France holiday 19th August

After getting up early to make sure we got to the Shuttle on time we arrived to find there was a 90 minute delay due to essential works! It was so hot, already 25 degrees. Me, waiting for the Shuttle.....

We finally left after an hours wait. The journey seemed to pass quite quickly and soon we were on our way to the Isle de France. Due to the lateness of the departure we had to change our lunch plans and ended up with a snack on one of the Aires instead of lunch in Péronne.  After lunch we drove on to Péronne to visit the museum, Histoire de la Grande Guerre. It was really interesting and had numerous displays of equipment and clothing from the Germans, the French and the English from the Great War. 

 

 

 

We really only paid a fleeting visit as the temperature was in the mid 30's and rising. It was just too hot!  After a nice cup of Lipton's tea we went back to the car and continued our journey. By this time the temperature had risen to 39 degrees and stayed like that until we got to the hotel in Chelles. We unloaded the car, went for a beer and then had dinner at le Bistrot du Boucher sitting outside which seemed to be the coolest option.  The staff and our fellow guests were really friendly and we were able to share a joke or two with them.

After dinner it was back to the heat of the hotel room. It was still incredibly hot and we really struggled to sleep. There was no air at all and so although we were so tired it was impossible to sleep. Paul came up with the idea of covering ourselves with damp towels which seemed to do the trick!!!