Journey home part three

Leaving Carcassonne, we headed off to the motorway in the direction of Clermont Ferrand. During the motorway stretch, we came suddenly upon the Millau Viaduct, an incredible feat of engineering, designed by Norman Foster. It spans the valley that is home to the village of Millau and it was designed to reduce the impact of holiday traffic on the village's narrow streets. It boasts the highest road deck above the valley floor in the world - some 800 feet!


It's a real beauty of a place and we zoomed across it, snapping a few pics as we went. It's better approached from the north where you have a good view of the bridge before you actually arrive upon it.

The rest of the journey was long but straightforward and we pointed the car towards Montmarault and then to the home of our friends, John and Judith who live in Le Grand Coudrais - a hamlet that barely exists on the map but is home to the gorgeous barn in which they live.

We stayed here two nights, enjoying their company and the good food and drink that they serve! One lovely trip out, in the rain, was to Montluçon, a little town with an excellent restaurant where we dined heartily and drank a little too much pink!

On then to Compiègne where we stopped a very comfortable night at Du Palais au Jardin apartments. This was beautiful and very well appointed - we'd treated ourselves! Out in the evening for a lovely Italian meal - sacrilege, I know - then to bed and after a very French breakfast, back on the road.

This was to be our last day of travelling in France and we headed to Calais and the Eurotunnel terminal. This speedy method of getting across the Channel has had a bad press recently but we saw no sign of the Jungle, nor of any migrants attempting to board vehicles. Instead we headed into the terminal and caught a train two hours earlier than our scheduled one.

Once on the other side, we stopped at Dover at the Ramada - the location of another adventure, when Gabrielle did her mammoth row from Tower to Tower. A quiet afternoon was spent in front of the fire in the hotel lobby and then a nice meal before a good night's sleep. Then breakfast, a trip across to Marlow to drop off the keys to our Portugal house with the very kind owners and then hammering up the M40 and M6, back to home.

And really, it was very nice to be back. The weather was kind to us and the house was snug and welcoming. So, as we have said already, we're ready to do it all again next Winter. However, we'll probably just drive from Santander and back rather than the rather lengthy trip of our return journey.

Praia da Luz to Andújar - 526km
Andújar to Sant Carles de la Ràpita - 636km
Sant Carles de la Ràpita to Carcassonne - 480km
Carcassonne to Montmarault - 497km
Montmarault to Compiègne - 430km
Compiègne to Calais - 219km

A total of 2788km or 1,732 miles

Plus Dover to Bishops Offley via Marlow - 121 miles +132 miles

Grand total, 1985 miles! Phew. Now it's time to get back to normal ...