Len, John, Martin and myself all set off at 11pm for the overnight ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff in France. The weather was fine although they had forecast a high tide due to the Equinox. Martin took what we grew to know as the ‘packhorse’ (VW Passat Estate); there was going to be some heafty haulage going on. John R took his Porsche Boxster so we wern’t going to get a lot in there, but for John and I it was a good pose!
The crossing as calm, as a precaution the sea sick tablets were taken and washed down with the required 3 or 4 pints of lager, once on board. The cabin was, to say the least, small. In fact there was really only standing room for one. The bunk beds were ok and after the lager and the bar were closed, the engines and rocking had the desired effect; we all managed at least 3 hours sleep.
Once over in sunny France the roads were nice and clear. Martin knew the area well and we stopped for some breakfast at Morlaix (The town of the 19th Century viaduct built with pink granite, see link to pictures). What a beautiful little town this was. With its roots to the 12th Century, it’s designed around a majestic central promenade, city hall, and Abbey Church (1238-1250) adjacent to the Museum Des Jacobins. The market was excellent, although Martins obsession with Vegetables started to worry us; even John R bought some tomatoes (we are still wondering why? perhaps he was swept away with the shere ambience…).
After refreshment and food we set off to stock up the cars with Wine (plus spirits for Len of course 😉 ). The roads in France are always empty, which is just as well as we were driving on the wrong side of the road; even worse John R was driving… Martin was very considerate and even took us on a few detours just to show us how easily he can turn the car around…
3 supermarkets later, we were knackered and broke. Time for Lunch just before the Ferry took off. We stopped at Roscoff for a sandwhich. Time was tight for the ferry and Len gave us our marching orders 10 minutes before boarding was due. All seemed ok…
When we arrived at the Ferry, Martin and Len went past customs, etc. without a hitch and lined up in due fashion. Then it was our turn… John’s Porsche obviously went down well with the Ferry Customs police as they decided to stop us and have a closer look. After 10 minutes of searching (they did wonder why we were on a shopping trip and only had ONE bottle of wine in the boot!), we eventually set off and boarded the Ferry. Len and Martin seemed very concerned…
We were all tired. Len (‘SuperLen’ to his friends) 
dozed off for a quick 30 winks. It was beautiful weather and the sea was calm. We were calm. At least until Len made an observation about the seagulls and how they managed to fly without flapping their wings. That was it. Argument (discussion if we must) followed. I guess we must have been quite loud as there were guests on deck when we started ‘discussing’ this issue. After 10 minutes it was just US on the deck! All except one man who looked on bemused at our discussion, not sure if he should comment. He did. It didn’t help. We all decided to change the subject…
After a refreshing meal in the Restaurant it was almost time to hit the shop on the boat, we needed to spend even more money…
Back to blighty around 8.30pm – tired little boys. Then a quick trip to each house to drop off the contents of what seemed like a portable off-license.
All in all, if anyone’s interested, a BRILLIANT couple of days with some really good friends, I’m looking forward to the next excursion to pick up the discussion about the ‘aerodynamic properties of seagulls’….
Lastly – if you havn’t clicked the links to the photo’s yet click here.
Web Notes and Ramblings 