Sunday 4th November

We left very early in the morning, and this was by far the best bit of the drive, hardly any traffic on the roads, and we took regular breaks.  But as the dawn came up and the day progressed it got harder.  We spent nearly two hours in a jam in Tours, the Motorway Link, a short bridge hop over the Loire was closed, we assume for repairs but as usual we could see no work taking place.  We simply had to drive a couple of miles along the river over the next bridge and back again to pick it up.  Unfortunately so did everyone else, as well as all the Saturday traffic in the city going wherever they wanted to go too.

The weather was mixed, dry, drizzle, pouring rain, sunshine, then pouring rain again, especially on the long slap across Northern France.  We were on time though, so we weren’t too concerned.  Arriving at Eurotunnel we had to first get the pets passports approved.  The main aspect of the scheme is that the dogs have to be seen and checked by a Vet in France during the previous five days to their return to England.  We had our dogs checked and their passports stamped in Eymet the previous day.  To our horror the Vet had stamped both passports but had only signed across one of them., which of course we didn’t notice at the time.  This had cost 95 euros.  The official at Calais said he could not accept this.  We had to slap out in the rain to a vet in Calais he recommended who agreed it was ridiculous.  ‘A simple mistake’  Without examining the dog he countersigned the omitted signature in less than a minute.  Sixty Euros please.  In cash, No Credit or Debit Cards.  We gave him 30 euros and 30 pounds as we had spent most of our euros on the jouney.  He reluctantly gave us a receipt which we may try to gain some compensation for from the Eymet vet.  He then turned to the next English couple and their dog, as there seemed to be a constant stream of unfortunates behind us.  What a great money making machine, especially as they insist on cash only, and most people are in such a panic they do not ask for a receipt.  We made it back through the driving rain, and relieved, got on our train.  Home at last, tired, relieved of the burden of carrying quite so much cash, and so to bed.