Wasn’t sure exactly what was meant to be happening today other than doing the same sort of run we did yesterday and go to a market, though no one really confirmed it.. Was up early again to make sure we were ready for what ever we were up to. We were soon joined the rest of team cheapskate down in the bar.. no one else appeared though and we soon found out why, they had all decided to be ready for 10am and not earlier like we were We didn’t really want to wait around for ages for them, and in particular do the same drive we did yesterday, so we decided we would do something of our own and then meet up with them all later that day.. Paul decided to see what was around so had a look with sat nav and found a few mountain passes near, so we all thought we’d go and explore! We found some amazing roads, wish I had the opportunity to drive on them, Matt drove the entire weekend! Though to be fair I was a little scared about driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road Still I was able to get the pics!

We continued on our little adventure into a near by town. We were quite happily driving along until we encountered a hail storm! It came down like it was snowing expect it wasn’t snow Lasted ages too!! We were trying to drive up this hill, but we got stopped by the French car in front of us struggling to get up the hill! The car moved forward a little then rolled back a lot more than it was going forward!! Luckily we were able to turn around before the car came any further towards us! We gradually made it down the hill, but then got stuck with all these other cars.. Chris and Jax, Paul and Simon managed to get down to the bottom ok and get away from all the other cars. We eventually made it out and drove a little way down the road and the entire place was clear of hail!! Unbelievable!

After our very brief stop, we climbed back into the cars and drove some more to find the next pass which wasn’t too far away. The weather was still playing around and not wanting to behave, as it started snowing

                       

After that final pass, we decided to head to to the town where everyone else was meant to have been. It was still snowing when we got there, so wanted to find somewhere inside we could sit for a while and have something to eat. Chris and Jax wanted to go somewhere where they could have muscles for lunch - yuk!!!

    

We tired to find where everyone else was but they had moved on.. So we decided to head over to the market on the other side of the river. It was a medievil marketwhich was quite interesting. There was meant to have been more there, but a lot of them had packed up and left as the weather wasn’t the greatest.. After wondering around several times it was time to head back to the hotel and see if the others were there..

Pics on the way back and at the hotel..

                                

The plan for this evening was a picnic in Stu and Alex’s hotel room We all gathered around there for 5:30 with all our food and drink, although we quickly dicovered there wasn’t enough room for everyone in the lounge area!!Ray then had the idea that we use his and Gails room, as it was a lot bigger and had seats for everyone, no one would need to sit on the floor like the other place We all grabbed what we could and wondered down the corridor to their room.. it was huge!! Plenty of space for everyone! Music was put on, and the party started again, loads of chatting and loads of laughter! It was soon time for Chris to start to annual French Weekender Quiz We all teamed up in pairs and have to answer 20 questions to do with driving and MINIs Was good fun, we didn’t win though Paul and Simon did, though they had an advantage as all the questions asked about BMW or MINI Simon was bound to know as he used to work for them! After the quiz we all carried on with drinking and eating and having a laugh until it was getting rather late..

Pics from the party..

                            

The final early start of the weekend.. had to get up very early to get ready and pack everything up. Had a shock when we lookced out the window at the cars parked down below in the courtyard.. it had snowed over night and had covered the cars in a nice layer of thick snow Funny thing was, there was no snow around the cars on the ground, like the snow had decided to only land on the cars

           

We all gathered out by the cars and packed everything up. I had al ittle snow ball fight with Paul which was fun! I got him in the ear with a snow ball, yet he was unable to hit me with one! Teehee! Spaci was one of the first to leave as he had to travel back to Switzerland.. so we all said our goodbyes before he went off and we began our jounrey back to the Ferry terminal. Everyone had stopped for fuel but Matt and Chris and Jax decided we would carry on without the others and just take our time on the way back. Paul and Simon had been trying to catch us up and find us but we’d gone a dfferent way to everyone else.. We got to the terminal with loads of time left to spare so we decided to go to Cite Europe for food and for shopping. While we were there, Paul and Simon turned up to find us and told us they had also gone a different way to all the others as they had all been speeding off, which is what Paul didn’t want to do.. Though thanks to the others, Paul got stopped by the Police 2 times within several minutes as there had been a reported of red MINIs speeding!! Paul wasn’t very happy!! Not surprised really!

Once we were fed and finsihed with our shopping, we continued driving to the final stop.. the ferry terminal. When we arrived there, we found all the others just getting there too, though we had time to shop before hand

We didn’t have long until we were boarding the ferry for our hour long crossing.. It was sad to be leaving France after such a fantastic weekend, and sad to be saying good bye to the people we went with.. still shouldn’t be too long and we’ll see the majority of them all again! And I’m almost certain there will be a French Weekender IV, which we will be going on I’m sure! :p

Pics from the final day..

                                      

And finally, a pic of everyone who attended the French Weekender and made it a fantastic weekend!

  

A MINI adventure with great friends in France - THE END!

