2 intrepid travellers, a 5am start, and a Bates motel finish

It's been a long time coming, but we've finally got underway and completed day 1 of our incredible adventure and whilst today has been relatively normal, it's had its moments!

We were a bit bleary eyed when we set off from Somerset this morning, waved off by Milly the cat with a tear in her eye, but by the time we reached the ferry port at Poole we were AWAKE and keen to get some miles between us and home.

First point of note - Brittany Ferries has impressed me today. The one-way crossing was about £170, a bit steep I guess, but they were organised and we left on time, no fuss. The ferry was in a good state of repair and there was plenty of soft seating. We had a full english breakfast each, I had a peach yoghurt and we both had a hot drink for less than £20. I was pleased given that the last time i took a ferry I paid £7 for 2 weetabix and a cup of tea!! 4.5 hrs passed pretty quick with the fairly decent WiFi on board (Gaz did have some issues with it tho).

We disembarked at 2pm with revelry making joyous calls out the window of our Freelander to the natives as we slowly moved through the port to customs; 'Bonjour sir', 'Bonjour madame' (that was me), 'Zut Alors!', 'Baguette', 'Je m'appelle Garry', 'Boursin' (that was Garry). it was all good fun until we were at the customs gate having our passport checked and Gaz lent on the car horn, appearing to show frustration and want things to go faster. I laughed so hard at the exchange between the cripplingly shamed and apologetic Garry, and the guard, who raised an eyebrow but actually took it all in jest. Yes France, we have arrived, and we have successfully smuggled in Ping and Pong (if you know, you know. And if you don't, more on this another time).

After the port, we headed to Angers, about 250 miles south. The aim this week is to get through France quickly because Brexit has limited the time we can spend in Europe so given other plans, we have to balance where we stay and what we do. So as I say, we won't be in France long and we intend to stay in easy reliable cheap places for the first couple of days. Our first stop today was bang on budget at £31 for the night and I knew that it was going to be a notch lower than Travel Lodge but I think we've both been shocked by the size of the room and the absence of simple amenities. Check out our little video below to know more.

The other guests are very french and seemed a little disapproving of us, but Gaz isn't convinced on that, so I hope I'm wrong. On the plus side, it's cheap, the bed is comfy enough for one night, the water pressure is good and there is free WiFi.

Hotel:

Hôtel PREMIERE CLASSE ANGERS EST -ST BARTHELEMY D'ANJOU,

Z.I de Saint Barthélémy d'Anjou,

Rue du Chêne Vert,

49124 ST BARTHELEMY D'ANJOU

After debating how much of the landrover we needed to unpack (it's packed to the gills and Gaz is not happy with the amount I've rammed in), we drove around aimlessly searching for food. Angers is a strange town and we found ourselves in a large area that looked a bit Eastern Block, and every commercial business seemed closed. But we struck lucky when we made a wrong turn and came across an out of town shopping outlet that had a number of eatery options. We settled on a place called La Bonne Heure. It's a chain I think, but the food was affordable and fresh.

NOTE: Don't assume that just because you're in a sizeable town that everyone you come across will speak English; we had a very amusing 5 minutes with the maitre'd who was trying to help us order. We were left confused and nervously watching other customers for about 10 mins before I asked Saint Google for advice. If you've never eaten at La Bonne Heure it works like this... you enter and choose a main meal from the front desk (burger, steak etc). You pay for this straight away and are given a ticket and a tray. You can buy soft drinks at that point if you want but if not, still and sparkling water is free of charge and self service inside. Upon entering, you choose a table and go to the all you can eat appetiser station - fill up there, then go to the main course station with your ticket to order/collect your main course and choose your accompaniments. Then finally you can enjoy the all you can eat dessert station.

We paid £13.95 each and I have to say it was a bargain. The food was well prepared, pretty good quality and a good flavour. The Appetisers were interesting and the Desserts were genuinely lovely. Not a bad option at all for a midweek meal though it did cost about the same as our accommodation!

Full and happy we ventured back to the motel to hit the shower and get some rest in our 6 x 6 H Block cell, sweat box (ok, ok, it's not not quite that bad).