ENGLAND

St malo is another impressive French town I coincidentally stumbled upon. The roads getting there were uninspiring, as was the weather. Belair didn't look like it does on tv although it was advertised Hollywood style.

The beauty was merely a bonus feature, so long as ferries still ran to the uk it could have been a refugee camp and still been my favourite place in france. Typically like most things in France in January the majority of the port operations were closed. I started I panic after visiting an agent who told me that it wasn't possible to sail to England until February. It appeared possible online by taking one ferry to jersey or guernsey and another onto Portsmouth. As I left I began thinking through other options going onto Cherbourg or Caen, but I wasn't keen to spend any longer in France than necessary. I decided further enquiries should be conducted in english, after several 'no, no's' on ringing the English ferry line I was unable to blame the French and so became unsure as to whether their (very good) website was incorrect or whether incompetence was a priority recruitment criterium. In investigating the latter, I revert to 'is there a ferry to jersey?' 'good, ok is there a ferry from jersey to Portsmouth.' ' oh excellent so i'd like to go to Jersey and then Portsmouth then' - hold on I'll call you back I just need to check with my manager' ..... 'o yes it is possible for you to take those two ferries' 'fantastic, thank you so much for that!'

Barely able to contain my excitement. I spend all day waiting for my evening crossing, arriving at the port in what I thought was good time I realise I'm the last person to check in. There is some confusion as to whether my bike is booked on, it appears on my confirmation as 'no vehicle' after some calling around, the manager decides to check on the computer, oh yes it's on! This is rather fortunate as it seems that there is a 25kg luggage allowance, having a bicycle appears to be an excellent loophole for avoiding this, it's free and I'm diverted towards the garage rather than the pedestrian loading bay. Directed to lane one, I feel like I'm starting an incredibly unfair race. Lane two DNS and lane four false started, but due to a favourable handicap I made it on board first. On board I become abnormally excited by the presence of UK plug sockets!! Prices on the ferry are also displayed in pounds and as others begin to board I realise the majority of passengers are english. I disembark for three hours in jersey before taking the last of many ferries in the direction of friends and family. Just so excited!