Summer holiday 2004
le Cap D´Agde − France


Wednesday, 9th July

Finally! The holidays have started. Today we leave for two weeks of leisure in the south of France. I have been looking forward for this moment for so long. Two whole weeks under the sun, swimming in the Mediterranean, visiting some remarkable places and travelling through the beautiful French countryside. It is 6:30 AM in the morning as we leave and it is still quite dark. The travel plans are pretty much the same as last years. Only this year we have two stops for the night.

Around 7:30 AM arrive at Roosendaal after which we follow directions to Etten-Leur, and then to Vlissingen. When we cross the provincial boundary from Brabant with Zeeland and we plunge down into Zeeland we follow directions to Antwerp. This will lead us to the Liefkens tunnel that runs underneath the river Schelde into Belgium. We pay the Euro 4,00 fee that is required for using the tunnel and head on.

Shortly after passing through the tunnel we reach the freeway again. This freeway runs from North-South through Belgium and will bring us to our next objective, the town of Kortrijk near the French border. After about half an hour the sun starts to rise over the horizon and gradually the day sets in. Just before we reach Kortrijk we take a twenty-minute stop for some gas, coffee and leg stretching. Then we are back on the road again, leaving Kortrijk behind us and following directions for the French city of Lille.

It is 10:15 AM when we arrive at Lille and at first glance the northern part of Lille seems a maze of roads that merge and break up again leading to the centre, or to various other destinations. And let me tell you, we are not alone here. The density of the traffic is immense. That is the down side of travelling by day. We keep a close eye out for the road signs and manage to find our way through this maze of roads and follow directions that ultimately bring us to entrance of the turnpike road leading to the city of Reims.

From here on traffic becomes far less dense and more relaxed. We are now on the A1 that will later merge with the A26/E17 freeway which cuts diagonally through France and north of Lyon will join with the Route du Soleil. The weather is excellent and we are making good progress. Around 10:24 AM we pass Douai and about an hour and a half later at 12:07 AM we pass by the city of Reims.

Here the turnpike road ends, and we pay a toll of € 13,10. it is now 13:15 PM in the afternoon and we decide to have a pit stop. Having passed Reims we enter the turnpike road again and start looking for a restaurant. After about fifteen minutes we come across a road restaurant where we pull over for a coffee break.

After a cup of coffee and a bite to eat we continue our travel south. When we reach Bouane at around three o´clock we decide that it has been enough for today. We exit the turnpike road and pay the toll; € 24,10. We are in no hurry at all. The apartment that we rented will not be at our disposal before Saturday afternoon. Therefore we have planned for two days of travel and two night stops.

We drive towards the town of Beaune and at the first round about we already spot two hotels. A fairly large hotel right in front of us, and a much smaller Relais hotel somewhat more to the right. We option for the smaller one, park the car and go inside to find out if they have two rooms available for the night. Luckily (we did not make any reservations) there are still two rooms available. These prove to be not so very large, modest, clean, and furnished with a small bathroom, telephone and TV.

Soon after we are sitting on the large lawn along side the swimming pool, enjoying the warm sun while the kids are taking a swim. After having enjoyed a relaxing sunbath we clean up, have a nice dinner outside on the terrace under a setting sun and an early nights rest. This is a motel that I can recommend.