Autumn Holiday, 30 September 2026

Chalons-en-Champagne, France

Always used to be called Chalons-sur-Marne, of course. I can't remember when it was renamed. 

Which numpty forgot to reset the alarm after yesterday's early start? The occasional alarms reset themselves after one use, so of course no alarm went off this morning, and we didn't wake up until 7:40! Fortunately, we were in no hurry. After breakfast, we both went on separate walks - I wanted to go into the town centre to see whether my blithe assurance that the shop with the ghost sign on it was merely shuttered for the night, not boarded up and empty (as, alas, so many shops in France are these days). I was right; it is now an employment agency and was open.

I hadn't planned to shop, but was walking past the local Carrefour Market, so it seemed stupid not to. Of course, I had to buy a bag, but it was only 69 cents, so not breaking the bank. 

Just as I turned to go back to the WoMo, it started to rain, and I was pretty wet by the time I got there. The Swan Whisperer got even wetter, as he was further away when the rain started, so had to change; I just managed not to have to, but did have to dry my neck!

We told the Satnav not to go on toll roads or motorways, so had a lovely drive south, through the little village of Maroilles (an absolute Must-See sometime, we think - so pretty, and, of course, the home of the eponymous cheese!) and Reims and here. Oddly, we don't seem to have seen many vineyards, but we know there are masses around. We saw a lot of potatoes (and, possibly, sugar-bet) being harvested, though, and quite a lot of cattle, which presumably supply milk for the Maroilles. 

When we got here, it was mizzling a bit, and it is incredibly hot and humid. I dodged the showers to do a bit of tai chi to shake out the fidgets, and since then have been reading and watching videos. We have had supper, and I still have a couple more videos to watch. 

Autumn Holiday, 28-29 September 2026

Landrecies, Hauts-de-France

In hindsight (always a wonderful thing), we would have done better to have gone down to Sussex on Saturday afternoon and brought the WoMo back to London then, although we don't like doing that now. The Swan Whisperer had an appointment at 15:50 yesterday afternoon, but the hospital rang up to say that the clinic started at 14:00 and he should get there then, but to bring a book as it might be very busy. So in the morning we finished packing and loaded up the car as far as possible, leaving the fridge stuff until later, and after a quick lunch, the SW went off while I did one or two last things like washing up lunch and so on. He rang up very soon to say it was done, and he was on his way home, so I packed up the fridge and then made myself a cup of tea. I regretted this by the time we were half way to Sussex, so the SW dropped me off at the start of the close that leads to No 6, and I ran in while he took the car up to the garage and exchanged it for the WoMo. 

We spent awhile getting organised, and the SW washed pigeon poo off the skylight, and then we hotted up the chicken casserole we had brought with us, and sat and enjoyed Quiz Night on television before an early-Ish night. 

This morning, we set the alarm for 05:30 so we could enjoy a cup of tea before heading off; we got away about 07:15, and ate a banana en route to keep us going. When we got to Folkestone, we had half an hour to wait so we went into the terminal and ordered a "Big breakfast roll" from one of the food outlets. This was big indeed - a rasher of extremely nice back bacon, a whole Cumberland sausage spiral and a fried egg inside a large white bap! Both of us left half our sausage for later, and I only ate half my bap. 

When we arrived in Calais, our first stop was petrol, as we think Total Energies must be subsidised at the moment; their diesel is about 12 cents a litre cheaper than anywhere else - very unusual - and a bit cheaper than in the UK. So we stopped at the petrol station at the exit from the Shuttle and filled up before heading to Cité Europe where I did a shopping. Although it was lunchtime, neither of us, unsurprisingly, was hungry, so we set off for our planned overnight stop, a campsite in Guise. We decided we would stop in Landrecies, where we have been before, to have something to eat (the rest of the sausage and our first-day patisseries, and the SW ate the other half of my bap). However, although I had E-mailed the campsite, I had not heard back from them, so as nobody was expecting us, we decided to stay here overnight. There are no services, but we don't need them, and it is free! 

We decided to go for a walk round the town, and found there was a self-guided tour available of the walls, but there were no walls so much of it was rather dull, just signs saying that there had used to be a wall here, or a gate there. I think they had been destroyed in 1918, when the town had to be evacuated, and were never rebuilt. 

Now back at the WoMo, we don't really want much supper, but are having salmon with lemon butter sauce and cauliflower!