Licques to Troyes

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Woke to a gloriously sunny, blue-sky day and set off straight away heading south. We had decided not to use the motorways for this leg of the journey but Bob had had difficulty when planning the route in finding a non-motorway one which went North / South as all round the area we had to travel the roads go East / West instead to converge on Paris.
Bob did find a route and the first 1/3 of it at least was quite delightful as it took us through small, immaculately kept and oh so French, villages and rolling beautiful countryside. Had to stop twice to allow the cows to cross the road and we did get stuck behind a tractor or two but on such a lovely day it didn’t matter at all.
In places it looked as if France was bleeding as the bright red poppies are in full bloom and there are swathes of red across the fields as well as all along the verges. Absolutely stunning.
We only stopped twice, for lunch and for fuel, as 250 miles is quite a distance to travel on non-motorways. Pleased to find that diesel at the self-service Esso garages is €1.289 a litre, equivalent of £1.12 and therefore considerably cheaper than in the UK.

We bypassed Reims and Laon and just admired the distant views of cathedral spires.
It was almost 5pm by the time we reached our campsite, a municipal one, by Pont Ste Marie, on the edge of the city. An excellent site indeed with a rather haphazard arrangement of large pitches tucked away behind pretty hedges. The site has a pool but not open yet for the summer season, a shame as really quite hot now we are half way down France. Certainly hot enough to eat our dinner outside at 8pm.
The site is a 20-minute walk into the city so that is where we will go tomorrow.
Campsite is " Camping de Troyes"

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