DonQui Oaty is excited to be off on his travels again. This time it is a road trip through France, Germany (a bit of Austria) and Italy. 

So passport in hand and car fully serviced with new front tyres, he sets off on the first stage. He is heading for Alsace but intends to break his trip at Arras. 

Actually his first break is at the channel tunnel where he encounters a massive traffic jam trying to get out of the terminal carpark and into the border control lanes. Designed when one could just wizz through, the traffic management is not set up to deal with detailed passport checks — yet another of the Brexit ‘benefits’ along with higher food prices and critical labour shortages. Even though he arrived more than 1 hour ahead of time, Donqui misses his booked train and has to catch the next one.

Arras is a very pleasant town with lots of good watering holes around the Place des Héros. DonQui is glad to have stopped here.

It looks a lot better now than it did in 1917 when it was the centre of a British offensive in the First World War. The above photo being the same square where DonQui stops for a drink more than a century later.

Arras is twinned with Ipswich, close to DonQui’s home paddock in Suffolk. The Place d’Ipswich comes complete with a familiar looking phone booth.

After another drink and a decent meal, DonQui will resume his trip in the morning.