Road trip to Le Touquet Paris Plage.
First of all, this is a long read, so well done to those who get through all of it without switching off! Photos are taken on my iPhone, so quality isn’t great.
The cars involved.
1989 VW Golf MK1 Karmman Clipper Cabriolet 1.8. (Jeremy Clarkson’s Car).
1986 Porsche 944 Lux 2.5 (Richard Hammonds Car, I’m co-pilot in this).
1984 Mini 1.3, recently fully re-built. (James Mays Car).
A few months ago, me and some of my mates decided to take their pre 90’s cars on a good run across to France, found Le Touqeut on a map, and booked the ferry and accommodation. Ferry cost £54 per car and accommodation was £290 for a 6 person apartment for 3 nights. Cheap as chips!
We decided on doing a Top Gear road challenge kind of game, where you win and lose points just to make it a little more interesting and to provide some cracking banter. One of the lads’ sisters works for a mask company, and they asked if we wouldn’t mind wearing some top gear masks along the way so they could have a story for the website, we were happy to oblige! I can’t remember all the scores and who scored for what, but I’ll put who won at the end.
We started off on the Thursday night prepping and packing all the cars up. Making sure we had everything we needed for driving across Europe and giving the cars a once over, checking fluid levels and making sure everything was as it should be. After this we deserved a curry, so much food, such a bad idea when going a huge road trip the next day!
We set off at 7am on Friday morning for a 12.20pm ferry, it’s around a two and half hour trip, but we gave ourselves extra time with hitting the M25 at rush hour and any breakdowns that may occur. Our first stop was just before the M25 at 9.28am where me (Richard Hammond) and my mate Chris in the Mini decided it was time to have the first beer of the day, bad decision when there is a ferry journey ahead. We then set off with our next forecasted stop just before Dover for some lunch and photos. We stopped a few times in between as the curry repeated!
A couple of moving photos of the Golf and Mini along the way.
We arrived at the early arrivals services and found a very friendly German man to take some photos of us; he must of though we were mental. Had a nice chat to him about his Porsche 911 Turbo and went and grabbed some food and a toilet stop.
Bye Bye England!
We arrived into Calais as scheduled and set off, leaving down the A16 with the intention of finding the D940, which luckily we did. Just came off and headed for the sea just outside Calais, and we found it! Stopped off to check the map and find the best route.
Just outside Calais.
By this point the Mini had developed its first fault; the brake lights had stopped working, so we went behind it, and the Golf in front. This later turned out to be that a connection had fallen out so was a quick 2 minute fix. The road was awesome, some long straights, followed by some nice twisted downhill roads, just what we were looking for. Match this with the views around and it was a great start to our trip down to Le Touquet.
D940 Road.
We arrived into Le Touquet after around an hour and a half of driving. If you have ever been, trying to navigate down the one way streets is an absolute pain! We eventually found it after much bad language and driving round, parked up and settled in. We didn’t have any beer in yet, so settled for a Midori and lemonade (AKA antifreeze).
We then set out to explore the town and hit the supermarket for some dinner and beer. As it was our first night we ate in, had a few beers and then set out to the town to see what was going on. It then set in that pre-drinking was a great idea, as at £6.00 a pint and £5.00 a bottle of desperados, it isn’t a cheap affair to get wasted in the bars and clubs! After a few too many scoops we headed back, wallets lightened, ready for Saturday whatever it may bring.
Saturday we headed to the beach to see what was happening and had some lunch and a drink (a soft drink after the previous night). It was surprisingly warm, so we chilled for a while. I got bored and took some Hipstamatic photos.
We had heard before we set out that there was some kind of classic car rally happening at the same time we were there, out of pure coincidence we had booked to go on this weekend. And my oh my it didn’t disappoint. There was some stunning metal on show and some extremely rare metal as well! Put a few of the photos I took below, there was an original Ford GT40 there, but I didn’t manage to get a photo as I was too busy messing around, I will get one off my mate and add it at some point. My favourite car of the weekend had to be the blue TVR Taimar, it sounded brutal as hell. At one point the announcer decided to put the microphone to everybody’s exhaust and make them rev, he stopped after the TVR spat a flame at him! Well anyway, the photos.
