Monday 14th September

We got away early and headed towards Arras along the back roads (trying to avoid the extortionate toll roads). A late breakfast at a picnic spot along the D341 had our first interest in our lovely Landy from a couple of English ladies in a Ford Puma, one of whom had lived in Chennai.

The French are very civilised about some things, such as not charging for parking between 12-2pm in Place de Heroes in Arras, where we stopped to admire the Flemish architecture and have a quick coffee.


It was then onto Reims where we sent a Spot signal from behind Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims before meandering our way through the champagne estates south of Epérney. Anne was hoping someone would rush out from one of the many champagne houses we passed and present us with a bottle of their finest for having such a marvellous vehicle, but sadly this didn’t happen.



For those who are wondering, Spot is our GPS satellite tracker which informs our relatives we are OK or in dire need of help (we haven’t used the latter option yet). When we’re more organised we’ll incorporate some of the locations into this blog as they link to Google Earth which is all very groovy.


In the evening the search for a camp site took us to Sézanne, where the most circuitous series of signs eventually led us to a really nice little site on the edge of town. Rain set in just as we were serving up the chilli so out came the awning and sides and we had a cosy evening enjoying our champagne that Chris had kindly bought us as a going away gift (so Anne’s expensive tastes in alcohol were catered for in the end).