BRIAN REID PHOTOGRAPHER

France 2024 Day 1 St Neots to Ouistreham

Saturday, 6 April 2024 22:34

It is great to be on a trip again and so far so good, almost! The driving was fine with the usual delays on the M25, a quick charge at Portsmouth and a smooth ferry ride to here, at Ibis Styles in Ouistreham. The almost bit was that on exiting the ferry the car thought we were in Portsmouth! Fortunately the hotel is literally over the fence from the port and I was able to confirm directions with Google Maps on the phone. The final picture is from my hotel window. It turns out a Tesla will lose track of where it is if it cannot keep a link to the GPS satellites for more than 4 hours and it takes about 30 minutes to re-establish connection which I can confirm. It is no longer lost. Phew! Here are a few snaps mainly from my departure from Portsmouth. The real fun starts tomorrow. There is another little “almost”. My destination is Chinon in the Loire Valley and the hotel has kindly advised me TODAY! that all roads are closed in the town from 8 am to 4 pm due to the Chinon marathon. As it happens this is not likely to have an impact as I do not expect to get to Chinon by 4pm but a little notice would have been good and I may have made alternative lodging arrangements.