful Concarneau with happy diners at the outdoor tables in the sunshine. That could have been us!
More motoring up through Finistère. More roadworks, detours and rats fleeing their sinking ship. Mention was made of stopping for crisps and ham (left over from previous days) but nothing came of it and as if by magic there we were surrounded by cauliflower and artichoke fields outside Morlaix. We needed a mini emergency shop for our return home to tide us over until Sainsburys deliver on Saturday. So into Leclerc St Pol de Léon, where we were met by a wall of panic buyers. Amazingly we managed to get milk butter bread pastis and yoghurts and get out in the space of ten minutes!
I reckoned St Pol must have a Salon de Thé. We parked near the cathedral and there was one - open. Nice lady who fed us good coffee and cake.
There was still an hour before we had to show up at Brittany Ferries so we spent that in Roscoff at the Chapelle Ste Barbe gazing out sadly at the town and the Ile de Batz in the sunset. Pont Aven was lurking by the quay. We also did a sorting of the garlic! It had been stinking the car out for days, which is unusual so we knew somewhere there was a rotten one . Several in fact!
Reluctantly we joined the queue checking in. So many British prepared to quarantine and rather a lot with non EU registration plates. Judases! Security checked everyone’s boots (car), sniffer doggies ran round excitedly, passports were checked by French border control. In the fullness of time we got on board and into our cabin then passed an hour overlooking the fancy atrium bar with orange juice and crisps - what a balanced diet we had today!
Slightly rough crossing but nothing major and we slept well. Once again our radio failed to transmit the soothing wake up music but we were awake so had plenty of time. Unloading took ages because of UK Immigration but because we had our Passenger Locator Forms visible on ipad screens we were waved through quite quickly although the Officer did look quizzically at my photo - taken when I had a severe fringe and had recently had a hair colour mistake with very dark brown!
Anyway now we are home and heating is on, log fire blazing, tea and toast consumed.
