25th/26th
NOVEMBER 2000
The
French weekend was a perfect example of a social event organised by the
Fiat Motor Club, proving that the club is not just about tyre kicking
sessions in muddy fields (although we still do that sometimes).
 Etaples Sur
Mer, a working fishing port town at the mouth of the river Canche,
was chosen as our overnight base in France and 34 members were 
booked in the Hotel de la Baie for Saturday night. There was a choice of travel
for the cars and their occupants: train via the Eurotunnel
from Folkestone or Ferry from Dover. At first it seemed that
the Eurotunnel crossing was going wrong as the 8:09
departure was over-booked and some members misjudged the traveling time
to Folkestone or were unaware that the check-in had an obligatory
minimum time of 30 minutes before departure. By some lucky and
very pleasant coincidence though, not only a large number of us ended up
taking the 8:21 crossing but we also ended up next to each other in the
same check-in queues. We managed to re-group in a service station
in Calais for a convoy run to Etaples with a short shopping and lunch
stop en-route.
The
chosen hotel offered very agreeable accommodation that was also
described as 'cosy' by many members. Some of us used the Saturday
afternoon for more shopping before returning to the hotel for the
evening meal. There was no formal itinerary to the trip and
members were free to do as they pleased so some people decided to use
the Saturday evening to sample one of the local restaurants.
We all met up again in the Hotel restaurant for breakfast on Sunday
morning. The whole of Sunday was a 'free' day without anything formal
organised. The majority of us decided to travel to nearby Le Touquet, a
picturesque little town where all the shops were open on Sunday! Not
everyone was in shopping mood though so the available time was used for
sightseeing or even kite flying!
Click
on the pictures above to view them full size. Use your Browser's 'Back'
button to return to this page.
|
