France, Part 1, arrival

We are off to France for a new adventure. This time we are taking our car, packed with 2 adults, 3 ungrateful children, and one excited teen, one packed bag each, beach towels to the Eurotunnel. Once at the train station (a 1.5 hour drive)we will drive onto a special car that takes us under the Channel and then we have to drive a mere 6-7 hours to our destination. Sounds like fun.

About 20 minutes into our first driving leg, Jason realizes he forgot the chargers for his Treo, which is also our navigation tool. Do we wing it or do we drive back home and take the risk of running into London traffic and missing the train? We wing it, figuring we can at least pick up a car charger in France.

We actually got to the train station early and are able to get on and earlier train...some photos of the train:



Once off the train in Calais, we spy a shopping center and decide it is time to look for a charger for Jason's Treo. No luck--but we did find the biggest grocery store I have ever seen. It looked like a warehouse from the outside. Once inside we found clothes, food, wine (oh soo much wine!) And get this, an entire aisle of yogurt. Picture a regular dairy aisle like you see in Albertsons or Vons, add a few feet to the length and imagine yogurt, just yogurt on both sides. We are definitely stopping here on the way home.

With no car charger in hand, but croissants and coffee in our stomachs, we start our long drive to the Vendee area of France.