Fantastic Voyage #1 (b): Semaine Entry My Dear Watson, Semaine Entry

There I go, getting right into the spirit of things, talking French and that. Albeit a quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Curious Case of a Film Called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” where Dr Watson asked Holmes when he’ll be arriving in Calais. The hilarious Holmes quips “Semaine entry my dear Watson, Semaine entry” meaning of course “In the week” in Franglaise and mocking his usual catch phrase, “Elementary my dear Watson, elementary”.

This should not be confused with Doyle’s more obvious homoerotic story of Holmes and Watson called “The Bi-Curious Case” when the intrepid duo find themselves trapped overnight in the lemon curd-filled pantry of a Reims patisserie where Holmes reassures Watson with an explanatory “Lemon entry my dear Watson, lemon entry”.

All that was a seamless segue that will mirror my own transition from tourer to tourist: I will enter France on the Eurotunnel train and disembark in Calais late morning on Tuesday 4th April and that, dear reader, commences the Trans-Continental adventure.

In many ways that has already started as the entire family has been eating nothing but garlic snails for weeks but this will mark a physical transition.

The Good Captain Bernie Winters (see Blog entry special) explained the importance of setting a goal and for the fist stop, given that I need to go down South, needs to be beyond Gay Paris. Hence my first goal, set a little while ago is Troyes (see Goal #1).

As before this is going to be a motorway journey, fast and clean but with the added bonus of Toll Charges! I feel a blog on that coming on don’t you worry.

Here’s Google’s answer to getting there, now note the lack of miles: from here on out, it’s all in kilometres. In this case it’s nearly 400km (2,000 furlongs).

By the time I get there I will be ready for a cup of french coffee from Veronique at the Elmy Nodule Cottage. Visiting a cottage or two will be one of the highlights I’m sure.

Looking again at this long blue vein, I have now resolved to use the power of google to investigate the road:

1) I must familiarise myself with the route itself and

2) I must not a) pee my pants or b) run out of petrol. A couple of pit stop blogs will be needed!

Beyond night number one? Well I was going to set my second goal for Grenoble, HOWEVER – I have just discovered that it is one of three cities in France that require a pollution sticker on pain of a hefty fine: Paris and Lyons being the other two, with many more in the queue behind them! At first I thought it a helpful pointer from the Mail on Sunday that I could politely ignore, but no! It really is true, like the straight banana, so I have decided on another goal…

But that will be the subject of yet more blogging! God I love this thing.