The Final Foray Through France

10/04/21

We awoke to a sunny morning, prepared ourselves as best we could in the small-ish quarters and drove back into town. Mike somehow recalling the location of a bakery we’d passed the day before 🤪

A display case full of delicious looking temptations was fully stocked, as were the shelves of bread behind the counter.

What a way to start the day 😍 
We walked back to the RV, goodies in hand, walking by the ever eye-catching scenery.

Much that we saw, being old walls built from hand-picked and assembled stones. 
The labour that was put into the things we so casually pass by, causing one to stop in total awe if you pause long enough to consider what it is you’re actually seeing 😳

Mike drove us to the waterside in Fort – Mahon Plage, so we could eat our goodies with a view.

Not eating them outside, as the wind was pelting sand around and causing a general feeling of unpleasantness 😜

Once we licked the crumbs off our fingers, our drive began again.

And I didn’t even relocate to the ‘back seat’ 🤪 
We stopped at a grocery store, as what trip of ours is really complete unless we overspend in a local grocer ?? 🤪 
This was just a small section of their chip selection.

Please take the time to read all of those vastly different flavours 😅🙈
A drastic change from Holland, where they have very few chip flavours (the main one being ‘paprika’) compared to many places.

We journeyed on through little, and large French towns. Pausing at places with viewing opportunities as necessary, slowly moving back towards Holland.

We considered going to Europe’s largest aquarium in Boulongne-Sur-Mer, but when we drove by, they were closed 😕 
Making that probably once in a lifetime opportunity, a non opportunity 🤪

We went into the city then, Mike managing to find a parking spot for the RV, so we could walk around and explore a little via foot.

We walked into what would have been the old city center.

Homes, stores and their massive cathedral, all being built within the confines of a protective stone wall. 
People still living and working inside the existing walls, where no cars are allowed, but now with a thriving city also continuing on outside of those walls. Whether because it was Monday or afternoon in France, or both, finding an open place to eat, was once again a little tricky.
We finally found a pizza place and ordered a margarita pizza to go, taking it back to eat in the RV. 

The thick, chewy mozzarella atop a thin but still doughy crust, not at all failing to satisfy 🤤

Two murals were spotted while driving through town, the man in the yellow raincoat was painted by a Canadian artist 

One more bakery was stopped at for good measure before we left town.

We paused at Fort d’Ambleteuse, not realizing that’s where we were headed, but not being disappointed that it’s where we ended up for a little leg stretch.

The rocky shoreline was wandered upon for a little while, and then a little while longer once a couple of shells were spotted, as the search had to become a little more serious in its pursuit 🤓

 

We also gathered a special little collection of rocks from there, specifically for Lake 😉 

A toy or souvenir had been looked for, for Lake but nothing had caught our eye. He doesn’t love stuffed animals and hardly any other toys for that matter, but we truly did think he’d appreciate the rocks. Not just because they were easy to get as well as being free 🤪

Back at the RV we took a short siesta, since Mike planned to continue driving later into the day. 
Our next stop after restarting the drive, was at a the Calais Canadian War Cemetery.

We signed the guest book and took a moment to ponder the graves. 

Being struck by the ages of so many young men, and their sacrifices.

Wissant was the coastal town we stopped in next, wanting to find a place to eat.

A dolphin was the symbol for a street crossing and I wish they were the symbol used everywhere 😅

We just missed the time for food being served and were thus stuck with the drink and dessert menu options, so an in house pink lemonade and two crepes were ordered.

They were tasty, just not overly filling 

Next stop – Cap Blanc-Nez cliffs.

Pretty self explanatory, cliffs, by the waters edge.

 

It’s actually the closest point of France to England, and The White Cliffs of Dover can be seen on a clear day.

We had to walk a decently lengthy path to get to the steps that lead down to the actual beach/cliff area.

 It looked like it would be overly far to journey down and really go to the waters edge, but in the end we went further than expected. 

Our wandering feet and the feeling of adventuring taking over 😉

Accumulating 10,250 some steps by the end of the day, which for a day that was spent driving more than not, isn’t too shabby in my opinion 😉

 

Our feet then took a rest, as our bellies took over and the search for food began once again. 
We passed this impressively constructed house/fence as we drove towards town. 

I don’t really feel like reliving this next part, but for your entertainments sake, I will 🤪

A menu outside of a restaurant was read, and it seemed like a decent price for what would come with the meal.
A starter, entrée and dessert.  
We figured that since we had an upcoming anniversary and when would we try a semi fancy restaurant during a stint in France again, so why not?

The meal began, with duck.

But not at all the duck that I had hoped for 🙈 
Two slabs of cold, fat sprinkled, meatloaf looking duck, topped with a semi sweet pickle, was placed in front of me and thus began the feeling of having made a fatal mistake 🤪 
I took my fork and carefully removed a small corner, bringing it slowly to my mouth and using much inner courage, ate it.
It was not ‘bad’ but nor was it what I would call ‘good’. 
Mike too tried it and he then admitted that after reading the French menu, he had thought the duck would either be a soup type dish, or what I got 🤪  
I wish he’d have mentioned that fact sooner.

Neither of us had any desire to eat the duck, so there it sat. Awkwardly untouched, catching the curious eyes of the waiters and waitresses that passed, unsure if we were done, or simply not hungry. 
I excused myself to use the restroom, hoping beyond hope that the waitress would come whilst I was away, but she did not.

I found this situation very uncomfortable 🤪🙈

She finally came, asking if anything was wrong and we explained that we were simply unlearned tourists whom hadn’t expected that type of dish 🤪 
A long wait then ensued. 
As people around us were served and we waited, and waited. 
Our plates were finally brought out, and then quickly taken away! As they were for another table 🤪

So we waited some more 🙈

Finally our dishes did come, Mikes lamb shank being pretty tasty, my fish being fine, just a little boring.

We never got the wifi password given to us either, and when you’re traveling without any, have routes to plan and a child to check in on, that is a point against the establishment as well. 
It was not the worst dining experience, but it just slowly slid into a less and less pleasant one, considering the price and expectations and it just wasn’t the happiest feeling note to end the last meal of the trip on 🤪 
We got out of there as quickly as we could, which was not very quickly at all, and hit the road 🤓

Mike then admitted he’d thought all along that we should have just eaten at the next McDonald’s, as he’d rarely been impressed by food when in France.
Speak your thoughts out loud next time husband! 🤪😂

By then it was dark out, and Mike decided he would just drive until he got tired, find a place to park us for the night and call it good. 
I retired around 11 or so I think, and he went on until 1 ish I believe…