day 1
wednesday is the first day for this trip , its 6am and im happy , its been a good week so far , my good mood lasts for a whole hour and a half . untill i get to pompey and book on , i look at the ticket and that one word jumps out at me … COUTANCES … you gotta be kidding me . what makes it worse is that they have parked the normandie next to it to show you what you could be going on .
the one good thing is that im put on the top deck which is an open deck
now im quite a small bloke but even for me its a nightmare to try and get out the cab , the sunroof is out , there is a car deck above it 
after docking at caen it takes ages to get off ( the down side of being on the top deck )you gotta go down on a lift to the lower deck then drive off
an hour after finally getting off and im parked outside the garage in bayeux
day 2
first thing today and ive got the first car on , a bmw 630
that done and im back to the caen ring and then heading south for le mans and the a10 with a quick stop for fuel
a flying day comes to a standstill on the bordeaux ring where there was a crash and well over an hour of crawlong traffic , after trying the first services on the forest road , full , im off at the first exit and first lay by , quite peacefull really
day 3
a slow run down to the border getting stuck behind something or other in every no overtaking stretch
into spain and a 350 odd km run across the top passing san sebastian , bilbao and santander before heading towards oviedo
its time to head inland to a village called
i gotta load a bmw motorbike , the sad but true fact is that a lot of the bikes i load are fatals and sadly this one is to
i start heading back towards france and stay 50 km short of santander
day 4
up and on the road early a 4 hour run gets back into france , any ideas as to what car this is ( i got no idea)
once in france and on the 64 towards toulouse ive had enough after 100 km or so. a real nice day saturday 29 degrees , sunday its back into the teens again
day 6
its starts off raining , not good
after going round toulouse i head to carcassonne , a merc garage
im after loading a mercedes viano but i soon find out that the garage is repairing it , not good , after the usual calls flying around we find out the owner autherised the garage to repair it without the insurance company knowing , very not good . i gotta leave it behind and run down to the a9 , across country to the a7 and northbound . coming off at valence i head for grenoble
just north of grenoble is tonights choice
day 7
up and onto the 43
past albertville and its not long to a small village called plombier ,another limit to go through to get to the garage
this one is a nasty vw touareg
the rest of today gets me to just south of reims
day 8
first job today is to do some papers in a place called taissy on the outskirts or reims , second job of the day is to get out of this mess (thanks tom tom)
the next job takes me to a place called bondy on the outskirts of paris
another merc garage , this one i gotta park on the main road near a big set of lights , i get the car loaded ,a merc 280
bombing up the a1 i feel sorry for this driver
i get up to lille and see its changed a bit when your heading for belgium
after a stop at the border for tax i get as far as antwerp and crawl for 2 and a half hours round the ring , the 1st lay by heading for breda is half hour too late but what can you do
day 9
up into holland i pass a competiter , im not too woried
breda , utrecht , apeldoorn and the a1 for germany i get worried when this pull up a slip road in front of me , if that goes over a pot hole hard am i gonna get shot with a wacking great rubber bung 
its only half a day today as i park at a truck stop on the dutch side of the bad benthiem border
day 10
dead early and ive got the maut tax and heading for osnabruck and on to bremen , coming off at the university district
this one is in a hotel car park , an mg zt
back to holland
and back to hazeldonk for the night
day 11
3 hours and im in calais and straight on a boat , another couple of hours after dover and im finished for the bank holiday
a nice read with excellent photos to
match,
the car is either NSU
or a WARTBURG ■■?
Great diary as ever, you do get about a bit don’t you ?
My guess for the car would be a SIMCA. Must admit I haven’t seen one in years.
Good read thanks.
I thought it was a Simca too, might be Simca 1100
me thinks its a Renault 8 Gordini
malcolmj:
me thinks its a Renault 8 Gordini
I am too voting for a rear engine Renault as stated by malcomj
Always look forward to your diaries lad,maybe its because I have a morbid fascination for crashed cars LOL
You get to cover a helluva lot of Europe with your job…always an interesting read 
I know it’s a Renault 8, possibly late Gordini.
Great diary a very good read keep em coming
The cars definitely a Simca. Great post!
The car is a R 10 Gordini , although I have never seen one that colour,they are normally Blue.
Great diary as ever ,like others have said you certainly get about a bit which
must be intresting! The only good thing about the Coutances are the
bunks i think they are the most comfortable out of all the brittany boats,
however the downside are the showers and toilets,they should issue a health
warning 
Perhaps its not a Simca but one of These.
after seeing that site i wish to change
my mind and i go with DAFMAD and
any other that chose this car as well
hi DEANB , i had the luxury of being in the penthouse otherwise known as cabin 13 , the trouble was that on the previous crossing it had 4 honkers in it and i mean it did stink like i said i was on the top deck so you can get back to the truck ( if you can get into truck) if a siesta is needed , i will say though the food was good 
as for the douche dont go there
Hey Madmonk ,never had the pleasure of cabin 13 i assume thats the one
on top deck ? I think the food on the Barfleur has really gone down hill over the last year,
the boats out of Portsmouth are generally ok for food and like you say
the Coutances is ok and i came in the other week on the new Cotentin
and the food was great on that boat.
Going back to your job i assume you know the exact height of your top deck
and then just measure vehicles to see if they will fit so you can get under
bridges ok ?
yes cabins 13 and 14 are on the top deck seperate from the others . i too was on the cotentin earlier this year , did the friday night crossing from poole to santander . i was quite impressed with the whole boat . cabins and food were really good . i wander whatever happened to the purbeck .
when loading the truck i got a rough idea of cars and hieght but use a tape measure to be sure , its normally not a problem
done a bit of investigating about the purbeck , think its working in new zealand now .
ferry-site.dk/ferry.php?id=7528489&lang=en
members.lycos.nl/kashunja/Purbeck.htm
Yeah i kew it had been sold Mad Monk but didnt know it had ended up down
there! I can remember the Purbeck and Coutances both being stretched
back in the 80s.
Dean
Remember the Normandy Shipper ? they stretched that also,until BF took it out of service as it was breaking its back .