We then went into town for a beer, and found a little bar, Le Bureau that sold 2.5 litre beer towers, so we hit a few of these and watched the Utd Bolton game, myself and one of the other lads support Utd, so this was nice . It worked out at about a pint each, and cost us 28 euros for the beer towers, so was cheaper than buying pints.
It did however tire one of the lads out ha!
Whilst sat outside this beauty pulled up, had a nice perv whilst he was talking to his mate.
We then went home where I cooked some fresh sea bass, much to the surprise of the rest of my mates. I’m a dark horse in the kitchen; they didn’t know I could cook ha. We then set off into town for a Saturday night to see what the local nightlife had to offer. Many expensive beers were drunk. At one point my mate paid 13 euros for a vodka redbull, crazy!
The £6.00 pints.
Sunday we decided we would explore some roads around the area, and did a 60 mile circuit that we found on the map. Saw some lovely countryside and quaint little French towns along the way. Stopped off for some photos and took some along the way which are below.
One of the challenges was to run over my mate Chris’ hat, he wears it all the time since coming back from America, and we won ourselves 10 points by doing so.
Monday came, and it was going home day, boooooo. The weather was shocking, gale force winds and rain, not what we wanted to drive back to Calais along the seafront in to be honest. We popped into town for some breakfast, and found something very useful, A CHOCOLATE TEAPOT SHOP!
We then set about the drive back and stopped messing around. Loaded the cars up, did some final checks as we did before leaving the UK. Finding out the Porsche was drinking oil like we were drinking beer all weekend and set off on our merry way. The sea was pretty brutal looking, which didn’t look to good for our ferry crossing, we already new before arriving at the port it was going to rough on that boat! Took some photos of the sea and the cars on the drive back.
The sea looking pretty rough!
Few snaps of the roads and the cars.
In Calais
We arrived at Calais at 1.00pm for our ferry at 2.30pm. Then the Golf accidentally drove down the customs declaration isle! They just asked for our passports again, laughed at my mate in the mini and let us through. This is where life started to get hard! We were told out ferry was delayed an hour, so not leaving now until 3.30pm. This became later and later. One ferry came in and we got excited, it then left without us, or anybody in our queue for that matter. Eventually we managed to get the ferry, albeit at around 6pm. I don’t know how we managed to keep ourselves occupied for 4 hours, but we did. We had been told from the UK already that the weather was bad, but the wind on the channel was immense, gusts of up to 70mph! This made the crossing extremely interesting to say the least. Fag breaks out the back were fun………. not.
We arrived into Dover at around 7.00pm UK time where we just sat around with loads of other ships around us, it was not looking good. For the first time since queuing in Calais we were given an update as to what was happening. All ferries had to be guided into port as the conditions where that bad, we finally got off the ferry at about 9pm. Tiredness was kicking in now, we couldn’t sleep on the ferry as it was full of coach loads of screaming school kids who would not shut up!
We arrived at Dover in this light.
We got off the ferry in this light.
Whilst waiting for the lower level to get off the ferry, this tidy looking motor was giving his engine some revs, much to our happiness. It certainly put a smile on our faces.
We then decided to stop at the same services we did on the way here and grab a KFC, they were just closing so we bought what they had and got our eat on. It was dark and windy and we just wanted to get home! But not before one last photo of the cars all lined up.
We eventually got home at 1.00am, haggered and knowing we all had work the next day we got straight into bed. It had been a long, tiring and stressful day. Not the end to the awesome time away we had wanted.
The top gear style challenge was always at the back of our mind, and the points were being won and lost all the time. And the Porsche, the car I was in, won by a whisker! Before leaving we were second, after I lost us 5 points for being aggressive. Being woken up and 8.30 am to my mate blaring limp biscuit is enough to make any man snap! We lost 5 points for this, now trailing by 3 points. The mini was miles behind as things kept breaking, each fault was 5 points. We stung him royally by deducting 5 points for each LED in his angel eyes that broke, there were 15 that stopped working!
On the way through France we got the 10 points we desperately needed, for the most dangerous manoeuvre! Wet and slippy roundabouts it rear wheels drive cars are fun, make of that what you will.
We all had a great time, and will be making a yearly occurrence of this trip, next year I’ll hopefully have an E30 325i to join, here’s hoping! I am looking forward to taking the R27 away with some guys off here in a week and a bit though!
Thanks for reading, and well done if you made it all the way to the end! I’ve missed tons of stuff out, but didn’t want to make this any longer than it already is! Any questions just ask.
