06 Dec 07
The S-Max, as is only fitting for a family car, had a pretty busy summer, transporting the Thomas family around on our various holiday activities.
The first major trip was to France, for our first foreign holiday in three years and the first trip abroad for two-year old Evie. The destination was a campsite called Le Bois Dormant in St-Jean-de-Monts on the coast of the Vendee region, which would give the S-Max a healthy run-out.
Indeed, it was a test to see if the 900-mile round trip, sticking to French speed limits, and with my less heavy-footed wife co-driving, would help us be more fuel efficient and raise the woeful 23mpg we've been getting from the S-Max to date.
The outward journey involved a drive down to Poole to catch the ferry, a quick(ish) hop across La Manche, followed by a 245-mile jaunt down to the campsite. Not an insubstantial journey of 18 hours in total - a real test of the S-Max's comfort levels, especially with two small children on board.
The Sunday evening trip to Poole was followed by the ritual addition of the GB sticker and the headlamp beam masks while we waited in the queue to board the ferry. We didn't want to give those gendarmes an excuse to stop us now, did we?
