NO PIX THIS TIME
Aeons ago, it now seems, the British media were terrifying us with tales of fuel shortages in France. And we had a big-bucks villa booked near Béziers. So should we chuck out our spare undies and the holiday books we intended to read and smuggle in some diesel? Amazingly, because it rarely happens, diesel is presently cheaper in the UK.
Since we intended to cross La Manche by Chunnel (35 minutes) rather than ferry (90 min plus all the hassle of embarking and disembarking) I phoned the Chunnel authorities because they are picky about what you can stick in the car boot (LPG, guns, explosives and unpassported Syrian refugees, for instance, are frowned on). I was told 30 litres was permitted. This may not seem much but it represents one-third of the Skoda's fuel tank and is equivalent to 200 miles travelling.
In the end encouraging info from France suggested that the 10-litre jerrycan would be enough and the 20-litre can (which, when full, I doubted I could lift up to the car's filler cap) could be left at home.
What the British media should have dwelt on were the widespread problems of flooding south of Paris which appeared perversely (But then what's missing from France's tripartite slogan: Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité, is Perversity) to be concentrated on autoroutes and other major roads. If ever there was a case for carrying and using a satnav this was it and we managed to circumnavigate great blockages of stationary Peugeots and poids lourds (French for large lorries) and point ourselves south for more sun and less rain.
RR and VR, the oldsters, subsequently read their Kindles, over-ate and over-drank while the younger end went in for karting and - a new departure - arbor-adventure, of which there'll be more including pictures when I get home. Foolishly I left my camera/computer cable behind in Hereford.
Oh, I saw the Canadian F1 grand prix on telly. All intellectual stuff.
Reading, over eating/drinking. Sounds like a perfect break, RR
ReplyDeleteF1 - the only sport I've heard of offering $50,000,000/yr to wreck your team mate.
ReplyDeleteAvus: Maybe, but should one pay lip service to memory? These are ephemeral experiences and excess is hard to recall. But then is memory something we should be taking a break from?
ReplyDeleteMikeM: I'm not sure that wrecking your opponent's team-mates is any better, even if it is slightly less expensive. I look back on all those macho NFL events I watched and realise that I only became aware of the afternmath quite recently: a sort of mobile graveyard of the living dead. Where are you now Fran Tarkington? Roman Gabriel? Dandy Don? Gibbering over their morning cereal perhaps.
But there is another failing re. F1. Many races are mere processions and there have to be fallback diversions. FI is nothing without continuing reference to the laws of physics and the changing detail of evolving technology. And those are hard things to sell as entertainment. I'm not proud of being a F1 freak, you understand.