Just a quick review of my trip to France last week (thanks to all for the advice about the lights etc):
My secretary had booked a Flexi+ ticket, meaning that I did not have to worry about arriving at a certain time, and instead could just use the segregated lane for Flexi+ tickehtholders, making the queing process non-existent (although customs process was unchanged)
Obviously the car isn't so low that there were any problems loading onto the train, and once parked I was able to change the lights over in less than 10 minutes total (in front of a couple of benused onlookers!). It really is that easy.
Having heard about the risks of getting caught speeding (particularly if you are from GB, and even more so if you are driving a Porsche!!), so I set the curise at around 80-85mph, and with little traffic on the Peage was able to maintain this all the way to Paris. Average around 28mpg too, which I was quite pleased with, and this despite having some fun dropping down a few gears to have fun in the tunnels on the outskirts of Paris!
For all its documented faults, the Sat Nav didn't put a foot worng and got me to the hotel, hidden away down some small backstreets, without a problem.
Scariest moment was handing over the keys to what looked like a 10-year old bell boy to park the car in their underground car park, but the EUR10 note I gave him made me think he'd look after it.....
On the way home was a similar story - Sat Nav got me out of Paris very efficiently and then I cruised back to Calais at the same sort of speeds as on the way down.
I stopped at Calais to get some beer and wine - didn't go overboard, but was able to put 5 cases of beer on the folded-down back seats, and 24 bottles of wine in boxes in front of the passenger seat, with plenty of room spare had I wanted to carry more - probably twice as much without much fuss.
Nice journey back on the shuttle - again the flexi+ ticket meant I was right at the very front of the shuttle so could get away quickly at the other end, and I managed to get the lights changed over in close to 5mins!!
On the shuttle, someone walking past to the toliets stopped for a chat about the car, which was nice.
All in all, not a bad experience. Not sure I'd choose to do it again, as it was quite tiring, but nonetheless no major (or even minor) problems!!
Sidicks
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