And we are off again!
Our journey began with a drive in the pouring rain down to the Camping and Caravanning Club site right be the sea in Folkstone. Once parked we enjoyed a great walk along the coast before returning to Vincent to cook a lovely meal of harissa chicken with chickpeas and couscous. After an extremly wet and windy night and a quick dog walk on the beach we made our way to the Channel Tunnel.
We arrived in France at about midday (French time) and drove to Fumey in the Ardennes region of France via Belgium (just followed the sat nav!). We had chosen an aire next to the river Meuse which took up to 40 motorhomes so we thought we would get a place. We arrived to find no motorhomes in site and barriers across one side. We decided to take a look around, and let the dogs stretch their legs. Another motorhome arrived and we tried to ask the very nice Frenchman in our very bad french if the aire was open. He was surprised as us but we all decided that we did not want to get a fine for parking in a closed aire. He recommended the town Givet (further up the river) which had a couple of aires. So we left Fumey and drove north. As it was now past 5 o'clock we decided to stop at Haybes, the next town, and parked at the small aire on the river. After a quick set up we had a little explore of the town before eating the chilli, we had brought from England so we did not have to cook, and getting an early night.
In the morning I had a quick run along the river whilst Mike walked the dogs and visited the boulangerie to get our tradition of 'une baguette, deux pain au chocolat et deux croissant'.
After enjoying the french breakfast treats (with Calafete jam from Argentina,) we drove through the pretty forest to Montherme. The forests here are a mix of trees so the colours lovely - despite the rain!
Montherme is a lovely town in a horse shoe bend of the river. We parked at the aire on the river, which has water and electricity - all for €7.60.
On a quick walk round the town we visited the boucherie and bought some French salami, pate and red wine! We then sat and watched the rain over lunch. After lunch we togged up in full waterproofs and headed up the hill for a fantastic 8k walk. The dogs loved running through the woodland and we enjoyed the fantastic views, although walking in the clouds made the woods quite dark and spooky.
On returning to Vincent we chatted to a lovely Dutch couple who had a medium schnauzer - YES Brexit was mentioned! We then enjoyed our cup of tea with the cake we had bought from the boulangerie and watched the motorhome fisherman next door try and catch his dinner.