France - Day 2

Had a reasonable sleep in my cabin on the very smooth crossing from Hull to Zeebrugge. The problem was the amount of light from the corridor coming under the door. Every time I rolled over the light woke me, I could have got up and put my jacket across the bottom of the door, but I couldn't be bothered getting up.
I eventually woke after hearing a tannoy anouncement about breakfast being served. Had a quick breakfast, tidied my luggage, and it was soon time to head down to the car deck. We were quickly unloaded, and it was out into a rather misty Belgium. After an hour or so we had crossed into France and as we made out way inland, the mist cleared and the temperature started to get a lot warmer. The road was fairly clear and we made good time, and it wasn't long before at one fuel stop I could take the liner out of my suit (first time I'd ever done that), change to light gloves, and put my sunglasses on.
We stopped every 100 miles/160km or so due to Gareth's bike's small fuel range, and we both filled up as well. Each time I used just over 8 litres, so someone who's more interested than me can work out my fuel consumption.

One of our stops

Despite being almost entirely on Autoroutes, the journey was very pleasant and most of the route is through countryside. As the day went on it got hotter and hotter, and the highest I saw was 29.7 C - I was 'willing' it to reach 30, but it didn't quite get there.

Look how little luggage Gareth brought! (middle)

We eventually got off the Autoroute on the outskirts of Dijon, where Gareth was 'robbed' by the automated toll machine. He put his card in, it told him how much to pay (12.10 euros), he started putting coins in but the screen blanked after he'd put in 8 euros. He pressed the 'help' button and the girl told him he would have to put in the whole 12.10!
Riding the last bit into Dijon was 'interesting' - very busy traffic, very hot, lots of roadworks due to the tram system, suicidal pedestrians, and my 'overheating' light was on almost all of the time! However we eventually found our hotel Kyriad Dijon Gare which is where I'm typing this from using their free Wi-Fi. Room is very nice, if a bit small, and the hotel has the luxury of an underground carpark. I usually costs 12 euros a day, but as we'll be able to get all 4 bikes into one car space, so it doesn't work out too bad. As the alternative is parking on the pavement outside, then 3 euros each a day is worth it from a security angle.
We've tried phoning Terry, but have got no reply. Hopefully this means that he's on his way and we'll see him tomorrow.

Day 3