Balderdash Rally — Jersey to Paris 2014

L'Hotel de Collectionneur, Paris to Deauville

Hello everybody, and welcome to Day 4 of the Balderdash - or technically Day 1 of the "Post Balderdash" - as today has seen us saying goodbye to everyone from the trip and go off on our seperate ways!

However, before we embark on our days journey, here are a few pics from last nights dinner in Paris!

So this is where we ate:

This is everyone enjoying themselves at the tables....

 

And we'd just like to take this oppurtunity to personally introduce you to our comrades from the last few days!

This is Phil (the stag!) and Simon..

 

This is Neil... (half of the winning team!)

 

This is Nick...

 

This is Richard (the stag's organizer)....

 

This is Phil, giving us a lovely little speech, telling us all to behave..

 

Nigel and David, last years winners....

 

Adam and Chris....

 

Tim and Stuart showing some brotherly love...

 

Richard, Matt, Ben and Colin...

 

And finally, Chip, Heidi, Karl, Neil and Simon...

So after a fantastic meal, people went their various seperate ways, and some of us had a nice leisurely walk back to the hotel through the warm streets of Paris.

The following morning, as you will recall from the previous update, we did most of the Day 3 update from the room, but due to the time, we had to re-locate to the hotel lobby (after checking out) to complete our work...

(we didn't want to risk being charged a late departure charge in this hotel !!)

After saying our tearful goodbyes to our companions of the past few days, we returned to the rather sumptous carpark..

...where we found the car...(fortunately!)

(repeat after us: do NOT drive forwards, do NOT drive fowards)

And then before long, were rejoining the streets of Paris..

This time, being VERY careful not to head towards the Arc.

 

Wait, whats that i see in the distance??

MIKE !!!!!! Three times in two days? What are you trying to do to me!!!

Oh well, at least it's Sunday, if you're going to drive around the Arc, today is by far the best time to do it.

 

Having cleared that small hurdle, we decided to leave the whole experience behind us...

...and rejoined the main roads leading out of Paris...

 

Before long, we were heading out of the tunnels...

 

Free from the constrains of the city roads, we settled back and enjoyed the quieter scenic roads...

 

Along our journey, we passed various sights along the route, from flying cars...

...interesting buildings...

A few horses...

 

 

These chaps wanted a race...

At one point we passed a zoo...

 

Mind you, at one point a dark cloud descended on us and we were surrounded by misery..

Every turn we took. In every direction.

However after some divine inspiration, things looked up...

Perhaps it was the 80's music we were listening to.

We soon put a stop to that..

Before long, we had something to look forward to.

Lunch time.

We stopped at a fantastic little restaurant at the side of the road...

The menu looked promising..

So we parked up and left the car to have its only bit of fun...

And in the meantime, we had THE most delicious meal!

We know what you're thinking. MORE steak. But this wasn't just any steak. This was Grilled in the Fireplace. And it was amazing. Seriously.

 

We rejoined the vehicle, all of us feeling very satisfied, raced a train...

And soon found ourselves in the charming town of Deauville where we spent an hour or two looking around the area. Mike snapped away for your enjoyment, so please take a moment or two to enjoy the fruits of his labour!

 

Having done our bit for Deauville tourism, we stopped for a cup of coffee, which, thanks to the free wifi, gave us an oppurtunity to book our accomodation for the night..

Mike expertly navigated our way to our luxurious hotel for the night (Le Campanile Deauville !), which took all of ten minutes to get to from Deauville itself, where we realxed for a bit, then went and had dinner in the adjoining restaurant.

(this is the first place we have been since leaving Jersey where we could afford two large beers!)

And having got easily 5 of our 5 a day (whilst the main course isn't pictured here, you will be pleased to know it wasn't steak!) we retired back to our luxury suite to write and upload this update for your viewing pleasure (hopefully!)

And finally here is todays route....

That's us for tonight, and if we can get this all uploaded in the next twenty minutes then we have a new record of completing an update by 11pm!

Until tomorrow,

Garry and Mike