Well our day started at 9:30 and we had our breakfast about 10, why does French milk taste so strange? We then packed up our stuff and went to the local Internet café and posted the events from day 1.
We then went back to the hotel and checked out the mini, after the third flasher unit we managed to get the left rear indicator to come on permanently but still no joy on the front left and we managed to get the hazard to work apart from the front left, think is a wiring problem as the bulb looks fine. Checked up on the oil leak, slightly more that last night but not much, think were just going to have to keep an eye on it.
First Near miss:
We were at Traffic Lights and you could either go left or right, the lights went green so we went left only to have a car that was going straight over so put his breaks on a bit hard. I presume it was our fault but with these crazy French drivers who knows. (Charlie: It would have probably helped if I indicated, shhhh)
Left Reims at about 11:40 and headed for Lyon, after a tour of Reims we manage to find the motorway and then headed for Lyon!
There were some great down hill section on the motorway and something strange happened to the speedo (honest!!)
(Again another lame pic by James - It was over 90!! Strange as we were well below the speed limit, honest Mum!)
Motorway View 1:
Unfortunately we have wiped out most of the bugs in southern France - see windscreen
Motorway View 2:
Nice view, still loads of bugs.
Pic of James driving:
Oh and my shoulder!
The journey only really started to get interesting as we approached Lyon, at which point the heavens opened and we were driving in some of the worst conditions either of us had ever experience! The traffic around Lyon was very busy so we decided to skirt around it and find a motorway service station with a hotel. We were held up in traffic for a while as the police, fire, and ambulance sorted out a pile up involving three cars.
Driving through Lyon:
Then the lightning kicked in and we watched that as we crawled along.
Second Near miss:
Driving in such bad conditions and when the road is wet you can’t see the lane markings, 3 lanes suddenly seemed to go into 1, ahhh. I was pulling out into another lane and got a bit too close to a car right beside me that I hadn’t seen. But luckily James can shout quite loud.
Really bad driving conditions:
Left the motorway at one of the service stations, which had a hotel, an Ibis to be precise but at this point we weren’t picky and we wanted to stop before the car stopped for us (Charles hadn’t bothered to fit the weather shield). Using my excellent French managed to book a twin room and breakfast for about sixty euros, which wasn’t too bad. We then headed over the road to a restaurant and had steak and chips, which was very nice. Again pigeon French prevailed as we managed to order it well done and with mustard, Impressive!!
