After quite a cold night (it took me ages to realise that the sliding bedroom window by my head was open, and allowing quite cold air over me and into the van. Annie said that she was quite snug under the duvet, where I had a disturbed night.

A chilly walk to the showers in the morning was a shock to us, although I would estimate the temperature to be about 10 degrees C.

Once again, we were on the road by 7am.

The roads were very quiet, but I needed to put the van heater on as we descended from the campsite.

A diversion due to roadworks stopped us getting onto the A41 (** check **), and the poor satnav was having a fit, asking us to turn around, and then routing us through a village to take us back where we came from. However, we could see that the road we were on followed the motorway along the valley floor, and we thought that eventually we would find the next junction. Which we did.

On this journey, I haven’t been referring to the satnav’s name, since her sound stays turned down these days. I find that the seemingly endless repeats of directions, especially on the approach to and around roundabouts, very distracting, especially when roads have several numbers, as they do in France. We find the graphics more than adequate, and Annie calls out the direction changes to me using the small icon at the bottom of the screen and the distance countdown figure.

We stopped at a service area mid-morning, and bought French bread for our now traditional breakfast on the road of bread and cheese. I had a sleep for an hour (lovely to have a fixed bed!), before we carried on. Annie wanted to cover a good distance today, if possible, leaving less to do on our final day, so she programmed the satnav for the Camping Municipale at Chalons en Champagne.

It’s only a few kilometres from the motorway, and is a popular stopover for Dutch, Belgian and British tourers going to and from their home countries. The site is flat, and the pitches are nearly all hardstanding and large. There are a few shops within 5 minutes’ walk, and a Carrefour supermarket 10 minutes away. They also have a small shack, selling (between 4.30pm and 7.30pm) local produce, including champagne from the producer who sells it on site. We can report that the champagne from Michel Pierson is very acceptable, and at €13.80 a bottle, very good value. Annie had a small glass or two, and then we took a bottle back to the van (already chilled).

We learnt something too. They refused to fill Annie’s glass up at the bar, and they came to the table to fill it. Michel said that it spoils the taste to move the champagne once it’s been poured. Back at the van, we committed the sin of pouring it, taking it outside, then deciding it was too cold to sit out, so we had to move the glasses inside. Our uneducated palettes couldn’t tell any difference, but we presume that Michel knows what he’s talking about. Anyway, we celebrated our last holiday evening very admirably.

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