Day 02 - Out of France

18 Aug

We both woke around 5:30am after a good night’s sleep. With more clarity of thought, we set ourselves up for our driving holiday. The other GPS and SPOT installed in the car. Gear that isn't required on a daily basis packed into one suitcase and the other is filled with our everyday clothes. Breakfast was at the hotel, our first French meal.

We are headed out of France today taking in some WW1 history before we leave. Villers-Bretonneux was our first stop. We found the Australian museum but were a little early for opening times.  A gentle stroll around the village found us outside of a boulangerie patisserie. We couldn't resist. The cakes were very pretty and the pastries were tempting. We bought a couple of small pastries and ate them in the car while reprogramming the car GPS to better suit our driving needs.

By the way, now that Clint has become more familiar with the car he said that this is the most sporty, responsive diesel Volvo he's ever driven and is having fun with it.

Victoria School, Villers-Bretonneux

Franco-Australian Museum

Man in Black Volvo
Considering that the only other Volvo diesels I have driven have all been garbage trucks, I'm enjoying this one.

Franco-Australian Memorial

Back to the museum to have a wander through and appreciate the detail of the displays. From there it was on to Le Hamel which has a piece of land dedicated to the battles and the people who fought in them. Being overcast and threatening to rain seemed to deepen our sense of the events that took place here.

During the great War, Charleen's grandfather was in the Light Horse and wore that uniform and Clint's grandmother was a nurse and wore that one.

The tiny village of Le Hamel - site of a decisive Aussie victory orchestrated by Monash.

From here we set off for Pozieres and a scenic drive through the countryside. What was different for us was the farm fields without a shed or farm house. Our normal is to see acres of farmed land with a house and/or shed located on the property. The roads took us through a village then farmed land and then another village. Just once we saw a very large shed on a property. 

Around 2 o’clock we were in need of a stop. I was thirsty and Clint had been working hard at adapting all his usual instinctive driving techniques. We pulled into a town and found a McDonald’s. Did I hear you cringe? It was difficult for us to find a cafe or supermarket so we opted for the bleeding obvious. Interestingly though, the signage for the big M corporation is more restrained, the background colour is a muted green. We fronted up to the counter to place our order, apologised for not being able to speak French and asked if someone could speak English. Shakes of many heads. We started hopelessly trying to place our order with pointing and gestures when a lass was brought forward. Turns out she had a little English. We managed to place our order and took a seat to wait for our food. 

There was a supermarket in the shopping precinct so we decided to have look in there, get some instant coffee and a bottle of water to reuse in the car. Fed, watered and stocked up, we continued on our way to Belgium. Suddenly the wifi stopped. A message came up about switching to roaming. That’s odd. Wait! We’ve already crossed the border into Belgium. We pulled over and sorted out the roaming and checked form somewhere to stay. We decided on the Novotel Breda, Netherlands. 

The traffic was starting to thicken up in places. The car started with what sounded like radio, in French. Apparently it was a traffic jam announcement. Clint was interested to see how well the avoidance technology worked. I think he was rather impressed. We were now travelling on freeways rather than the minor roads through villages, making good time, most of the time. 

The border crossing into Netherlands was unassuming. No gates or signage.

We found our way to the hotel and settled in for the night. Dinner in the restaurant, a stroll across the highway to get some milk (melk) and back to our room to finish off the blog. Another early night is in order.