It was a very windy night and we were rocked about all night – with the wind that is; and no, not the gastric type!
Nobody came to collect the fees so we got away with that for a change, though we don’t begrudge €7. Away smartly with minimal van servicing to do, but then couldn't find our way out of Calais, well not in the direction we wanted. Embarrassing, given the number of times we've been there so we jumped up onto the motorway for one junction to get us pointed the right way.
We prefer to avoid motorways, not because of the cost, but because we enjoy passing through the towns and villages. However we did note that on the route we chose, around St Omer and Arras, we seemed to spend more time in towns than on the open road we are used to, with the result that overall progress was slow. It did improve once we were past Cambrai, so we stopped for lunch and thereafter to St Quentin and Laon, all of which had by-passes skirting the centres.
Our target for tonight had been Reims but as we were now making much better progress decided to push on – there was nothing really to stop us and the frequent stormy showers made us disinclined to stop earlier than necessary. Late afternoon we made a quick refreshment stop to review our progress and after making a change of route, to give us more choice of aires, decided on an attractive looking canal-side spot at Joinville, south of St Diziers. As we arrived we were subjected to a short sharp hailstorm but that then seemed to be the end of the storm system and the sun came out.
A late stop for us at 6.40pm but our destination is Provence – we can come here another time. So tea and Radio 2 on the satellite as we settle down for the evening. But who won the Eurovision contest?
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