European Tour

Date- 13th September

(Day 2)

Country- France


State/County- N/A


City/Town/Area- Reims and Metz


Location- Reims Centre, Reims Car Museum, Best Hotel Metz


URLS


Car museum Reims- http://www.musee-automobile-reims-champagne.com/


Hotel in Metz- http://www.activehotels.com/wl/servlet/xmlbrochure/index.do?hotelid=51745&language=en


Notes


From Folkestone to Reims and then to Metz France

Up at 05:00, dress, light breakfast and off. The Holliday Inn Express does not officially server breakfast until 06:30, though we manage to hijack the arrangements a little early at 05:45.This is a mistake by the hotel as many people want to get the very early trains and having breakfast out from 04:00 would be sensible.

A 15 minute drive to the Eurotunnel terminal with an automated check in (note have the credit card you booked with to hand, we did not need it but the signs say you may do). Not a human in sight until we drive around the one-way system to the shops and cafe (disabled toilets here).

We sit in the mini listening to the last of the BBC before we depart for foreign climes and watch for our ticket number (P in our case) to be called on the electronic message board. Then we are off, the train is an interesting experience, I have never done this with the car (though I have travelled on Eurostar a good deal). You drive on and sit tight until the train arrives in Calais France.

Then off and on our way to Reims for lunch. This is a long and rather boring flog along the French toll motorway (Peage), you pick up your ticket at the start of a section and then you pay at the end, note this is a left hand drive country so with a UK car the ticket machines and pay booths are on the wrong side- ok with a passenger but very difficult if travelling alone.

A major improvement since my last trip to France is that now all the motorway services seem to be disabled accessible and have accessible toilets.

We park up in Reims city centre for lunch in the main square. The sun is shinning and the food is good though the restaurant does not have an accessible toilet – well this is France! My Brother-in-law Peter knows of a car museum in Reims and after a little searching we find it [84 avenue Georges Clémenceau 51100 REIMS 03.26.82.83.84].

 

This is a charming place to go, it looks like a run down bus garage and is definitely not high tech but the staff are very proud of this quirky collection and are very helpful. The whole museum is accessible with it’s own parking and is on one level.

Now it’s off to Metz, another long flog along motorway and eventually we find our way into the ‘business district of Metz to stay at [Best Hotel Metz (51745), Metz, 3, Rue Pierre Boileau, Metz, 57050].

I must admit my heart sank when I saw the hotel, it was in a dreadful district and surrounded by a security fence and looked like a war zone. Parking a Porsche and my Mini Cooper there seemed rather risky. However we were tired and hot and too lazy to find another place to stay.

My room was on the ground floor and adequate, though only for a small wheelchair (I use a 15 inch wide Kuschel for travel) and a very mobile user, as far as I could see there were no other options available-certainly not any specialist disabled rooms.

As it happened the cold beer revived our spirits and Peter spotted that the menu for dinner looked quite good. In the end we had one of the best quality (and most certainly best value) meals on the trip down at the hotel. Dinning room and parking all accessible and in the end the rooms were clean and quite cheap. A reasonable overnight stop.

Accessibility- Reims centre café’s like most of France is variable in accessibility and years behind even the UK. The museum in Reims was very accessible with an accessible toilet and all of the motorway services in France seemed to be accessible.

Parking- easy with the blue badge

Toilets- few in French café’s in Reims that were accessible, all motorway services had accessible toilets, interestingly the hotel in Metz had an accessible toilet in the public area but did not appear to have any specifically adapted rooms.

Accommodation- Metz hotel was OK but in France as with most of Europe you are going back years in accessibility and the general level of access, though much better now than even 5 years ago is still disgracefully poor and on this trip France and Italy should both be ashamed of such uncivilised arrangements.

Other/General- Flogging across that part of France is a bore but Reims centre is buzzy and nice and the car museum a real find.

My Overall Accessibility Rating

5 out of a possible 10