Up at 5 and off to the Eurotunnel... which was running an hour late, but not to worry, all the Atoms were together in the car park (plus a Jaguar F-Type S) and in the queue, so we all got on together and off to France! The traditional sorting out of the stickers on the train, and we were ready for our grand tour of Europe.
We had been warned that weather there was rubbish, but arrived in sunshine. It did rain on the way though, so the waterproofs we were all wearing came in very handy. The morning was basically an A to B trip to our first overnight stop - a lovely, faded chateau run by an English woman. On the way, we stopped at St Quentin for lunch. We had thoughtfully booked our lunch stops for this trip - the idea being that if we got separated, we could meet up at least in the middle of the day, but managed to stay together. However, the restaurant that we had booked was closed, and our secondary stop was also closed until supper, but they were able at least to suggest a restaurant in the middle of the square... which for the summer had become a beach! The square was an architectural dream with some lovely old buildings, which were mostly peppered on gunshot wounds from WW2. It looked like the town had seen some action then.
After a very nice al fresco meal (during which the rain came down like stair rods), we continued our journey in a mixture of sunshine and rain.
Arriving at the hotel was an event, and we all settled into our rooms after tea was served in front of the lovely facade of the Chateau de Mairy. Then down to a delicious home-cooked supper which included some hooch which they make there that was fiery yet smooth and sadly only one glass each wasn't nearly enough. As we were in Champagne, of course, we had to have a bottle, which was excellent.
After the early start it was off to bed ready for the fun part of the driving to begin.
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