Tunnel to Adventure!
Finding the Hotel was an Adventure!
DAY 1: 3rd September:
BRUAY-La-BUISSIERE:
This time we started our Adventure using the Channel tunnel, welcoming the 25-minute rest and leg-stretch before reaching the other side, just outside Calais. As we emerged from the tunnel seeking the toll road I wound down the window. Immediately we noticed that France smelled ‘different’ – but in what respect, we could not say. Sadly, inclement weather followed us from England.
FRENCH TOLL ROADS
French toll roads, if you use a lot of them, can prove expensive, but there is generally little traffic on them. You can zoom down them when you have a definite destination.
LOVE THE RESTFUL WAYSIDE STOPS
These roads have a great feature that our British motorways could emulate. Every twenty kilometres or so you will come across this type of sign: French roadside Aires are quite wonderful, compared with Britain’s Motorway Services. These quiet, secluded picnic parks sometimes have cafes. All provide free facilities: Tables with benches, and always clean toilets. Many have showers. All provide a tap to fill your own bottle of cold drinking water. Advance signs may show added facilities in many. Most are set in woodland where you can walk off your car fatigue and rest your eyes.
BRUAY-LA-BUISSIERE – ELUSIVE HOTEL IS GOOD
Graham wanted to drive further in than Calais, so I had booked B&B at a little place called Hotel le Cottage, at Bruay-La-Buissiere. It is off the A26 road a bit beyond Bethune. (We had stayed in that small town on a previous tour. It is typically northern French. Strong Flemish influences show in the tall, thin gables of the buildings surrounding the square. We remembered fondly the great breakfasts we had in a very good cafe-bar facing the church.)
Our small hotel in La Buissiere took a bit of finding. Even Miss SatNav was confused. Eventually we discovered we had already passed it in the high street: The hotel stood well back from the road.
LE COTTAGE – OLD-FASHIONED AND SIMPLE – GOOD VALUE
It was a little old-fashioned, and our room small, but it had a good shower and ample towels. In the morning the ‘self-service’ breakfast was well attended by the family staff. Plentiful wrapped jams and butters, but very good pain-au-chocolat and croissants, and exceptional yoghourts. I’d say it is above average for a place that clearly caters for British coaches bound for the war graves. The price, in retrospect, proved competitive. I have no hesitation in recommending it as a first stop.
Hotel le Cottage,292 avenue de la Liberation, 62700 Bruay-la-Buissiere, France
WE ARE FED BY A CROCODILE!
Only thing – they were not opening their dining room for the evening, and so we had to resort to looking in a ‘commercial Complex’. We chose a ‘Crocodile’ – part of a Belgian chain catering to families. It was very crowded, and the food wasn’t at all bad, but the free wine was undrinkable, Graham said – and neither of us tried the Free Beer!
The next day we had planned a medieval route towards the Dordogne.
Text by – Jackie Usher, SWWJ. (aka author Debbie Darkin, & ‘Graham Liverpool’ on Trip Advisor.)
Photographs by – Graham Usher.
Thanks to Google maps – Most of the images have been taken by Graham though in this blog all Orleans photos, the Restaurant and Vierzon came from other sources.
