Day 07 - Chatellerault to St Malo
Fri, 29/05/2009 - 16:31 — Garry Taylor
Beyond the Gallery Monaco Rally – Day 7 – The final update.
Well good news everybody; it’s Day 7, which means that (all being well) by the time you get to the end of this update, we’ll be back in Jersey, and therefore no more updates! (except in return for money obviously....)
This morning saw us awake in Chattellerault, which was quite convenient seeing as that’s where we had gone to bed last night.
Looking out the window revealed an overcast day with some light mist, but we don’t let these things get us down, so arose, showered and breakfasted - all by 10.30am.
A leisurely start. Except when Mike checked our route on Autoroute, it transpired we didn’t actually have that much time to get to St Malo after all, and suddenly we were under pressure, so we made tracks.
This is primarily the reason we don’t have any pictures of the morning view!
However, so as not to disappoint, here’s a couple that Mike took last night out the window whilst I was sat outside the lift typing.
Incidentally, when attempting to check emails this morning, Mike told me that this would get me a wireless signal...
...needless to say it made typing somewhat tricky.
So, by 10.45am we were reversing off our transporter...
...and were soon cruising down the Autoroutes, eating up the miles that lay before us, Police in tow...
On the way, we passed some stunningly beautiful forests ...
and even passed a small boy making a paper plane! (perhaps we'd have done better in the competition if we'd had his assistance)
Before long, we were only an hour away from St Malo, so we decided it was time for a lunch break, and pulled into a service station at the side of the road in search of a Creperie (in 7 days of being in France, we’d not yet had one – can you believe it!)
We parked up and asked a local for directions...
...and were soon enjoying a wonderful meal.
Whilst there, we bumped into the Jersey Taxi Drivers from the trip (aka Andrea and Terasa) so had a chat and caught up on their antics of the last few days, none of which can be written about here for legal reasons I’m sorry to say!
We said our goodbyes, and rejoined the motorway, and were soon seeing promising signs...
65km’s later, signs were even better...
Now, due to some resourcing issues, we had been unable to clean the car since Monaco. Although the Hotel staff at the Metropole Palace did offer to wash it for €55, we rather favoured a couple of euros in a Jet Wash station when time allowed, so it was now time to beat the bugs into submission and return the car to a state which even a Salesman would be proud of! (right Steve?)
After a very brief visit around the hyper market, it was then a quick dash to the Harbour to check in for our 5pm boat, where we were soon following the final signs of the trip.
A quick check of the trip meter confirmed that the final day had seen us cover 255 miles; with a bit of time on our hands, we then turned our attention to the all interesting final averages of the complete trip...
(I would just like to point out that the Max Speed was NOT from this trip, but a previous one in Germany. Honestly, it really was. )
The “Green” brigade, (or perhaps “not so green” brigade), will, I’m sure, be interested to know that during the course of the last few days, we have burnt our way through over 400 litres of Super98, at a cost of just under £500, whilst averaging 23.3mpg over the entire trip!
And purely because we have this information to hand, and it might prove useful if you are planning a trip to France in the near future, the least we paid for a litre of Super was €1.42, and the most was €1.58.
Working on an exchange rate of 1.220, that means the price varied from £1.16 to £1.30 per litre! (now we appreciate the cost of Jersey fuel a bit more!)
Before long, we were on board the Condor Vitesse and setting sail for Sunny Jersey, racing the Condor 10 out of the harbour, which needless to say, we beat!
You’d think we could now sit back and relax, but no, even when on board the boat, Mike can’t help but navigate (i’m not sure if this is just because he doesn’t trust the Captain as the Pilot had just jumped ship..)
After a very pleasant crossing which left 15 minutes early and arrived 30 minutes early, we were soon arriving back in Jersey, and after a quick meet with a JEP photographer, it was time for Mike and I to say our tearful goodbyes, and return to our own homes!
Now then, assuming you haven’t all drifted off, on to the credits!
Once again, we’d like to say a huge thank you to Geoff Vibert and all at CTS Computing Ltd for their continued support over the last few years;
Thanks to Ian Griffey and all at Computer Protec Systems, great to have you onboard this year (let’s talk about next year and get some slightly bigger stickers – they’ll show up better on a white car too!)
Thanks to Steve Cracknell and all at MotorMall again, (but where’s the X !!)
A huge thanks to all our friends, family and work colleagues who have once again generously donated to a very worthy cause.
And finally, thanks to everyone who has posted in the Guest Book; it’s always nice to know people are actually reading this rubbish!!
Incidentally Mystery M; i’ve just done a Google search of “garry taylor and mike Nolan” and we came first !!
So as per usual, here is today’s route;
You can also, click here to see the route from the complete trip if you’re interested!
Finally, one last picture of our trophies from the 2008 tour!
So that’s it for another year. We hope you have enjoyed following us around France over the last few days, and we sincerely hope we will be back in 2009 to do more of the same, this time in a different car!
Thanks and Goodbye!
Garry and Mike