Saturday morning was a very early start! The alarm was set for 7:30 which was really 6:30 proper time Got ourselves ready and headed down stairs to the cars to meet everyone. Today was the day of the photo competition which had been set up by Andy and Natalie. It was called Canine Capers. We were given a sheet with places we were meant to be visiting on the day, and while we were there, we had to take a photo. The list of photos we had to take were dog related - French Poodle, British Bulldog, Wolfs Lair, Pit of the Dog and Dogs Dinner.. This may sound simple enough, but coming up with ideas for these pictures was really hard!!

We were all meant to have downloaded the TomTom itinerary files to go to the places on the sheet, Matt hadn’t done this so we had to team up with someone else who had a TomTom with the files on them.. Chris and Jax asked us if we fancied teaming up with them, they weren’t taking part in the competition but were going along for the ride. It was set out a bit like the Italian Job, where we were all given a time slot to leave the hotel and start our journey, we were given the countdown, and then we were off

Once we were on our way, we were soon caught up by Paul and Simon. Team cheapskate - as Simon liked to call us, all together for the day! Very pretty good fun! Plenty of random and funny banter on the radios on our trips out and about

Our first stop was mean to have been a rather cool looking castle, but Chris and Jax’s sat nav went very wrong and took us through a tunnel and the castle and away from it instead of around it to park up and explore After much debating about turning round and going back, we decided we should just carry on - seeing as we getting further and further away from the castle! We crossed the border into Belgium and decided to find somewhere to have a snack - it mainly for Jamie as apparently he had to be fed every hour! Mad kid!! We found a nice little cafe where we all had drinks and Jamie had a cheese toastie whilst sitting there drinking away, we were trying to figure out how and where we were going to get pics for the photo competition.. someone up there must have been listening to our conversation, as at that moment, a woman came in with a French poodle!! That was picture number one sorted!! What was even better was that she sat down and started to feed the dog! Dogs dinner pic sorted!! Now for the rest..

After our little stop, we then carried on with the route. The roads we drove around on were amazing, bendy twisty roads, perfect for a MINI adventure! Although one road we did encounter, none of us were too keen on, very narrow and full of very deep potholes! That didn’t stop us with out adventure though! Our next stop and final stop was Hitlers Bunker - I believe that’s what it’s called! Seeing as we never got a chance to explore the first place, we decide it was only right to explore this place. There wasn’t a huge amount too it so it didn’t take us long to explore We wondered into one under ground room which is where Hilter would have slept.. I was one of the last people to go in there and I soon as I entered I screamed the place down!! Jamie had hidden behind the door and decided to jump out in front of me and scare the crap out of me!! Everyone of course laughed at me! Matt came up with a strange idea for the Pit of the Dog photo. He asked Jax to lie down on one of the benches in the room we were in so he could get a pic of it.. not sure what he was trying to say about Jax!!

That was the end of the route and supposedly the end of the photo competition.. it was still quite early so we gradually made our way back but stopped off at a maccy D’s on the way back for a late lunch and then to the super market next door to get breakfast for the next day On our way in, we had noticed a MINI dealership close by, so after we were finished in the super market we decided to pay a visit to the dealership It was very unlike the ones in the UK.. no one wanted to come over and see if we needed any help - I know we were the foreigners but still All the people working were sat around in an office not paying any attention to what was going on in the show room! I found some really cool looking cans which looked like soft drinks cans, but had MINI UP printed on the front of them, one can for each model of MINI.. no idea what exactly that were advertising, the can had paper inside it, but of course, I can’t read it! I decided I wanted one, so Matt nabbed a couple for us to keep as the cans look very cool! It was then time to head back to the hotel and meet up with everyone else. We were the first ones back so we went back to our rooms and waited.. though I hung out the window and watched for them all They eventually turned up and we all met up downstairs at the bar.. Andy got his laptop set up so we could all load our pics onto it ready for judging the competition.. We didn’t win Doesn’t matter, the pics that other people had taken were far better than what we came up with.. although to be fair, I think the majority of them cheated as they all somehow managed to have either a toy bulldog or a keyring of a bulldog! Cheats!!

That evening we were all meant to be having a meal together, but the place we were going to eat had a problem with us all eating there, we had to all have the same meal which was odd.. It was then decided that we would go for a meal else where.. Most people wanted to go to a beer place which wasn’t a place i wanted to go to, and thankfully, team cheapskate felt the same too so we decided to find somewhere else to eat After ages of searching we came across a nice Italian place which was fine for me! Had a really nice evening with everyone, lots of chat and laughter!

