Spring 2012 - SW France - Day 6

I must be mad! I have said this a number of times, but each time I yield to the madness. I left Dave and Janet's at 5:30am and road solidly to Calais. I was pretty cold for the first 4 hours and what started out as a mild 10C soon dropped to 4-6C the further I sped from the mild temperature of the coastal area.
The first problem occurred as I was topping up at the Le Clerc filling station; my Garmin Sat Nav simple crashed and stopped working. I was forced to remove it from ts holder; remove the back panel and the battery and effectively do a "hard reboot". Luckily that worked and we were all OK after that.
The autoroute towards Nior and then Poitiers was dull and cool and, by the time I stopped for breakfast at 9am, I was pretty cold. However a large café creme and 2 croissants, soon started the internal heat generators. I was soon back on the GT; this time heading for Tours followed by Le Mans; which was followed by Alençon and Rouen. It was around 11:15 that I reached Rouen with the SatNav guiding me through and around a very busy city as I once again linked up with the A28 and then, finally, the A16, the final part before reaching Calais.
I headed for the nearest Carrefour and bought some cheese and ham; all tasty stuff that cannot be bought in UK. I then saw a string of fresh garlic and I thought, Yes !
I then went to Eurotunnel and just missed a shuttle so had to wait 45 minutes until the 14:50.
As usual, the journey is fast, efficient and uneventful. I only wish they had fold down chairs as the only option is to sit on the floor! Never mind, it's only 35 minutes.
Back in UK; a fill up of cheaper (!) fuel and I was home in under an hour! A great mini-holiday and I am already looking forward to the next trip! However I will not do these 575-600 miles in one day; it's simply exhausting and not nice at all. The GT takes all this in her stride and she arrived home purring as it is precisely this type of touring that the GT was made for.