SF lunch in Bordeaux - postponed 2020 - maybe 2024?

With all the Brexit and virus related doom and gloom, we thought it might be a nice idea to arrange a meet up for our lovely SF members.

(Obviously, if the entire country has been locked down by then, we will have to reschedule but in the hope that things will be better by then, here goes…)

The provisional date is 29 April (with 13 May as a second choice if more people can make that date) and the location will be central Bordeaux in this beautiful riverside restaurant. Parking is available very close by.

The added bonus is that our resident pensions advisor Brain Furzer and his super efficient assistant Claire, will be coming along too so you’ll be able to chat to them about any financial or administrative worries that you might have and get some free advice!

We’ve done this previously and it proved hugely popular; so don’t be shy, come along and meet some new people!

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We have friends visiting from UK in May over 12th - 15th May and this would be a great opportunity to show them the delights of Bordeaux… Might even consider travel by train from Angoulême if the trains fit in well…

It is a definite maybe - this is a restaurant that my wife (non SF member) is very keen to eat there. I have told her she may be allowed as non-SF.

Do they have a Menu du Jour ?

I’d love to come :grinning: but it depends on work…

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The link provided by @cat suggests so…

Most relevant - who’s paying? :grinning:

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You offering?!

Another definite maybe here!

The Menu du Jour looks pretty good.

Argh just seen those are Wednesdays - I can probably do the 29th of April, but definitely not the 13th of May.

We would love you to be there so if the 29th is a no go we can look at another non Wednesday date? X

The 29th should be fine, barring surprises, obv !

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I’d love to come, and will if I can get a flight from Rennes or Carpiquet (Caen) to Bordeaux and back the following day.

It’s too far to drive now. Yesterday at 0200 hrs I drove Berlina to Brest to catch her flight to UK and it almost corpsed me, it’s 600+ km there and back and it took me 8 hours door to door, more or less without a break. In my head I’m still at the wheel…generally it takes me 24 hours to loosen my grip on the virtual wheel and off my virtually numb bum … :sunglasses:

I’ll do my research and check our budget with Berlina. Could she come with? She’s great company!

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If I could afford to treat everyone I wouldn’t be associating with some of the ‘riff-raff’ we get on here. :grinning:

Hi yes I am interested

Sounds a brilliant idea.

Sadly being at work in the wrong country will stymie my ability to attend but I’ll be there in spirit!

Peter, are you saying you set out at 02:00 for a 8 hr round trip? “More or less without a break”. I seem to recall that you have admitted to being age-beginning-with-an-8. At 02:00 your system - everybody’s system - is already low and heading downhill, bottoming out round about 04:00. It’s dark…

As an ex-professional at the wheel, I would say “Bad lad. Don’t do it again”. I had ten years [age 30-40 y] running a location truck [‘Nation’s Locations!’] for TV/film/photo shoot crews. Then a spell, for 5-6 years, as driver-guide on 16-seater mini-coaches for a tour company and, after I declined to renew my PSV licence at age 60 on the grounds that my night vision had declined to the point where I decided I was a danger after dark, occasional spells of industrial delivery to top up the meagre pension contributions.

The main rule for a day’s driving is the mandatory 45 minute rest [this can be 30 + 15 or 15 x 3] after not more than 4 hrs 30mins at the wheel. So if you had been driving a vehicle with a tacho, it should have shown a total of 90 minutes rest.

It is a problem, private motorists assessing their own capabilities. As I mentioned, I stepped away from a job I really enjoyed - battlefield guiding - because the company policy was that the guides were also the drivers.

I did not want to repeat a situation I had on a return trip from Arras, whereby, delayed 2 hrs by missing our Chunnel slot, the last two hours Swindon-Cheltenham were in the dark. Nobody on the bus will have been aware that I was absolutely terrified and making the usual supplications to Big G as to my future behaviour if he got me to Cheltenham with all pax still in once piece. I quit next day when I got the bus back to HQ.

I have a pal who has never, to my knowledge, ever admitted to being anything but perfect in every way - except he has admitted he has the same night vision problem. An optician confirmed that it is an age-related condition.

I have a camper van the same size as the 16-seatercoaches and my location truck, a Renault Master LWB/Hi roof. Making the trip from Valencia to Calais, as I have done many times over the past 6 years, the hrs/day I have allowed myself have come down from 7 - 8 to 6 - 6.5

It is more tiring driving my van than a passenger car. But, faced with the trip you described, I would not have done it, most certainly not setting off at 02:00

There’s that grim joke, “He died peacefully in his sleep. It was the others in the car/coming the other way who went to their deaths screaming”

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When I do my 950km day of driving to see my parents, I stop every 2 hours for at least 15 minutes.

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Cap’n Endeavour, I really appreciate your counsel, and shall not repeat the action again. It was rather forced upon us as my wife had a crucial hospital appointment in Essex the following day, and her flight to UK from Caen was cancelled, two days before she was due to travel, by the Flybe bankruptcy. Brest was the only option.

The risk was mitigated by the fact that the route was mainly on an empty autoroute, in dry conditions, under a more or less cloudless sky, and with a ‘hunter’s moon’ to light the way! I made two short stops to stretch my legs, take a brisk moonlit walk in an ‘aire’, did some tai chi, and swigged from a vacuum flask of stiff pre-prepared coffee.

But I was grateful to make it home, again a sunny morning, with light traffic. But the sense of being on automatic pilot did intrude, and I was unable to unwind for hours after getting home. Never again.

Thanks again for your detailed advice :hugs:!

Peter I think there may be trains from Rennes to Bordeaux, daughter#3 went to engineering school in Rennes and I am sure she took the train sometimes.

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