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!