I now understand we did what many Parisians did yesterday - sought out a cheap Ibis ‘Styles’ hotel to shelter from the 40degs heat. Just walking from the garage to reception was an intense ordeal, but once inside - bliss.
Mind you their rather ancient aircon was struggling - a tell tale drip bucket was deployed in the dining room. Everyone just pretended not to notice it, praying that it wouldn’t force a shutdown repair.
As a result we slept well (last night) with the aircon wheezing in our cell - we never even opened the mechanical shutters to look at any potential view outside - just hunkered down in a semi-cool room.
At breakfast it felt pretty sweaty. The grumpy manager who’d been over controlling his bright young staff the night before had obviously taken a chance to cut back on energy expenditure and switched off the downstairs aircon everywhere, except in the check out area. Never mind we were on the road early.
As we moved up through central France to Cherbourg the temperature dropped. We avoided Paris in the hope of preserving sanity and wing mirrors.
As usual the ferry was a great petrolhead meeting place. This modified 3.2 Carerra behind us had been on the ‘Europe Run 2026’ a pay-your-money-and-join-in blast for a wide ranging group of powerful sports cars through some of the great European roads and hotels. The driver said it had been great until the traffic jam they’d just encountered. He got very concerned for his aircooled engine, so he just put on his warning flashers and motored carefully down the emergency lane - hence arriving considerably earlier than his mates.
At the end of our line a fine old Lagonda, with a fine old pair driving it had somehow survived the intense heat.
Nice reg plate.
In the absurd Customs scrum that follows disembarking (only 2 of the 4 kiosks were staffed) the Lagonda took no prisoners and edged his way forcefully through the crowd, then held us all up as we gingerly picked our way through the appalling roadwork mess that is Poole ferry terminal. God knows what first impression visitors get. Great to be back in England.
And so we arrived back late last night, having picked up some milk at the night pay section on the A303 services - the guy willingly abandoned his post and toddles off to pick up whatever you want from the shelves.
We did 3k+ miles, and the car never missed a beat in extreme temperatures with full aircon when needed, which was pretty often! We both really enjoyed driving it - the gen 1 is a brilliant road car, and despite its stripped back rudimentary spec it’s a great touring car too.
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