The long, long road.

At 4.30am the alarm went off, and we were off. Just an hour and half to shower, dress, pack up and be on our way to the Channel Tunnel. At least we had slept well, and the wind and rain had stopped, which made a huge difference packing up. Due to roadworks, we had to take a strange route to reach the terminal, but we were there on time, and drove straight through to the train.

The trip was quick and as we arrived in France, the sun was shining, there was blue sky, and a lot of big fences with barbed wire trying to keep those terrible migrants out. We could not actually see any, but then again, it was very early.

 A very quiet services.

We headed straight for the autoroute, and were off into the center of France. It was such an easy drive. There was hardly any traffic, the roads were in great condition, there were stops every few miles with plenty of parking for caravans; it was almost dreamlike it was so easy. The kilometres disappeared under our tyres, and by lunchtime we were just outside Rheims. We stopped for a bite to eat and to fill up with fuel, in the most deserted service ever seen. The boredom began to get to Chris, so Marie jumped at the chance to fulfill one of her "50 things to do when 50", and she drove; towing the caravan for a while.

Blue sky and green fields of France

The sat nav wanted to take us all the way down to Dijon on the motorways, which was a bit out of our way; so we headed onto the smaller roads which led us to our final location more directly. The sun was shining, the temperature was up to 18c, life was good. But then we drove into an old town, where the road became a tunnel which was low and very, very narrow. In fact, too narrow for us to get though. Luckily, Chris managed to do a U turn very quickly, and we headed back out of the town, onto its bypass.

By 5pm the sun was beginning to go down, and we were just half an hour away from our destination. As we pulled in to "Camping des 2 Rives" in Etang sur Arroux, we had travelled 420 miles in about nine hours. The owner came out to meet us, showed us a pitch, said we could pay him sometime tomorrow, and bade us goodnight.
With the aid of a torch we set up the van, and by seven in the evening were enjoying a hot cooked dinner while watching a film in our warm caravan. A great way to end a long day. Sadly, the rain has now started again, but at least it kept away during our long drive.

The sun goes down on today