Heatwave? Delays in the tunnel? Long delays in the tunnel???
Surely not, or so we thought when we met at 0700 at STOP24 however, there were already reports of queuing traffic on the motorway so we made some very quick introductions and joined the queue – QUEUE, on a motorcycle!
After 2 hours of stop-start (more stop than start), some pushing their bikes rather than burning out starter motors, we arrived at the kiosk to get our ticket to board only to be told of another 5 hours of delays.
Meanwhile … two of our group who had joined the trip at the last moment and had been given flexi passes for an earlier train … were in France and because of our delays, already soaking up the atmosphere and driving along the route to Reims.
Fortunately, our 5 hours turned into less than an hour and we boarded our carriage arriving in France only 3 hours later than our original planned arrival time however, we had ground to make up so attacked the motorway with our first stop being a service station for fuel and a snack and our afternoon coffee stop being in Guise which was originally our lunch stop!