Malibu Molly

Please excuse the linking to another blog service.  I use Travellerspoint as my family can see posts appear in their email. Travellerspoint also allows me to update via email and include photos in the posts. Blogger doesn't.  https://devall-travels.travellerspoint.com/987/

A couple of weeks to go before we set off for deepest France and Spain. The problem when trying to plan a route down is that in the end, there aren't really that many places to cross from France into Spain, and vice-versa. When you are pressed for time on the outward journey to avoid tolls limits the choices to get from the channel port, either ferry or train.  If the aim is to cross at the Mediterranean end of the Pyrenees than the A75 comes up on all route planners. Also Paris site like a fat spider in the middle of its web.  Getting around always poses a problem.  The eastern route on the N104/A104 is pretty much the route you get given by Google Maps and many of the route planners that use Google Maps! Oddly, MyRouteApp decided to go to the west this time from Formerie.  I guess if we had chosen to stay at a different aire then the route might have been substantially different. Route avoiding the worst of Paris! Usually to get a route you want you have to add som...

Day 1.  After some time of avoiding Le Shuttle, we booked again, the first time in Malibu Molly! It's always a toss of the coin whether we go by Le Shuttle or the ferry from Dover. Since we've had Reggie for eleven years we have opted to use the tunnel more, simply when in the car it was easier and the price was comparable with the ferries. Since Covid though, Le Shuttle (train!) prices have climbed and climbed and not kept pace with earnings nor with the ferries. As a Club Le Shuttle member every so often I get offers to save some rather decent percentages off the fare. This year the booking offer would only cover the outward journey to France and though still more than the ferry for the same date it wasn't the usual £100 plus difference. So I booked the outward only.  The return leg would have been around £150 more than either of the Calais to Dover ferries, including access to the pet lounges! I wasn't going to book a return until we were over there to keep our optio...