How was everyones Bank Holiday weekend? Mine was super busy as we went over to France to locate a suitable bubbly for the Wedding Reception!
This post is pretty image heavy!
So Thursday night we headed over to Emmas parents straight after work, Pickles had already been put into kennels earlier in the week. Our ferry was due to leave Dover at 1.15 on Friday so we agreed 5am was probably the best time to get up even if it is stupidly early!
Friday
Up bright and early we started down for Dover, had a bit of a nap in the car(Ems parents awesome new Kia Sorento) but for the most part I was messing around with my new HTC Hero which i’ll post separately about soon.
Stopped off at a service station and by some amazing twist of fate the stocked Krispy Kremes, yey!
Ah crap, puncture. We hit an umbrella on the motorway and thought nothing of it. However when we were in the queue for passport control we noticed that in fact the back left wheel was flat. It did really well to get us there and none of us noticed! I did help change the wheel by the way!
With the tyre madness over, we headed for the ferry and managed to get on an earlier one, score!
Was a bit windy on board!
Hm. Not really much holding those on board eh.
Upon our arrival in France we headed straight for a campsite. Ended up at a really nice one in Wacquinghen(website) and with the tents set up we headed for the Hypermarkets to collect some bubblys to try!
The five contenders for round 1!
Pop! let the tasting begin!
And the aftermath… current winner is the middle one.
Got a little bit chilly as the evening progressed
We took notes and everything! And suitably ‘merry’ went to sleep.
Saturday
Today my parents came over for the day and we headed out for some more bubbly picking.
Picked up some Ernest Julio & Gallo Colombard from Oddbins of all places, worked out at about £2.30 a bottle!
Off to Majestic wines
We collected 2 more bottles and headed back to the campsite for tasting.
Pop! Em caught some great action shots this weekend!
The final lineup, the winner is the Ballarin, pictured here second from the left. Sadly they didn’t have enough in stock so we’ll have to special order 🙁
Saturday night we had a BBQ and polished off most of the remaing bubbly, lots of fun! There were some annoying kids on the campsite driving scooters about but they disappeared before too long.
Sunday
Our ferry wasn’y until midnight, and all the shops were closed so we thought it might be a challenge to amuse ourselves, but we packed tons into today!
Heading down the coastal road gave us some great views
We were originally heading down to Boulogne sur-Mer, but passing through Wissant it was clear something was going on as the streets were lined with cars..
So we parked up and followed some people down into the town..
And were greeted by a town fair! complete with random tractor floats and bagpipe players
Wissant is a little coastal town so we headed down to the beach
Kite surfers. I lost count of how many, at least 50. It doesn’t really come out in the pics but we could clearly see the UK coastline!
There were also some amazing synchronised kite flyers!
Stopped off for some chips and beer, mmmm
One of the decorated tractor thingys
Super cute Pickles lookalike
Now it was around 3pm so we decided to head back into Calais so we were a bit closer to the ferry port. Low and behold Calais had a procession on which kept us entertained!
Stilt dancers
Next a pilot band
Followed by this crazy looking Jules Verne style flying machine
Next we had a Miners band
Sailor Band
Brilliant Mississippi style steamboat float
Guessing this is the Mayor, dressed in Victorian era clothes
Er…
Finally a collection of Horses and Carts passed by
With the procession over we had an explore around Calais, ending up walking around a park for a bit. There was an exhibition on with massive pictures from all over the world, very cool.
Stopped off for a drink and sat out to enjoy the rest of the weather
Nearly ferry time now, what better way to kill time than a tasty meal?
Suitably booshed we headed for the ferry terminal a bit early hoping we could get on a boat before our alloted time. Amazingly we got on the 11.15 and made it back to England just after midnight.
Caught 40 winks in a service station shortly after we left Dover, first time i’ve ever done that so it was a little bizarre but tons of people were doing it! And even when we were on the road I slept tons. We made it back to Emmas parents at about 8am, looooooong weekend but great fun!
Just need to get the bubbly now!