Retour á Bretagne

The 22nd crossing this year was memorable – memorably bad. LD lines are shuffling their boats around (the Seven Sisters is being refitted, the Côte D’Albatre has been moved onto the Dieppe-Newhaven Route and the Norman Leader has been dragged out from somewhere cold and wet to do Portsmouth –Le Havre. It’s truly run-down, designed for lorries and didn’t have the sleeper seat that I had booked. So I slept on the floor – pretty well as it turned out but also there seemed to be no heating on anywhere in the boat.

The crew was Portuguese but the captain British. This showed an interesting – possibly cultural – Anglo-French difference. British ferry captains always make a passenger announcement at the start and end of the crossing (ready to leave, weather, timing etc) but I’ve never heard one from a French captain (eg on the Côte D’Albatre). I would be quite happy with an announcement in French – I’ve noticed the same thing flying Air France, it’s a member of the crew who talks to the passengers but not the captain.

Uneventful drive down although weather was dark and damp all the way. House fine and the cats seemed to remember where they were.

Onto that list of projects …..