BENTLEY BENTAYGA

A family holiday in northern France provides an excuse to ride LeShuttle

- RACHEL BURGESS

MILEAGE 17,501 WHY WE'RE RUNNING IT In facelifted form, is this SUV still the pinnacle of British luxury motoring?

The last Bentley I drove on the continent was a Continental in 2019. The glorious metallic grey V12 GT traversed the Loire Valley, stopping at various chateaux while its driver and passenger ate baguettes, fresh strawberries and pains au chocolat.

There surely can’t be many cars more fitting for such a sojourn than a Continental GT, even though its shortage of space in the back and small boot can be a drawback. But with its Bentayga SUV sibling, that’s not a problem and the added practicality can pay off on a trip to the continent, as I found out.

This trip to France was as much about the journey as the destination, because since my son was very small, I've been excited to take him on LeShuttle. As he’s grown, so has his love of vehicles and how they work so going on the ‘car train’, as we've fondly named it, has been the source of much excitement.

If you're a regular reader, you may know that I am also a fan of LeShuttle, at least in part because I find any engineering at vast scale so impressive, whether it be gargantuan cargo ships or going on a train through a tunnel under the sea. And it gets me to France easily, which as a Francophile is a major perk.