Down to Calais

Sunday September 19th

This morning it was cold, really cold. The thermometer inside said it was only 5° and that is cold. My awning had heavy dew underneath it and was dripping as if it were raining. So it was a good morning to have bit of a sleep in. By the time they were ready to leave I had had a chance to warm up and was ready for a long drive. It was once again a very straight forward trip on the piage and being Sunday devoid of trucks. They stopped to have lunch and also to buy me a drink of petrol.

The Tom Tom was programmed to take them to a camp site in Calais. The idea was to spend one night in Calais and do some shopping at Cite Europe on Monday and then go and spend Monday night over in Dunkirk ready for the ferry that leaves from there midday on Tuesday . But on arriving at the campsite at about 2.30pm they read a sign that said the office was only open between 8 and 12 on a Saturday and Sunday. There was absolutely no way you could get in without a gate code. Mary parked the van and went for a walk towards the sign that said camping cars while Alan looked for other campsites in the Tom Tom. She found that there were heaps of vans parked on the sea front where a place was put aside for campers at €7 for 24 hours, so they decided to drive me down there.

They got a great sunny seafront spot where they could watch the ferries coming and going into the port. They searched everywhere for a place to pay, with no luck and then found a sign which said to pay at the campsite around the corner. They realised that was not going to be a happening thing so they had a cup of tea and then thought they may as well walk into the main part of Calais and at least have a look at the centre.

Mary spied the Youth Hostel and suggested they go along there and ask if they could use their laundry as they still had the problem of not having done any washing for ages. They didn’t have a laundry but the woman there directed them to the one in town. They came back and collected all their washing and went off walking into town. It was not as easy to find as they thought so they ended up at the Information centre for additional directions. They finally found it and put two loads on to wash.

Mary suggested they go out walking while it washing and they walked to the local church which proved very interesting. Although there was no information in English it was obvious that the church has been severely damaged by bombing in the war. Over time they have rebuilt and repaired it. They have a set of very modern stain glass windows and have many of their ancient wooden sculptures are on display but not in the original fixed positions. Mary was annoyed they had left their cameras behind when they picked up the washing.

What was even more of a bonus was that a concert was about to take place. A young girl was giving a very longwinded explanation all in French about it. It turned out to be a concert of 17th and 18th century music on a harpsichord, viol and recorder with a vocalist and narrator. Apart from the narrator they were all female. They were all dressed in period costumes. M and A stayed and listened for as long as it took for the washing to finish, and it was a great way to pass the time and much better than sitting in a grotty laundromat.

Once the washing was dried they returned to me and organised dinner. Someone had been by to collect money for parking and had left a note to tell them to pay at the campsite around the corner between 8 and 12 in the morning. They watched the boats come and go until it was quite dark and then went to bed but it was quite hard to get to sleep as the boats were constant and it was very light because of all the lights at the port.