Monday 20 January - Villedomer

**Where's Bertie?** He's in the Aire at Villedomer where he's been at least three times before. 

**Weather:** Mainly murky, with a bit of sun breaking through in places late afternoon. Temperature between 0 and 3. 

I forgot to mention yesterday: we've stayed at the Aire at Wissant many times, going back to 2016. For all that time it has been free. When we were there a few months ago, in September, a payment barrier had been installed, but not commissioned. Now there is a charge of €10 per night plus 50c/person tourist tax. Given all the free stays we've had, that wouldn't feel too bad a price to pay, except that they've not altered the layout of the place at all, so the pitches are narrow, crammed in, and almost all of them are slightly on a slope. Compared with many other Aires in France, it is not good value. That is probably why, when we've seen it quite busy even in winter, this time there were just five of us there (there are dozens of spaces). Still, it's convenient when travelling to or from the south from a late Channel crossing or to an early one, so I'm sure we'll continue to stay there.

As for today, we were away as soon as it was light enough to drive without lights (0840), and set out to repeat our staging from 2023. The only difference in the journey was that today we forked out for the Péage from Boulogne to Abbeville. I'm not sure how much time it saved, but it saved a lot of roundabouts, junctions and concentration on constantly changing speed limits, at a cost of €13.70.

Other than taking a different road, our repetition extended to stopping in Neufchatel-en-Bray so that I could go for a run along the Voie Verte there. With Mick not running today, he was able to shop and prepare lunch whilst I was gone, then all we needed to do on my return was eat, refuel Bertie and get back on the road. 

Mick drove the easy bits, at times with me working in the back. I drove the intricate bits, with Mick working in the back. The only afternoon stops were two brief pauses to swap driving duties, at the same time refilling our travel mugs from the flask I'd prepared this morning. 

We made much better time than last time we did this journey. Then we arrived here a few minutes before 1800; today we were here at 1635. The toll road will have helped, but I suspect we were also more efficient with our stop in Neufchatel. 

More repetition tomorrow, with a bigger day of driving as we try to make it down to Capbreton. 

Sunday 19 May - Wissant

**Where's Bertie?** He's in the Aire at Wissant, where he has been many times before (most recently in September 2024), this time at a cost of €11 per night.

**Weather:** Mainly dry but overcast and quite cool.

Our Chunnel crossing was originally booked for a week earlier, until we realised that we had a lot to do in too short a time, some of which was being scuppered by Erica being poorly (no windscreen wipers is rather an impediment even in dry weather at this time of year, what with salty roads). So I pushed the crossing back, thinking we would get away at least a day in advance. As it came to pass, it was 0830 on the morning of our crossing that we pointed Bertie's nose south.

In the usual way we stopped in for lunch with friends in Crawley (and what an excellent lunch it was too!), before continuing on to Folkestone*. After tea in the car park at the last services on the M20, onwards we went to check in at the Chunnel at just gone 1800 (for our booked 2017 crossing) and as is usually the case, we were offered an earlier option. Thus we were on a moving train at just gone 1845.

As we then did the short hop down to Wissant, I check out how we staged this journey the last time we did it, two years ago. I may just as well cut and past the blog posts for the next couple of days as, provided all goes to plan, we are going to do exactly the same again.

A long and empty train making it look like we are going to drive through to France.

(*Bertie failed his MoT on two points. Many Bertie-esque vehicles don't have a driver's door, with just the habitation door as their means of entry and exit. Bertie does have a driver's door, but since someone tried to steal him, that door hasn't been openable from the outside - an excellent security measure and no trouble to us as we never used it anyway. Unfortunately, even though a motorhome doesn't have to have a door there, if it does have such a door it has to open from both sides. Thus, the failure. Bertie also has a long-standing intermittent fault on one of his rear side lights, and this year our luck ran out and it wasn't working for his initial MoT. He did subsequently pass, but with that light being unreliable (we will redouble our efforts to get it fixed, but thus far the fault has been elusive) we try to drive in daylight as much as possible. This journey was finished with a red bicycle light taking the place of that side light.)

Friday 6 December - Lincoln

Where was Erica: She spent the night at the roadside in Thonock Close, Lincoln

Weather: Dry and calm

Eurotunnel tickets are booked to take Bertie (for Bertie to take us?) over to France in a couple of weeks' time, so I thought it was about time that I wrote a little post, just for my records, about a quick overnight outing in Erica in December.

Mick wanted to go to a get-together with some ex-colleagues in Lincoln and I saw the opportunity to visit an 'away from home' parkrun on the way home, which meant staying over. 

The drive to Lincoln was uneventful, Mick went off to the pub and I was drawn to the Lincolnshire Runner where a new pair of trail runners came into my ownership. On the way back to Erica, I thought I'd solved the question of where to spend the night (overnight parking of motorhomes in the Lawn's car park, where it has been allowed for several years, had been banned just a week previously), as I found three nearby car parks with height barriers, but no overnight restrictions. At 1830, when I came to move Erica there was not a space to be had in any of those other car parks. No idea what was going on, as it was too late for shoppers and too early for Friday night revellers. Hence we ended up in Thonock Close - rather too close to a main road to be a good spot, but we weren't in front of anyone's house, so we figured it would do. 

Aside from a minor disturbance from some chatting going on outside at just gone midnight, a quiet-enough night was had. 

Why did that white car decide to park right there, causing rather a squeeze between it and Erica? Why were its windscreen wipers pulled away from its windscreen? Two questions to which we will never know the answer. 

This was the weekend of one of the named storms. Every parkrun in Wales was cancelled; huge numbers in England were cancelled. The one I'd earmarked was not only on, but I didn't get rained on, nor suffer the impediment of the strong winds that prevailed elsewhere. It was lucky timing. We also met up with eldest (step-)son on the way home and by the time we left the weather was positively wild.