Euro Road Trip in an Esprit
Discussion
Well, we (me and my 11 year old daughter) are back in Blightey after what is easily the longest road trip I've ever done. Tried to keep costs down what with tolls (!) and fuel costs.
Itinerary:
Sunny Wiltshire to Ramsgate, night stop at brothers place.
Dover to Dunkirk then drove down to Troyes, first night in France in a campsite.
Troyes to Lyon, second night also in a campsite.
Lyon to Nice and 2 nights in and F1 hotel. Autoroute was congested which spoilt the day a bit...
Nice to Monaco, spent the day there, Fab!, and there was a gorgeous emerald green Exige 's' in the Marina car park to drool over...
Then headed along the coastal road (omg!) to Genoa, left turn towards Lake Como. Arrived quite late and had pizza/beer with my mouth open at the scenery!
Lake Como to Stelvio, stoppped for a panini half way up, glorious day! Then on to St Moritz to camp. Amazing scenery and the Swiss national day with fireworks over the lakes!
St Moritz to Montreux, to see Freddie, through the Alpine valleys and a car ferry train thing. Camping by Lake Geneva in the cheapest campsite by far!
Montreux to Troyes for another F1 experience. Mmmm, a well worn F1 at that. Still, they are relatively cheap but serve a purpose.
Troyes to Paris and a 2 day stint in an F1 again. (Paris has a fairly seedy side to it, thank heavens for secure parking!) Daughter wanted to experience Paris so it was off to Eiffel and Notre Dame on day one and the Louvre on day 2.
Up at the crack of sparrows to (subsequently miss) the first ferry. Caught the second, they were fine about it.
Drove the rest back this evening and am now feeling worse for wear with a glass of wine.
Total 2363 miles driven, no idea what I've spent, I'll find out when we pay off the credit card bill! In laws were a bit concerned so they offered to pay for 5 nights in an F1, hence spent 5 nights in an F1!!
As for the car, it's a 94 S4 with 120,000 miles on it (122,363 now) and it performed almost faultlessly. Never overheated, fans did the trick without complaint, didn't drink as much as I expected. No oil used. I didn't boot it as much as I could have, what with my daughter on board. It did have a steering wheel wobble, possibly the balance weights fell off a front wheel or something and a perished rubber exhaust mount caused the silencer to p'tang against the g'box over bumpy road. Annoying more than anything.
I must admit, I was surprised how much attention it drew, plenty of Ferraris/Astons etc in Monaco and elsewhere but when a red Esprit pitches up, practically unsilenced and with pop-up headlights! well, plenty of people wandered round and took photos etc. Quite chuffed with my little red rocket really...Did me proud, she did...
..and my daughter loved the experience, she'll no doubt be skyping all her friends the details as I type.
Itinerary:
Sunny Wiltshire to Ramsgate, night stop at brothers place.
Dover to Dunkirk then drove down to Troyes, first night in France in a campsite.
Troyes to Lyon, second night also in a campsite.
Lyon to Nice and 2 nights in and F1 hotel. Autoroute was congested which spoilt the day a bit...
Nice to Monaco, spent the day there, Fab!, and there was a gorgeous emerald green Exige 's' in the Marina car park to drool over...
Then headed along the coastal road (omg!) to Genoa, left turn towards Lake Como. Arrived quite late and had pizza/beer with my mouth open at the scenery!
Lake Como to Stelvio, stoppped for a panini half way up, glorious day! Then on to St Moritz to camp. Amazing scenery and the Swiss national day with fireworks over the lakes!
St Moritz to Montreux, to see Freddie, through the Alpine valleys and a car ferry train thing. Camping by Lake Geneva in the cheapest campsite by far!
Montreux to Troyes for another F1 experience. Mmmm, a well worn F1 at that. Still, they are relatively cheap but serve a purpose.
Troyes to Paris and a 2 day stint in an F1 again. (Paris has a fairly seedy side to it, thank heavens for secure parking!) Daughter wanted to experience Paris so it was off to Eiffel and Notre Dame on day one and the Louvre on day 2.
Up at the crack of sparrows to (subsequently miss) the first ferry. Caught the second, they were fine about it.
Drove the rest back this evening and am now feeling worse for wear with a glass of wine.
Total 2363 miles driven, no idea what I've spent, I'll find out when we pay off the credit card bill! In laws were a bit concerned so they offered to pay for 5 nights in an F1, hence spent 5 nights in an F1!!
As for the car, it's a 94 S4 with 120,000 miles on it (122,363 now) and it performed almost faultlessly. Never overheated, fans did the trick without complaint, didn't drink as much as I expected. No oil used. I didn't boot it as much as I could have, what with my daughter on board. It did have a steering wheel wobble, possibly the balance weights fell off a front wheel or something and a perished rubber exhaust mount caused the silencer to p'tang against the g'box over bumpy road. Annoying more than anything.
I must admit, I was surprised how much attention it drew, plenty of Ferraris/Astons etc in Monaco and elsewhere but when a red Esprit pitches up, practically unsilenced and with pop-up headlights! well, plenty of people wandered round and took photos etc. Quite chuffed with my little red rocket really...Did me proud, she did...
..and my daughter loved the experience, she'll no doubt be skyping all her friends the details as I type.
Edited by Oilchange on Friday 1st January 16:39
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