Kent, then Normandy and the Loire

For the last two nights we have been staying in Caravan Club certified sites. These are small, mainly rural sites; there are 1200 of them spread across the country and they cost between £10 - £15 per night. It was access to these sites that led us to join the Caravan Club last year, though circumstances have meant we have not used them as much as we planned. Our initial impressions have been positive. The owners were welcoming, the places themselves simple and unpretentious, with an informality that appears lacking in most bigger British campsites which often seem to us to be over regulated. 

Friday night's stop - Beckbrook Farm, The Avenue, Madingley, Cambridgeshire​. £12 per night, water point, no ECU.

Saturday night's stop - Solley's Farm, Great Mongeham, nr. Deal. £15 per night. Well equipped and impeccably kept small site.

On Sunday it was on the ferry and into a showery and chilly France. The P&O crossing was uncrowded. It gave us the opportunity to check out the result of a conversation on Facebook I had a year or more ago - the last time we used P&O. I ended up bewailing on-line about the fact that P&O had handed over their coffee shops to a Starbucks franchise, which has resulted in being unable to buy a decent expresso macchiato anywhere on board. This prompted a complete stranger to post up a message telling us that the upstairs restaurant which offered table service was happy to serve just coffee and did not require customers to order food. We checked it out today, and it's true. The macchiata were freshly made and had a good flavour, a tad tepid maybe, but much better than the crap we would have been served at Starbucks.

Brexit - which really should mean exiting Britain if you think about it...

Yess, you can get a  real cup of coffee in the restaurant, without having to have a meal.

The weather conformed to the gloomy forecast. We drove through drizzle to the Aire at Neufchatel-en-Bray and then it rained steadily overnight. Onwards the next day on familiar roads, through Rouen, then south towards Charrtres. It was a bit blustery and cross-winds buffeted Maisy as we trundled along over the endless plains. It's a tedious drive on these long​ straight N roads, through an unchanging vista of huge fields of green wheat interspersed with splodges of bright yellow rape seed.

I am annoyed with myself, it's all too easy to lose momentary vigilance on such featureless roads. I missed a speed limit change near a remote crossroads - from 90kph to 70kph. Flash! went the camouflaged speed camera. "Bugger!​" said the driver glancing at the speedo on the sat-nav. 74kph it read, hmm.... I think that means a bill when we get home. 

Our destination was an ACSI campsite at la Ferté-St Aubin, a small town about 20kms south of Orleans. When we arrived we discovered a large gravel car-park next to the campsite with a brand new 'Flot Blu' motorhome service point in the corner. Park for Night app lists the place as not suitable for overnight camping. We figured, who is going to stop us. 

As it turned out we were not alone with this thought. By the time we returned from a walk around the town four more vans had drawn-up, all French. Now we have been joined by a trailer selling pizzas. Clearly the place is a well known overnight stop. Oddly, it's not listed in any of the books or websites we use to find places to stay. 

As for the town itself, it is lovely, with a modest sixteenth century chateau on the outskirts complete with a water lily choked moat reflecting spindly trees just coming into leaf. The river is lovely too, languid and mirror still, so of course we clicked away.

Next to where we are parked is a sculpture park. I thought 'The Pianist' was a bit naff, but I had fun taking photographs of the piece which consisted of an upended cube of polished steel.

French towns specialise in investing in truly naff contemporary sculpture..

However, I quite liked the simplicity of this polished steel, up-ended cube.

What is heartening about these small, unassuming French towns is the way the municipality has invested to make them attractive places to live. They are great to simply mooch about in aimlessly. We are big fans of aimless mooching. We think it is a much under-rated pastime.