Day 49 Saturday 5th July 2008

After completing the packing and loading into the car we locked up the house and took the keys back to Mr & Mrs Gensel. There was no answer at the gate so we left the keys in the letterbox. Later we bought a postcard in Avignon and posted a thank you message to them.

We drove to Avignon and continued over the river to Villeneuve-les-Avignon and parked on a free car park next to the Tour de Philip le Bel. The wind was too strong for the tower to be fully open so we took some photos and walked into Villeneuve-les-Avignon to visit the castle. At the castle separate tickets were required for the castle and the Abbey, so we bought neither and continued on. It was a pretty town with narrow streets and an antiques market when we were there.  Eventually we arrived back at the car. 

We drove out to the free car park on Ile Piot where we managed to park in the shade.  We had a rest and some lunch then caught the shuttle bus which deposited us by the city wall not far from the Pont St Benezet. We walked into the city to the Palais de Papes. There we looked for the orange floor markers and started to follow the trail. We eventually found our way to the circular wall tower a few yards from the Pont St Benezet. We climbed up lots of steps to the park above and had a magnificent view across Avignon and the river. We were able to look across to the castle we had visited in the morning. A drink at the café in the park on the rocks above the Palace seemed required. We had a further mooch around Avignon before returning by bus to the car. We moved the car back into the shade for a while until it was time to go to the Autotrain terminal. 

After checking in we had to wait around for the shuttle bus transfer back to the train station. We walked into Avignon and found somewhere to eat. After dinner we sat awhile in a park before returning to the station. There we still had plenty of time to wait, especially as the train up from Nice was 40 minutes late. We went into the Irish Pub (station bar) for a drink. Eventually the train arrived and we boarded and the train left Avignon 30 minutes late. We found our couchette and went to bed.

Start Mileage 15224		Finish mileage 15248		Miles travelled = 24
Total miles = 3763

Sunday 6th July 2008

The train arrived in Calais about on time at 9.48am. We had quite a good nights sleep. We all departed from the train and walked over to the terminal building where we were given a simple breakfast of juice, croissant, bread, jam, coffee. Then we waited around outside watching them shunt car transport wagons before they brought our cars. We had to wait nearly 2 hours for our car. 

It was only about 3 miles to the tunnel. We were booked on the 11.50 but eventually caught the 13.20. We had lunch while waiting for the train. 

The UK motorways M20, M26 and M25 were all fairly busy and we had several heavy rain showers. The M40 was closed from Jn 11 – Jn 14, so we came off at Jn 9 and made our way on ordinary roads arriving home about 5.00pm.

Start Mileage 15248		Finish mileage 15433		Miles travelled = 185
								Total miles = 3948