Day 0 or is it 1? - Wednesday 5th

Up early and putting the bike in the car and leaving Lewisham by 5:30am.  1hr10 suggested by the Satnav to the Eurotunnel terminal and I also needed to fuel up en route but I got there in time without rushing.

Early start

A security check put me to the back of the queue from the front but didn't make much difference really as I made the train ok although I wasn't that far from the back.

Once out the other side I stopped off for the obligatory cafe and croissant at the fuel station just as you leave the chunnel.

Back in the car the location of the hotel was put in to the satnav and a gulp at the mileage to be done.

I stuck to the autoroutes for the first 3 1/2 hours at which point I stopped for some fuel again.  At this point I did a check on the route avoiding motorways and it only added about an hour on so I chose to hit the N roads.  The car was fairly heavy all loaded up so I didn't rush things but just made reasonable progress and I think by the time I got there I'd made up about 30 mins on the satnav time so it didn't take that much longer and was a nicer route.

So I'd arrived at the hotel for the first stopover.  It had been raining so I couldn't sit on the patio and drink the house white unfortunately but I didn't have long to wait until dinner so I perused the menu with my Kir Royal and decided on the gardens of Puligny menu.

The fish course

The meat course

Desert

Overall I think I've had better food there but it was still a pleasure to experience.  I had a little premier Cru with the starter/fish course and was going to consider some red for the meat course but I was fairly dehydrated anyway and thought I might be cycling the following day so I gave more wine a miss.

Despite getting to the bar for dinner about 7:30pm thinking it would mean an earlier finish to the evening I still didn't get back to the room until 11pm.  The bulk of the miles had been done there so a shorter day tomorrow, driving wise at least.