First of all, this is a long read, so well done to those who get through all of it without switching off! Photos are taken on my iPhone, so quality isn’t great.
The cars involved.
1989 VW Golf MK1 Karmman Clipper Cabriolet 1.8. (Jeremy Clarkson’s Car).
1986 Porsche 944 Lux 2.5 (Richard Hammonds Car, I’m co-pilot in this).
1984 Mini 1.3, recently fully re-built. (James Mays Car).
A few months ago, me and some of my mates decided to take their pre 90’s cars on a good run across to France, found Le Touqeut on a map, and booked the ferry and accommodation. Ferry cost £54 per car and accommodation was £290 for a 6 person apartment for 3 nights. Cheap as chips!
We decided on doing a Top Gear road challenge kind of game, where you win and lose points just to make it a little more interesting and to provide some cracking banter. One of the lads’ sisters works for a mask company, and they asked if we wouldn’t mind wearing some top gear masks along the way so they could have a story for the website, we were happy to oblige! I can’t remember all the scores and who scored for what, but I’ll put who won at the end.
We started off on the Thursday night prepping and packing all the cars up. Making sure we had everything we needed for driving across Europe and giving the cars a once over, checking fluid levels and making sure everything was as it should be. After this we deserved a curry, so much food, such a bad idea when going a huge road trip the next day!
We set off at 7am on Friday morning for a 12.20pm ferry, it’s around a two and half hour trip, but we gave ourselves extra time with hitting the M25 at rush hour and any breakdowns that may occur. Our first stop was just before the M25 at 9.28am where me (Richard Hammond) and my mate Chris in the Mini decided it was time to have the first beer of the day, bad decision when there is a ferry journey ahead. We then set off with our next forecasted stop just before Dover for some lunch and photos. We stopped a few times in between as the curry repeated!
A couple of moving photos of the Golf and Mini along the way.
We arrived at the early arrivals services and found a very friendly German man to take some photos of us; he must of though we were mental. Had a nice chat to him about his Porsche 911 Turbo and went and grabbed some food and a toilet stop.
Bye Bye England!
We arrived into Calais as scheduled and set off, leaving down the A16 with the intention of finding the D940, which luckily we did. Just came off and headed for the sea just outside Calais, and we found it! Stopped off to check the map and find the best route.
Just outside Calais.
By this point the Mini had developed its first fault; the brake lights had stopped working, so we went behind it, and the Golf in front. This later turned out to be that a connection had fallen out so was a quick 2 minute fix. The road was awesome, some long straights, followed by some nice twisted downhill roads, just what we were looking for. Match this with the views around and it was a great start to our trip down to Le Touquet.
D940 Road.
We arrived into Le Touquet after around an hour and a half of driving. If you have ever been, trying to navigate down the one way streets is an absolute pain! We eventually found it after much bad language and driving round, parked up and settled in. We didn’t have any beer in yet, so settled for a Midori and lemonade (AKA antifreeze).
We then set out to explore the town and hit the supermarket for some dinner and beer. As it was our first night we ate in, had a few beers and then set out to the town to see what was going on. It then set in that pre-drinking was a great idea, as at £6.00 a pint and £5.00 a bottle of desperados, it isn’t a cheap affair to get wasted in the bars and clubs! After a few too many scoops we headed back, wallets lightened, ready for Saturday whatever it may bring.
Saturday we headed to the beach to see what was happening and had some lunch and a drink (a soft drink after the previous night). It was surprisingly warm, so we chilled for a while. I got bored and took some Hipstamatic photos.
We had heard before we set out that there was some kind of classic car rally happening at the same time we were there, out of pure coincidence we had booked to go on this weekend. And my oh my it didn’t disappoint. There was some stunning metal on show and some extremely rare metal as well! Put a few of the photos I took below, there was an original Ford GT40 there, but I didn’t manage to get a photo as I was too busy messing around, I will get one off my mate and add it at some point. My favourite car of the weekend had to be the blue TVR Taimar, it sounded brutal as hell. At one point the announcer decided to put the microphone to everybody’s exhaust and make them rev, he stopped after the TVR spat a flame at him! Well anyway, the photos.
We then went into town for a beer, and found a little bar, Le Bureau that sold 2.5 litre beer towers, so we hit a few of these and watched the Utd Bolton game, myself and one of the other lads support Utd, so this was nice . It worked out at about a pint each, and cost us 28 euros for the beer towers, so was cheaper than buying pints.
