Day 01 – Jersey to Blois

Hello everybody and welcome to Le Tour de la Liberation 2005, Jersey to Monte Carlo! This is the 9th edition of the Tour. (our 8th attendance - owing only to the fact that we didn't know about it on its first year!)

The destination of this year's trip is Monte Carlo; probably not a great surprise to anyone who has paid full attention to the first paragraph. For those who don't know, this is also known as Monaco…. although not wishing to be pedantic, Monte Carlo is the capital town, whilst Monaco is the Principality. I just know we've probably got that wrong and we'll have hundreds of critics correcting us. (You know who you are.. go on, have a go if you think you are hard enough!)

Tonight finds us in Blois, having left Jersey at 9.10am this morning.

First job of the day however was 5.30am, washing the car. It doesn't do itself you know!

In recognition of this years sponsors, here are the fruits of our labour.

On arrival in St Malo, we were told to leave.

No really, I kid you not! A red haired French Port Authority lady (not wishing to be derogatory to red heads, French people, or ladies for that matter) told us we couldn't stay where we had all gathered..

…so we duly ignored her and Chip briefed us on the rules and regulations of the trip.. (you know the sort of thing, "remember its not a race", "blah blah blah")

Immediately afterwards, Heidi explained how bribery of the Marshall's was not an option..

We then began our days hard graft, bravely suffering the heat and travelling 232miles on beautiful French roads, stopping off at 4 locations; the first one was Dol-de-Bretagne, where Crepes were the order of the day, followed by the traditional hour wondering aimlessly searching for the answer to the first question (traditional for us – everyone else was long gone by the time we had finished eating!)

The question "At the Cathedral, what second Language are you missing out on?" was eventually traced to the first place we had looked (as is often the case)

Happy with our answer (which was German; the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed the misspelling of the word "language"), we continued on to location 2, Chailland (the location clue was "See frozen rain near the ground" – obvious really isn't it!)

Our task here was "Stop! At the river, how many elephants get light relief?"

We found the first part of the clue fairly easily, but a short comfort break was required. Luckily enough, the toilets were down the steps next to the sign post. Rather than slowing us down, this led us straight to the answer, which was to be found in the form of an elephant emblem on the light fittings in the gents!

How the all girl team of Jennifer and Anne managed to get these, however, requires further investigation!

Determined to try and catch up with the back of the pack, we promptly set off for our third clue of the day "Six Romans starts a noise like a donkey" (which led us to a town called Vibraye), where we were asked to answer the question "How many red hats can you see in the square?". We counted up 11 of the following:

By this time we had managed to catch up with Alan and Jackie in the Channel 103 car, however, our joy at reeling them in was short lived, as it turned out they had actually stopped to help Martin and Amber who had unfortunately broken down en route. Le AA soon came to their rescue, although their car is likely to be off the road for most of tomorrow whilst they source a new fuel pump.

Onwards and upwards to the final clue of the day, and we raced (adhering to all local laws of course!) towards Vendome, where the clue was "Near the covered Market, if you do as Alice did, which astral body would you find?"

We soon found the covered market..

And after admiring the view behind it..

…we found the answer to the question on a sign hanging over a bar advertising "Meteor" beer.

The penny didn't drop for a while, as we tried to make that fit in with the Alice (presumably "in Wonderland") clue, however as nothing else presented itself, we stared at it over coffee and decided it had to be more than just a coincidence.

As it happened, our answer was correct, although not for the same reasons as Chip had intended. (it transpires there was a mirror inside the bar that was actually a door, beyond which was another "Meteor" sign.)

But we'll take them any way we can get them!!

We were delighted to find that on our arrival here we had caught up with half of the pack, however as is customary with us, by the time we had ummed and ahhed, they were all long gone again!

Hey ho, such is life! Next stop was the hotel, about 30km's from the Meteor site, which we found easily (well I just drove in the direction that Mike told me to, and Mike just did what the GPS told him to do – yes ok, he had to program it to tell him that… but then again, I had to learn all about changing gears, using the accelerator and brake, and turning the steering wheel – you tell us who's the cleverest huh?!)

We checked in to our room and were ever so slightly delighted to see this..

It wasn't free, but 10 Euro's bought us 2 hours use, and that included Taxes! After all, you, our trusty followers, deserve nothing but the best!

After a most pleasant meal, we retired for a quick drink in the bar..

At the end of Day 1, the leader board stands as follows:

Equal 3rd Place: Matt & Steve Barnes 120points
Robert Jones & Ben Warner 120points
Jock Taylor & Frank le Maistre 120points
Guy Le Sueur & Ed Bennett 120points

2nd Place: Jennifer Bridge & Anne Forbes 130points

And somehow, despite spending twice as long as anyone else in each location..(or perhaps because?!)
1st Place: Garry Taylor & Mike Nolan 146points

VERY early days in our championship defence, and anything can happen.. and usually does. Let us not forget that F1 is IF backwards. Although its not; F1 is actually 1F backwards. And that's hex. Hmm. Not sure where this is going. It's getting late.

That's it for tonight, except to say, listen out for updates on Channel 103's Breakfast show, and Lunchtime show to find out how all the teams are getting on.
Non Jersey listeners can tune in to it at http://www.channel103.com

As in previous years, please feel free to sign the guest book – we really appreciate your support and feedback.

One last treat for you all. Below is today's complete route. If feedback is good, we may do the same tomorrow!

Goodnight y'all.
Garry and Mike