Ending Up Anywhere

We hadn't intended on the Alps being our second summer holiday destination; it was a snap decision made at 9pm in Calais after checking the seven-day weather forecast. Although we'd have two days of showers, they'd be followed with five days of uninterrupted sun, compared to the rest of France which looked set to have a wet week. Our course adjusted, we headed south as I scanned our All The Aires book for a well-located aire that would break the journey fairly evenly and allow us a cheap night's parking. We ended up on one of a few motorhome spaces just outside a village campsite. We were in bed by around 2am and the pitch cost just €3. Our journey south continued for six hours on Saturday, seeing us stock up with a week's provisions at the last Lidl before our final destination. We assumed the supermarket in the village in which we'd be staying would be small and expensive and we did really well in buying just enough to last the week: three p

How do you accidentally end up in Italy when you were heading from the UK to St Malo in Brittany? Our original destination for our fifth continental-European adventure was supposed to be St Malo. When we arrived in Calais I noticed the week-long forecast of rain. So we quickly abandoned our plan and drove south towards sunnier weather. While Tony drove I booked seven nights at Camping Indigo Vallouise in the Alps on my phone's mobile internet. We stopped at an aire overnight before continuing the drive the next morning. Our sat nav's quickest route took us through the Frejus tunnel. Neither of us had any idea this would see us enter Italy. I think we were in Italy for 30 minutes. I also think we should have had a warning plate on our bike rack for Italy and ours was back home under the dining table. Anyway, it was certainly a relief when we re-entered France!

The final part of our fortnight camping trip around France was spent at Domaine Les Gandins in the village of Saint-Germain-de-Salles in the Auvergne in central France. This was our third visit to Domaine Les Gandins this year. We stumbled upon the site through the Cool Camping website and I'm pleased we did; it's idyllic. We were warmly welcomed back by the family owners like old friends. On the first two occasions we'd shared the site with two other tents at the most. Even then I could see it would be even more magical when it became busy in peak season. It's a paradise for young children and I'm sure we were the only party there without any. Normally I'd hate having so many kids running around but here I wasn't the least bothered. Everywhere you looked there was a small person. Bouncing on the trampolines, swimming in the pool, playing in the tree house or wendy house, or pootling around in one the many go-karts. British kids mixed