It did however tire one of the lads out ha!
Whilst sat outside this beauty pulled up, had a nice perv whilst he was talking to his mate.
We then went home where I cooked some fresh sea bass, much to the surprise of the rest of my mates. I’m a dark horse in the kitchen; they didn’t know I could cook ha. We then set off into town for a Saturday night to see what the local nightlife had to offer. Many expensive beers were drunk. At one point my mate paid 13 euros for a vodka redbull, crazy!
The £6.00 pints.
Sunday we decided we would explore some roads around the area, and did a 60 mile circuit that we found on the map. Saw some lovely countryside and quaint little French towns along the way. Stopped off for some photos and took some along the way which are below.
One of the challenges was to run over my mate Chris’ hat, he wears it all the time since coming back from America, and we won ourselves 10 points by doing so.
Monday came, and it was going home day, boooooo. The weather was shocking, gale force winds and rain, not what we wanted to drive back to Calais along the seafront in to be honest. We popped into town for some breakfast, and found something very useful, A CHOCOLATE TEAPOT SHOP!
We then set about the drive back and stopped messing around. Loaded the cars up, did some final checks as we did before leaving the UK. Finding out the Porsche was drinking oil like we were drinking beer all weekend and set off on our merry way. The sea was pretty brutal looking, which didn’t look to good for our ferry crossing, we already new before arriving at the port it was going to rough on that boat! Took some photos of the sea and the cars on the drive back.
The sea looking pretty rough!
Few snaps of the roads and the cars.
In Calais
We arrived at Calais at 1.00pm for our ferry at 2.30pm. Then the Golf accidentally drove down the customs declaration isle! They just asked for our passports again, laughed at my mate in the mini and let us through. This is where life started to get hard! We were told out ferry was delayed an hour, so not leaving now until 3.30pm. This became later and later. One ferry came in and we got excited, it then left without us, or anybody in our queue for that matter. Eventually we managed to get the ferry, albeit at around 6pm. I don’t know how we managed to keep ourselves occupied for 4 hours, but we did. We had been told from the UK already that the weather was bad, but the wind on the channel was immense, gusts of up to 70mph! This made the crossing extremely interesting to say the least. Fag breaks out the back were fun………. not.
We arrived into Dover at around 7.00pm UK time where we just sat around with loads of other ships around us, it was not looking good. For the first time since queuing in Calais we were given an update as to what was happening. All ferries had to be guided into port as the conditions where that bad, we finally got off the ferry at about 9pm. Tiredness was kicking in now, we couldn’t sleep on the ferry as it was full of coach loads of screaming school kids who would not shut up!
We arrived at Dover in this light.
We got off the ferry in this light.
Whilst waiting for the lower level to get off the ferry, this tidy looking motor was giving his engine some revs, much to our happiness. It certainly put a smile on our faces.
We then decided to stop at the same services we did on the way here and grab a KFC, they were just closing so we bought what they had and got our eat on. It was dark and windy and we just wanted to get home! But not before one last photo of the cars all lined up.
We eventually got home at 1.00am, haggered and knowing we all had work the next day we got straight into bed. It had been a long, tiring and stressful day. Not the end to the awesome time away we had wanted.
The top gear style challenge was always at the back of our mind, and the points were being won and lost all the time. And the Porsche, the car I was in, won by a whisker! Before leaving we were second, after I lost us 5 points for being aggressive. Being woken up and 8.30 am to my mate blaring limp biscuit is enough to make any man snap! We lost 5 points for this, now trailing by 3 points. The mini was miles behind as things kept breaking, each fault was 5 points. We stung him royally by deducting 5 points for each LED in his angel eyes that broke, there were 15 that stopped working!
On the way through France we got the 10 points we desperately needed, for the most dangerous manoeuvre! Wet and slippy roundabouts it rear wheels drive cars are fun, make of that what you will.
We all had a great time, and will be making a yearly occurrence of this trip, next year I’ll hopefully have an E30 325i to join, here’s hoping! I am looking forward to taking the R27 away with some guys off here in a week and a bit though!
Thanks for reading, and well done if you made it all the way to the end! I’ve missed tons of stuff out, but didn’t want to make this any longer than it already is! Any questions just ask.
