Claire and Simon's trip round Eastern Europe

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We left our last site in Germany, Campingplatz Albgau, Waldbronn our earliest yet. We headed for the motorway but headed down further into the Black Forest on the A5 rather than up as we expected as sat nav said there was queueing traffic that way. We finally left Germany and entered France near to Strasbourg. There was no border crossing just new toll roads to encounter. We headed towards Metz and left the motorway heading straight into rural France.

Right in the middle of nowhere we found the campsite La Croix du Bois Sacker, Burtoncourt. It was like a little oasis in the middle of the country where all around was very dry. The site had it's own small lake for fishing and swimming. It was stocked with carp and pike. One side on the terrace was for campers and the otherside had more permanent caravans and mobile homes. It was very hot so we just lazed in the shade and read our books. Later had a walk round the lake before cooking our meal.

The next day we picked up a baguette and 2 pain au chocolat and left quite early towards Laon a bit further on than Reims. On the way we stopped for lunch in an aire which was the best we'd seen the whole holiday. They had a special area for caravans and motorhomes with trees for shade and lots of picnic areas. We could see that you could almost camp there but there was no electric and the only water was self pumped in a little trickle. So we moved on to our site in a small village called Suzy! We passed Laon which had it's own Notre Dame high on a hill in the middle of the town. We went on some very narrow roads and were unsure where we were heading but eventually found the campsite Les Etangs du Moulin. Another little oasis in the middle of the countryside. It was set up Wild West style. The reception was the saloon bar and restaurant. They had a small indoor pool, a play area for children, several fishing lakes and old wagons that you could stay in. The campers were up on the terraces above the site on pitches named after Wild West themes, though we ended up in Napoleon so don't know how that fitted!

We were next to a very nice couple from Scotland who were also making their way up to Calais to go home. We had a very pleasant evening swapping stories of our trips and caravan experiences.

This morning we left rather late as we had to find a fuel station and supermarket but soon made up time on the motorway. We travelled mostly on the A26, the autoroute des Anglais. It is full of Brits racing towards Calais. We have hardly seen any Brits in the seven weeks we have been away but now there are loads everywhere. We are now in our last campsite near Calais at Camping l'Escale, Wacquinghen. We've got a nice spot and will stay a few nights here hopefully catching some sun and beach before leaving on Thursday for home. James is still away in Amsterdam on his birthday, the first time in 29 years we have not seen him on the day, so not bad. We hope he is having a good day.

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Photos

The saloon
Sadly a Brit parked their motorhome right in front and wasn't going to move soon!