Home to the Ardennes

Monday 16^th to Wednesday 18^th April

Well the weather finally bucked up so on Monday we headed off on the boring drive down the A1. Traffic seemed particularly heavy although we had an excellent run down, pausing as usual for lunch at Weatherby services. This place is getting more and more popular, we've never seen it less than busy and so it was again today.

Mum was fine and we had a lovely evening with her then turned in whilst parked on her driveway; this saves her a lot of trouble and is also better for Jamie who won't sleep in her kitchen.

Tuesday was somewhat cloudy to begin with but cleared up to a lovely warm sunny day later. A couple more hours with Mum before setting off on the long slog down to Folkestone. This time the roads were busier still and we suffered several holdups due entirely to the volume of traffic. A pause at Birchanger services for lunch, not our favourite stop as it takes ages to get in and out of, but it was convenient. A broken down lorry on the QE2 bridge at Dartford caused yet more delays so it was just as well we had allowed plenty of time.

It seems odd that despite Mum being exactly halfway between home and the Channel Tunnel, the first half took us only 3hrs 10m driving whilst the second was nearly 5 hours.

But we arrived with enough time to spare to catch an earlier train, being moved straight through with only a very short wait to load. We much prefer using Eurotunnel as, apart from it not costing us anything (Tesco vouchers) it's quicker, we don't have to leave Jamie on his own and there is so much less fuss. Once clear of the train we called into Auchan to refuel, where we discovered the cost of fuel in France is a little more than the UK, and then decided to forego our planned stay on Citie Europe but instead head east along the coast to another favourite spot at Gravelines.

By now it was quite late so a light meal and a relatively early night.

Gravelines to Han sur Lesse - 182 miles

Wednesday was a warm sunny start – at last – so after a no-rush breakfast we headed back to the motorway for the next stage of our journey. Today was planned to be all motorways again, there being no reasonable alternative, but at least they're more interesting than the UK and nothing like as busy. Lille, Tournais, Charleroi where we stopped on a rest area for lunch then head towards Namur and Luxembourg.

We'd planned to overnight at Han sur Lesse in the Ardennes, where we'd stopped last year but found that, due to a bit better navigation, we were somewhat earlier than we'd expected. Nevertheless we decided to stick to the itinerary and so TomTom was called in to take us there, deciding as usual to take the shortest, prettiest roads. Han is something of a touristy town, or rather a big village, it's main attraction being the Grotto but there are also lots of other things to see and do, as we found out later during an evening stroll. But for now all we wanted was to park up, get the chairs out and enjoy the longed-for beautiful hot weather with a nice cold drink!

Street sculpture at Han sur Lesse

WE STAYED AT:

Monday – Mum's driveway at Navenby

Tuesday – Gravelines aire de camping car - €7.50 no services

Wednesday – Hans sur Lesse aire de camping car - €9.00 all services inc. electricity & WiFi.