Le Quesnoy to Calais and onward to home

Le Quesnoy to Calais

Monday 8th July

All change for today ............

After waking up to 13c this morning I realised we were no longer going to get 26c to wake up to, so the heating promptly got turned on for the first time !

Next, Sue didn't want to go to Bruges, so there was no point going there just for Louis vet check.

Google maps is excellent for finding services wherever you are, and a quick search last night revealed there to be a vets about a quarter of a mile from where we parked last night in the village of Le Quesnoy.

They opened at 8.30 this morning so I took a chance and was on the doorstep at opening time.

The vet didn't have a great mastery of the English language, but we managed to communicate sufficiently for her to understand I needed a check up for Louis, the worming tablet administered and the all important stamp in the pet passport for pet control at the terminal.

All done for a very reasonable 20 euro, which is what I paid last year in Bruges.

It seems the cost rises the closer to Calais you are, and I've heard of vets asking for 50 euro !

With that job done we headed for towards Calais but needed something to occupy us today, so we took a short detour into Lille for a look around.

I managed to park quite close to the centre and we took a wander.

Unfortunately, I'd done zero research, so had no idea what to expect or where to go, or the sights to look out for.

Lille is a medium sized city, big enough to be very busy but fairly manageable in terms of finding your way around.

We walked around the shopping areas then headed towards the river where it looked like there was a citadel on an island in the river which sounded interesting.

Unfortunately we never really found it, I'd expected a building on a hill occupying a dominant position, what we saw of the island was very flat and could see only the zoo.

I therefore presumed the citadel had gone, wrong again. It is there and quite a notable one apparently. But we managed to overlook it.

I must remember not to visit somewhere without doing research, my excuse is it was an impromptu visit !

Ah well, we enjoyed a couple of hours there and then we moved on towards Calais.

We're now parked at Cite Europe which is a large shopping complex next to the channel tunnel terminal and the local police station.

It's regarded as pretty safe to stay overnight as the police have the area covered with CCTV and patrol the area from time to time.

There are plenty of other British motorhomes here due to its convenience for the tunnel and it's free parking.

I've brought forward our crossing to tomorrow as we didn't fancy trying to find something to occupy us for another day, we'd prefer to get home now and get back to normal living again.

We've had a great trip, seen some fantastic places and sights, enjoyed beautiful weather, but I can't deny were looking forward getting home.

It`s true what they say, there`s no place like home !

I'll do a proper summary of the trip in a few days when I've got sorted out.

Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed our travels as much as we have.

Here are some photographs of Lille