Rob
ClioSport Moderator
Apologies in advance for the long read, and this could go in GC, but does feature a lot of the Clio 
So as some of you know, I set off for France on Wednesday morning, with four planned stops along the way:
Lille (D)
Paris (E)
Epernay (Champagne) (F)
Brugge (G)
The car received a service at TheEvilGiraffe's Auto Services with the help of Danny172 whilst TEG and Sash sat about and watched....
The car got:
Oil
Oil filter
New spark plugs
New Cabin Filter
Check of all bulbs etc
Also, a damn good wash/polish.
So I set off with the mrs to catch a ferry first thing Wednesday morning, with a boot FULL and a cheeky chappy tagging along on the CS holder:
After an amazing (but expensive) posh breakfast on the ferry, we arrived at Calais and parked up for a quick stop: (At this point she started to think I was sad with all the Clio related pics and wanted to show her disgust)
We had planned to go to Le Toquet for lunch, but the Satnav couldn't find it (my bad for having no post code) so off we shot straight to Lille to find the hotel, where the Clio found it's first resting place:
We walked into Lille for a few drinks and then found somewhere for dinner, we came back to the hotel to find it looking very pretty and lit up, so we sat out the back and had a fair few more drinks:
The first day was already over, time to move on.
Up relatively early, we shot off into Paris (fecking traffic nightmare) and eventually found out hotel, which this time had an underground car park, so the Clio found it's next resting place:
We went to the Arc de Triomphe (look at me all touristy)
Then onto the Eiffel Tower (I've never taken so many photos of one thing and I don't even know why)
(Hi Sharks)
The views were quite worth the walk up the stairs (I couldn't believe the amount of lazy tossers that were queueing for the elevator!!!)
That was it for Paris (well Paris in pictures) we went out for a really lovely meal near the Moulin Rouge and that was that.
The next morning it was time for the trip down to Epernay, in Champagne. Some amazing roads and some harsh tolls later, we arrived:
The Clio got a very pretty parking space for the night and off we went:
In Epernay, I'd decided to pay a little more for the hotel and it was really worth it, possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, despite being only three star (iirc), it was really amazing.
Bed+mrs=win
We went off for a tour of the Moet & Chandon Champagne houses which was pretty awesome and we got to drink some very tasty Champagne, which was served in surprisingly large portions.
(Yes I'm an idiot, but I had to, for t5 more than anything)
We went out for the night splashed out on a very posh meal with a bottle of bubbly, but it had been my intention to do that since planning to go to Champagne so it wasn't too much of a shock to the wallet.
That was it for Epernay, although I really love it here and could have stayed for ages!
Onto Belgium (Bugge) and the longest journey of the trip (but still only 3 hours)
We crossed the border and to my surprise there was nothing there, not even a guard, just some empty huts, so off we went...
Brugge is a lovely place and the main giant carpark was underground, under all the main square etc, a very good idea really, so once again, the Clio found itself a home:
A couple of shots of Brugge whilst we were walking around:
That was it really, we went out for a nice tradition Flemish meal and then returned to Calais the afternoon, pulling off the boat around 6:45
A quick shot of the Clio interior with my weird claw:
All in all a lovely trip, the Clio averaged 42.2 MPG and it went without a single hitch, I filled up fully before leaving Sidcup and only filled up twice in France. Once with 35 litres and once with a lowly 18, very impressed.
Having the new quiet exhaust was like heaven compared to driving to the Lakes and back earlier in the year.
Oh and one more pic for Will. because he didn't get his MMS
Cheers for taking the time (unless you just looked at the pics)
So as some of you know, I set off for France on Wednesday morning, with four planned stops along the way:
Lille (D)
Paris (E)
Epernay (Champagne) (F)
Brugge (G)
The car received a service at TheEvilGiraffe's Auto Services with the help of Danny172 whilst TEG and Sash sat about and watched....
The car got:
Oil
Oil filter
New spark plugs
New Cabin Filter
Check of all bulbs etc
Also, a damn good wash/polish.
So I set off with the mrs to catch a ferry first thing Wednesday morning, with a boot FULL and a cheeky chappy tagging along on the CS holder:
After an amazing (but expensive) posh breakfast on the ferry, we arrived at Calais and parked up for a quick stop: (At this point she started to think I was sad with all the Clio related pics and wanted to show her disgust)
We had planned to go to Le Toquet for lunch, but the Satnav couldn't find it (my bad for having no post code) so off we shot straight to Lille to find the hotel, where the Clio found it's first resting place:
We walked into Lille for a few drinks and then found somewhere for dinner, we came back to the hotel to find it looking very pretty and lit up, so we sat out the back and had a fair few more drinks:
The first day was already over, time to move on.
Up relatively early, we shot off into Paris (fecking traffic nightmare) and eventually found out hotel, which this time had an underground car park, so the Clio found it's next resting place:
We went to the Arc de Triomphe (look at me all touristy)
Then onto the Eiffel Tower (I've never taken so many photos of one thing and I don't even know why)
(Hi Sharks)
The views were quite worth the walk up the stairs (I couldn't believe the amount of lazy tossers that were queueing for the elevator!!!)
That was it for Paris (well Paris in pictures) we went out for a really lovely meal near the Moulin Rouge and that was that.
The next morning it was time for the trip down to Epernay, in Champagne. Some amazing roads and some harsh tolls
later, we arrived:The Clio got a very pretty parking space for the night and off we went:
In Epernay, I'd decided to pay a little more for the hotel and it was really worth it, possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, despite being only three star (iirc), it was really amazing.
Bed+mrs=win
We went off for a tour of the Moet & Chandon Champagne houses which was pretty awesome and we got to drink some very tasty Champagne, which was served in surprisingly large portions.
(Yes I'm an idiot, but I had to, for t5 more than anything)
We went out for the night splashed out on a very posh meal with a bottle of bubbly, but it had been my intention to do that since planning to go to Champagne so it wasn't too much of a shock to the wallet.
That was it for Epernay, although I really love it here and could have stayed for ages!
Onto Belgium (Bugge) and the longest journey of the trip (but still only 3 hours)
We crossed the border and to my surprise there was nothing there, not even a guard, just some empty huts, so off we went...
Brugge is a lovely place and the main giant carpark was underground, under all the main square etc, a very good idea really, so once again, the Clio found itself a home:
A couple of shots of Brugge whilst we were walking around:
That was it really, we went out for a nice tradition Flemish meal and then returned to Calais the afternoon, pulling off the boat around 6:45
A quick shot of the Clio interior with my weird claw:
All in all a lovely trip, the Clio averaged 42.2 MPG
and it went without a single hitch, I filled up fully before leaving Sidcup and only filled up twice in France. Once with 35 litres and once with a lowly 18, very impressed.Having the new quiet exhaust was like heaven compared to driving to the Lakes and back earlier in the year.
Oh and one more pic for Will. because he didn't get his MMS
Cheers for taking the time (unless you just looked at the pics)
