On the road again .........

Our adventure continues.
Our first McDonald breakfast, simple, close, somewhat similiar and cheap. For 5 Euros you could choose 1 drink - tea/coffee/hot chocolate, two breakfast selections:  I tried the McGriddles and bacon and beef burger and lastly a juice- apple/orange and some apple slices. The McGriddles were like a cinnamon laced pancake - very tasty.
Full tummies it was time to explore the town of Abbeville.

 Abbeville was a small quaint town that has an extremely old church. It had been damaged in 1940 during some bombing.  It is a classic gothic style church. The streets were decorated with lots of bunting and small shops.  The town square was a hive of activity!









We were very strong willed as we stood drooling outside the patisserie/s - full of delicious "healthy" options.


The weather was still clear blue skies, although it has certainly got a whole lot cooler.  The wind was the biggest contributor to 'chill factor'.  Thank goodness for a car with heating.











Next it was time for more map reading before we left for our next stop of Calais. We ventured out into the cold and blowy weather as we explored our new stop.

A large steeple drew us to what appeared to be a church.

It was in fact the city hall: very large, grand and contained some beautiful lead light windows. While we were there we got to see several weddings. Today was a quiet day as they were only doing 15 weddings. In summer they do a wedding every 15 minutes. It seemed to operate as follows: Lots of car horns beeping on approach to city hall. The wedding cars are decorated with ribbons and a huge bunch of flowers on the bonnet. The bride gets out - gets adjusted by the wind, smiles for the camera - goes inside.
Up stairs one room is operating for the civil service. In go the guests, the bride, a few minutes later they depart and it happens all over again.

Bridal group leaving ..... next.

Next stop Dunkirk. This was a feat in navigtion and driving skills.  It took us somtime before we arrived at a large open, windy, cold beach. Across the English Chanel is England. This beach was the scene for the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in May 1940. Almost 400,000 soliders were evacuated using local British fisherman/boat owners who answered the call from Winston Churchill to travel across the chanel and rescue the boys.  Just look at the two pictures below to get a feeling of the scale of the operation. Many, many young boys and men failed to return home to England. The Germans air force frequently bombed and strafed the beach.

As it appeared in May 1940

We finished the day in Bailleul.  This is a smaller provincial town and there are far fewer English speakers.  Ordering dinner was a challenge.  However, we all did very well... the food was delightful