The van was all packed up ready to go when we hit a bit of a snag. We took the motorhome off the driveway and tried to move our Ford S-Max off the road in its place.  After multiple attempts the S-Max refused to start! With the Eurotunnel crossing booked and time running out we decided to leave the pile of **** on the road and call the RAC when we get home!

After the delayed start the drive down to Folkestone was  smooth and we had just enough time at the terminal to grab some food before we drove (carefully!) on to the train.

We headed for a first night’s stop at Montreuil, about an hour south of Calais.  Rather than just using the motorways we told the Satnav to avoid toll roads and we ended up with a nice trip through the French countryside.

At Montreuil there’s a very good (and free) aire, which unfortunately was full:

We stopped in the car park next to the aire which was fine for the night apart from having to avoid the eight(!) coaches used as school buses which turned up at 5:30pm and disappeared at 6pm.

The town is very unusual in that in is built within some old fortified walls and you can walk the entire length of the ramparts around the town.  The wall was extremely high in places with no fence between the path and edge – not a walk for those with a fear of heights.