This could all end in tears

On the 31st of July 2021 (in the second year of the Great Pandemic) Mrs P, Gandalf (our trusty Campervan) and I left England’s hallowed shores and headed for France. We will be back in October.
“Are you mad!?” I hear you exclaim. Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s consider the pros and cons:

Cons (with responses):

• We’ll die from some obscure French/Spanish/European/insert some other words variant of Covid19.

  • We won’t

• The French hate us!

  • Agincourt was a long time ago. I think they have forgiven us. Besides, we bring Euros.

• You’ll have to quarantine for a year on your return at £3m per day per person!

  • We aren’t returning until October. We hope things may have settled by then. And, do you REALLY think they will put France or Spain on the Red list?

• Aaarggh!

  • That’s not really an argument now is it?

Pros:

• The mountains are bigger

• The climbing is gonna be great

• The sun will shine

• We’ll be fine

• And besides, life is short. It’s time to get on with it.

So, here we are heading south on lovely quiet French roads and the sun is in fact shining.
The Channel Tunnel was VERY quiet…

First onto the train with only 2 vehicles behind us. Maybe France is empty?

In a effort to avoid previous mistakes involving hundreds of miles of driving and grumpy arrivals we only drove for just over a hour before stopping at a lovely quiet campsite.
We were nervous about dealing with the campsite police, but fortunately all we had to provide was:

• Passports

• Proof of covid vaccine -electronic

• Proof of covid vaccine - paper (Because the electronic version could not be read!)

• Requisite number of Euros

• Two big smiles hidden behind legally required masks

Phew! We made it. Let’s get a beer.

At this point there should have been photos of both the beer and Gandalf happily ensconced in campsite number 1. However, I can’t get the stupid photos to upload because the internet is so dreadful. I will therefore ask you to simply picture the idyllic scene. Gandalf being all grey and shiny, the grass being all green and luscious and the sky doing the whole not a cloud in it thing.

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