We went (with our friend James) to northern France to see the 1999 eclipse. We figured that we would have a better chance there and that the roads in Cornwall would be packed. Also, James was going that way anyway, on his way to meet his family in the south of France.

The night before we stayed at a hotel right on the line of totality, but we awoke to thick cloud and drizzle. So we phones up a colleague in London who downloaded satellite maps (that was quite a novel thing in 1999!) every 15 mins to point us towards clear sky. It was quite scary as James drove at high speed, all the while looking at the Sun with a piece of exposed film through his sunroof.

As zero-hour approached, the sky was still mostly cloudy, but, literally 3 minutes before totality, the sky miraculously cleared and we had a perfect view of a spectacular event.