Lost In France

[wack]

A couple of months ago we took the GT to Normandy, portsmouth to cherbourg on the fast cat , 3 hours port to port , going out was great , it was only 20% full so they put me in a space on my own , coming back not so much fun having to limbo out of the door

For anyone looking for a driving holiday I can thoroughly recommend Normandy , land at cherbourg and you're there , most of what you'd want to do is within 50 miles in any direction

Took it to Omaha Beach

It's nothing like Britain, the roads are almost empty , autoroutes are a strictly enforced 130kph , about 80mph

The french LOVE the mustang , everywhere we went , people waving at us, taking selfies with it when they thought we weren't looking 80% of the cars on the road are french , I saw a couple of Audi's , didn't see a single french registered BMW, Nothing you'd call a performance car in 10 days of driving all over Normandy.

The country is spotless, no litter, no potholes, no traffic and still feels very french

We enjoyed it that much we're going to Brittany next year

Got back to Portsmouth and reality hit, chug chug chug all the way home

I was expecting it to be bad on the boat so invested in some door defenders , magnetic thick pads that stick to the doors , they're £70 a side on amazon , there's a girl on Shpock doing them for £60 for 2 sets plus post , I keep mine in the boot for those tight parking spot moments Tiffany G her name is View attachment 406943

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[marks]

The French motorways are always clear, they have much more space than us! The police don't care unless you're hitting 90, the cameras are well signposted and Waze is very useful.
You must have been in a very specific part of France if thought was spotless
https://www.thelocal.fr/tag/litter

Glad you enjoyed it though, Le Mans is worth doing

 

[wack]

I genuinely saw no litter at all, anywhere , Paris has a LOT of tourists

The police might not care but the cameras do , I'm on a few other car forums , quite a few of them have been getting letters from france months after Le Mans , especially those going via calais apparently

My wife was particularly impressed with the informality of the ferry crossing compared with the ball ache that is flying these days , when we were coming back she said, look this is exactly how it should be, all the men drinking coffee and the women with a glass of wine

 

[Gregs24]

Can't beat it - we have a place considerably further south and as you say the French love Mustangs ! In fact a man offered me his wife and his old Peugeot in exchange for my Mustang at a petrol station !

 

[Lowrider Lincoln]

Driving in France really is a pleasure. The leave plenty of space when pulling back in, nearly always indicate and do not hog the middle lane, they consider it impolite... However in Paris ignore anything I said. I'd only ever drive an old banger. They really don't care. It's scary but fun at the same time.

 

[wack]

Driving in France really is a pleasure. The leave plenty of space when pulling back in, nearly always indicate and do not hog the middle lane, they consider it impolite.

That's exactly how I found it

The only thing I'd call an incident was when I was overtaking a line of 10 trucks that were doing 80kph about a truck length each apart, I was doing about 120kph , about 1/2 way along them so 5 to go when in the distance a flash of the lights , I looked in the mirror and yes, an Audi , then he's behind me with his indicator on so he must've been doing well more that 130kph

I thought ,does he really expect me to drop 50kph to slot in between 2 trucks so he can get by for the sake of 60 seconds , obviously I ignored him but no drama, I got to the front and moved over and he went on his way, no five finger shuffle or swearing at me , no brake check.

I can't imagine what the french think of the UK

 

[cib24]

I was expecting it to be bad on the boat so invested in some door defenders , magnetic thick pads that stick to the doors , they're £70 a side on amazon , there's a girl on Shpock doing them for £60 for 2 sets plus post , I keep mine in the boot for those tight parking spot moments

Excellent post. I can't wait to do a trip across the continent in mine.

Would you mind sharing the links to the door defenders and magnetic thick pads?

 

[Nevyn]

We are planning a road trip across Europe with the new car next year. We will be heading for Bulgaria ultimately as my other half is from there.

I've done the trip a few times before via different routes.

I'd be interested to hear the opinion of others on the best routes to take across Europe.

Nev

 

[wack]

Excellent post. I can't wait to do a trip across the continent in mine.

Would you mind sharing the links to the door defenders and magnetic thick pads?

The door defenders are the magnetic pads

They work really well , I think she's somewhere near Telford but I paid for post, all went ok

https://www.shpock.com/en-gb/i/XcCezgeT0B9BU9_L/door-defenders

 

[wack]

We are planning a road trip across Europe with the new car next year. We will be heading for Bulgaria ultimately as my other half is from there.

I've done the trip a few times before via different routes.

I'd be interested to hear the opinion of others on the best routes to take across Europe.

Nev

I suppose the crossing depends on where you live in the uk , I was really impressed with the catamaran , 2.5 hours sailing and 15 mins each end going in and out of the dock
45mph according to the gps

I think the cheapest crossing to normandy is new haven-dieppe

I like the idea of sailing down to Santander then driving back up so might try that at some point , 24 hour sailing though

 

[christianUK]

I got those door defenders too. Thumbs up from me. Though I had to register for Spock or whatever it's called. She charged me £5 for delivery so it was £65 all in for both sides. Much much cheaper than anywhere else.

 

[Nevyn]

I ordered a set myself.
I was cheeky and made an offer of £50.
She came back with £55.

bargain ;)

 

[wack]

I ordered a set myself.
I was cheeky and made an offer of £50.
She came back with £55.

bargain ;)

If you don't ask you don't get , they were worth every penny on the ferry

 

[Pilgrim/uk]

what stops them being taken lol

 

[christianUK]

what stops them being taken lol

Each side is a pair of protectors connected with a steel rope. That rope has a bobble on it which you shut in your door which traps them

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