Ragtag Tuesday – and Wednesday! A feast with orange accompaniments

I let myself off posting yesterday, Tuesday, because we were concluding a drive all the way from Yorkshire England, to the Limousin, France – all but 800 miles in two days.  You’ll hear why in my next post.  Just now, I’ll tell you about our Monday stop-over.

Les Hayons is a transport caff in Normandy, pure and simple.  We love it.  Truckers from all over this part of northern France aim to end their working day here.  They’ll have a quick wash, a drink, then head for the restaurant – refectory style tables where they can sit down among old friends and new and talk over the events of their solitary day pounding along the motorway.

I’m justifying an out-of-focus shot by hiding behind data protection. No trucker can be identified I think.

They’ll help themselves from a buffet-style first course, then there’s a choice of about a dozen home-cooked main courses – copious, traditional tasty food washed down with as much wine or cider as you want.  After that, a cheese board – local unpasteurised cheeses from the farms down the road, and finally ice cream or some such for pud.  The cheery noisy atmosphere, the decently cooked if simple feast puts us in holiday mood every time we eat there.

With so much food on offer, it seemed wisest to begin the meal with a simple bright orange carrot salad.

We stayed the night there too.  Maybe that wasn’t quite such a good plan.  The truckers stay in their well-appointed cabins built into their lorries.  The days of their needing a trad. bed in a trad. simple hotel room are over.  So, lacking a bed in a truck, we chose their former hotel instead.  Which was fine.  But though the truckers were all tucked up for 9.00 p.m.  or 10.00 p.m. that was because they were ready for the off at 4.30 a.m.  or 5.00 a.m.

Our alarm call was the sound of revving engines and heavy tyres crunching across gravel. We too were ready to roll at 6.30 a.m.  And barely a truck was still there.  Look at the scene the evening before.  Scores of trucks, neatly lined up in auditorium sized parking lots, protected by the orange glow of sodium lighting.

And we shared breafast in the bar with men in orange: workmen ready to go on shift and face the rigours of the day in their hi-viz clothing.  Life at our next destination is very different.

The RDP challenges for Tuesday and Wednesday this week were ‘orange’ and ‘feast’ respectivly.  Two birds with one stone.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

13 thoughts on “Ragtag Tuesday – and Wednesday! A feast with orange accompaniments”

  2. How interesting to see the type of food French truckers get at rest stops and to find out that they’re allowed to drink as much alcohol as they wish. Do they all stop for the night after their hearty meal or do some of them have to keep driving on?

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  3. That looks just like the type of eatery you hope for when you pull into a transport cafe – would be unbelievable here in UK wouldn’t it? Bet there was no fuss great coffee too. Wishing you both an enjoyable holiday.

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  4. good girl! You do 800miles in a two day trip? Good on you-when we visit our friends in Devon, we do it more or less easily in one day, leaving early, taking the Eurotunnel and having a go…. It’s a bit less far however!
    Does that mean you’re gonna be in France now for a while? GREAT 🙂
    I love those places like Les Hayons, although we have never stopped there. I love the simple food, the easy friendships & the banter, I would hate to be thrown out of bed by the thunder of a dozen or more heavy vehicles in the early hours of the morning….. Thank you for this excellent post, Margaret. I have NOT forgotten you 🙂

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  5. Brilliant combination of ‘feast’ and ‘orange’! Top of the class (again) for you. In Turkey lorry driver roadside restaurants are the absolute tops, extremely high turnover so food always fresh as fresh can be and squeaky clean. Car drivers like them too, and lucky tourists who are in the know, as we were. No alcohol of course, but ayran (liquid yoghurt) aplenty. Who needs kefir if they’ve got ayran? I don’t know if the Turkish places have accommodation as well as food, shops of all kinds, gardens, loos and petrol stations, as we never had cause to stay in one. So I wouldn’t know about early morning revvings, though I bet the rooms would be spotlessly clean.

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  7. Oh, good–I was a little worried when you didn’t post on Tuesday, what with fragile Zoe and all. It’s nice to hear you’re on an adventure! Our roadside stops are different–not buffet, etc–but I always feel confident I’ll get good food, and plentiful, when I see a lot of trucks in a parking lot!

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