Left Grays and headed off to Dover to catch the 11.05 ferry to Calais. We booked a day return ticket for £49 – it will be interesting to see if we are charged any extra for not using the return leg as they ‘reserve the right to’. Had a calm and sunny crossing despite a terrible weather forecast and started to make our way south through France.

Two tolls – 18.90€ and 24.90€

Stopped at Dole, southwest of Dijon, for one night, Etap Hotel 48.50€ for the room.

Left the next day in cloud and rain. Filled up with diesel for 1.41€ per litre, (about £1.15, still cheaper than UK but not massively) We are heading for Geneva to stay with old (!) friends Pam and Julian for three nights. Thought we’d try the scenic route over the mountains of the Jura, however things did not go to plan. We were fine until we stopped for coffee in Morez then it all went a bit pear shaped.  The road was closed at one point so we had to follow a long detour (it shouldn’t have been as long but George was navigating …….) then TomTom decided to take us straight down to the lake at Nyon, off-plan again, so we (Anne  ...…..) ended up driving through Geneva centre at rush hour. Never mind - glad we weren’t towing the caravan though.

Pam and Julian have lived here for many years since leaving the UK and have a super house in Veyrier.  It’s lovely to see them all again - their daughter Rachel, who has her own flat in Geneva, came over for a barbeque on our first night and we had a great time catching up on all the news. Baby talk ruled for a while but we tried to give them the shortened version – honest !

Had a really relaxing few days – including a ride out to Evoire – a very pretty little village on the banks of Lake Geneva, but in France. Lots of beautiful geraniums hanging from balconies shop fronts, and historic buildings.

Another barbeque, a meal out at a local restaurant and we were saying our goodbyes all too soon after having a great stay – many thanks both, lets get together again soon somehow.

Set off south and followed the Rhone most of the way. Two tolls – 13.90€ and 22.10€.

Stayed overnight at Beziers, about an hour away from where our caravan was in storage. Another Etap, 45.70€, and no extra charge for the overnight thunderstorm.

Drove off next morning, very excited to be getting back to the caravan. Filled up with diesel for 1.35€ a litre, it’s getting slightly cheaper. The weather improved, we collected the caravan and set off towards our first stop in Avignon. Some friends from Weston Rotary Club, Margaret and John Horler, are meeting us there for a few nights. They have been motor-homing and caravanning for over forty years and have been a mine of information for us when we were planning this trip.

The first part of the route towing was retracing our steps back from the storage at Labastide Rouairoux to Beziers along mountain roads through spectacular scenery. George soon got back into towing mode and the car handled the steepish climbs and tight bends really well.

Then it was motorway all the way to the Avignon junction. Tom-Tom led us perfectly around the complicated bridge system to the city camp site where we arrived mid afternoon. Two tolls – 9.20€ and 7.80€.

Total tolls from home were 96.80€ but most of these were car only. Tolls are usually about double with the caravan on the back Total mileage driven from UK was 1,071.

The site, Camping Avignon du Pont is actually between two parts of the Rhone on Barthelasse Island, just opposite what’s left of the famous ‘pont’ and a short free ferry hop from the beautiful walled old city of Avignon on one side and Villeneuve lez Avignon on the other. Margaret and John had arrived the day before and had kindly saved us a pitch next to them. They have been on a site near St Tropez for the last five weeks or so and are heading back.

We had a lot of sorting out to do in the caravan – we had taken all our clothes, bedding, towels, tea towels and throws back with us to the UK and had wedged other stuff in cupboards and under the bed ready for storage. All this had to come out and be sorted along with all the other things we had brought with us from the uk – clothes, shoes, bedding, tins, packets etc. but no golf clubs or trolleys this time. We had only played six or seven times since we left in January and decided that they were not worth using up valuable space on, so we have a bit more room to play about with now.

John barbequed for us all in the evening and we had a great time catching up on all the news from Weston and drinking copious amounts of French wine.