We set off at 09:00 Thursday for the long and somewhat tedious journey from the Dordogne to Paris CDG for our overnight hotel stop. 

Along the way we stopped at various service stations at one of which we bought a picnic meal of sandwiches and other snacks for our evening meal (we’ve stayed at this hotel twice before - forewarned is forearmed!) This service station was also the location of pizza-gate.

We stopped for 50 minutes for lunch. The restaurant offered delicious looking pizza. We ordered one each and were handed a pager. For the first 10 minutes we watched other pagers light up including a few issued after ours. Several minutes later, Margaret thought it best to pop off and buy our picnic, hoping her departure would precipitate delivery. It didn’t!

Pizzas were coming from the kitchen. Our pager stayed stubbornly silent. 

With just 10 minutes remaining before departure, accompanied by Google Translate, I approached the counter. After a complicated discussion, we won a refund. Thank goodness we had food for the bus (picnic at risk).

The hotel at CDG was the same as always: clean well equipped rooms; everything else? Nightmare.

Friday morning’s departure was ridiculously early (06:30) but the restaurant didn’t open until 06:00 - not negotiable. At 06:00 (not a moment earlier) the doors swung open and around 50% of the food was ready. A petit Napoléon insisted which tables were to be used adding to the chaos caused as diners and staff, bringing food, all descended on the buffet tables.

We survived!

We arrived in Calais where I decided to buy duty-free. Typically French, the rules had changed. You now needed to provided your vehicle’s booking number. Who knew? No one! A line of people, with goods in hand, stood around whilst one of our number went back to the coach to get the number. Problem solved.

Another faultless crossing in the Club Lounge of P&O Pioneer took us to Stop-24 and abject stupidity. 

Leger had booked their coaches on various different crossings. We arrived at 13:00. We had to wait until 15:00 to depart… but on a Luxuria coach!

A great crew and a smooth journey saw us home for 08:30. There’s no bed like your own bed!