Pics from the day

                                              

I’ve not been on a French Weekender since 2006, as the one that was arranged last year, both myself and Matt weren’t able to attend as we had both purchased our new MINIs. So after a year of getting money sorted, we were able to book up for this years one

The adventure started after work last Thursday.. I was able to leave work early (despite having loads more work to do) so I could get back and finish packing. Matt turned up soon after I got home and we started packing my things in the car - I didn’t pack light! We had arranged to meet the majority of the weekenders at a Harvester not far away from the ferry terminal, so we could have a bite to eat and a chat before leaving. We were the second car there, after Stu and Alex. Going on what we were like the first time with food on the French Weekend, we had decided to nip to a super market after dinner to buy loads of supplies for the weekend, plenty of drink, chocolate, biscuits, crisps etc

We met everyone back at the Harvester for more drinks before deciding it was time to head for the Ferry. When we arrived, we had to wait a little while before we were allowed to board, so we stood around in the cold chatting Eventually we made it on. Myself and Matt couldn’t park with the others as there was no room so we were instructed to go and park in front of all the lorries - surprisingly there was just enough room for a MINI right at the front of the ferry We grabbed all the things we might need for the ferry and went to check in and leave our stuff in the cabin. I wasn’t impressed with the cabin we were given.. we had 4 beds and no little bathroom, we had to used to shared one just down the corridor! hmmmmm! We then went off to meet everyone else in the pub for drinks and chats about the weekend ahead. While we were there we found that Ray, Gail and their grand daughter had been given a 2 bed cabin, so we decided to swap.. no point in us having a 4 bed one for just 2 of us! I was very glad we did though, we got our own bathroom! Bit small but I didn’t mind! With it nearly 1am, we all decided it was time to head off to our cabins and try and get some sleep ready for the driving tomorrow..

Didn’t get a lot of sleep that night, being on the ferry didn’t seem right Also didn’t help that when I did get to sleep, I was woken up by the captain saying that we were an hour away from docking, so we had to get up and ready.. As soon as we were ready we gathered by the stairwells until we allowed down onto the car decks to get into the car. We were first off, coz of where we were parked Pulled into a car park near the exit of the terminal so we could all meet together before convoying off to find breakfast

Pics after getting off the ferry..

Once we were all together, we then began driving to find somewhere we could have breakfast. Getting through Le Havre was interesting as it was rush hour, took a while before we were able to get out and start the proper driving. We soon found somewhere to stop and have some breakfast. I felt very embarrassed ordering our food as I’m not the best of french speakers, though I managed to say what I wanted, just couldn’t understand what she was saying to me..! I really should learn French for the next time I’m over there!

After filling our rumbling tummies with food, we hit the road again and made our journey to meet Chris, Jax, Paul and Simon who had gotten the speed ferry earlier that morning. We all somehow managed to get split up on the way to meet them and myself and Matt were the first ones there at the car park to meet the others who were already there waiting for us to show up Soon enough, everyone else began to show up.. we all gathered round our cars to get more pics before heading off in separate directions to lunch. we ended up staying with Chris and Jax, Jax’s son Jamie, Paul and Simon, although Simon wondered off somewhere just as we found somewhere to eat It was a nice little cafe, that just about fit us in Again I felt embarrassed ordering what I wanted and trying to understand what the waitress was saying back.. knew I would be struggling again through out the rest of the weekend.. ah well! Once we were done, we headed back to the cars to meet with everyone and the head off to Reims to meet Spaci - one of the swiss MINI memebers

Pics from the lunch stop..

When we arrived at Reims, Spaci was already there waiting for us, watching as we got there from the seats in the stadium on the other side of the road.. We weren’t planning on staying too long, though just long enough to get pics of all the cars lined up together..

After our short stop, it was time to finally make our way to our hotel.. Hotel le Château Fort

http://www.hotelfp-sedan.com/index-gb.htm

This place was amazing!! A huge castle/fort! I thought staying there would be really expensive as it looked it, but it really wasn’t! There were loads of places within it to explore and look around - which I think some of the other weekenders did, but we didn’t, would have done if we had been there longer than a weekend!

We all got split up again on our way there and took a while to find the entrance to the place as at the time it seemed complicated to get into! Eventually found our way in, and had to drive though a little tunnel to get into the court yard to park our cars. We went in and found our rooms. Our room was on the 4th floor, with a great view of the court yard - even though the window was right on the floor surrounded by metal gate.. The room was lovely and big, with one of the walls made out of the original castle stone, looked pretty cool!

Pics getting to the hotel and the hotel itself..

That evening we had arranged to meet everyone in the lobby/bar to decide what we would be doing for food that evening.. it was Ady who found some places around near where we were staying, so we picked one and tried to find it.. We got lost though Darren plucked up the courage to stop an on-coming car and attempt to ask for directions, even though he doesn’t speak French!! After a lot of pointing to a map, the guy driving the car got out and walked us a short distance down the road to the place we were looking for! Turns out it was either his or his girlfriends families restaurant!!

There wasn’t a table big enough for all of us so we had to split up amongst 3 tables.. I sat on the bigger table with Matt, Simon, Paul, Darren, Chrissie, Ady, Michael, Jenna and Mandy Good bunch of people to enjoy the evening with! The menus were passed around and after having it translated for me, I decided I wasn’t going to have anything from it, as none of it sounded very nice!! I was right not to pick from the menu, everyone elses meals didn’t look very appetising!! I was very glad they kept bringing out bread throughout the evening, so I munched on that!

Pics from the evening..

Several hours later, the meal was finally over (they seemed very slow in the restaurant!), and we slowly made our way back to the hotel - we managed not to get lost on the way back! We didn’t stick around too long, as the next day was going to be an early start for the photo competition that was planned!