France, France and more France, then home.

A few notes:

A cursory glance at the Campercontact and Acsi apps left us pondering the question, has France got more campsites per head of population than anywhere else on the planet? Possibly, perhaps Holland is another contender. Whatever the answer, what is certain is that the vast majority of French ones are closed in February. Travelling by motorhome from one end of the country to other in winter is difficult, especially as the local authorities also have a tendency to turn-off the water supply in municipal aire de camping cars. It means simply wandering about is not an option, pre-planning is essential.

Day 1 - Zumaia to Bordeaux, 172 miles

Blue skies, temperatures in the high teens, quiet motorway, all good. We were heading for Caravan Beau Soleil in Gradignan, a small town on the southern outskirts of Bordeaux. Gill phoned ahead to double check they were open and had space. It turned out to be a pleasant enough site, small, friendly staff, slightly quirky sanitary block - par for the course really.

Day 2 - Bordeaux to St Cyr, 160 miles

Our plan had been to stay at Camping Le Futuriste near Poitier. The place operates all year round due to its proximity to the Futuroscope theme park. It amazes me the place still operates as the future it imperfectly predicted when it opened 1987 is already history. Perhaps it always was about futurism, the imagined shape of things to come. Gill found an alternative, a new all year site - Aire de camping-car de Beaumont Saint-Cyr. - a few kilometres north of the city on the way to Châtellerault. The entrance barrier was card operated. In order to use the site you have to buy a plastic contactless card which is usable in a network of aires belonging to  the  'campingcarpark' chain. We are fairly sniffy about French web design, in our experience it is by far the least ergonomic we've happened upon on our travels. It did not surprise us at all that the card would not work and we needed the assistance of a friendly Frenchman who phoned the customer helpline on our behalf. They managed to activate the card and all was well.

It is an interesting concept - a network of 200 aires, open all year, with good-sized flat pitches and wide access roads and well maintained service points. The fact that you can check availability on the app and book ahead brings the aire de campingcar into the 21st century. We will use them, the concept is good even if the app is distinctly clunky.

The aire is next to a country park. Lac de St Cyr has an adventure playground, lots of way-marked paths and a waterside restaurant. Most of it was closed during winter, but the paths to the birdwatching hides were open. It was cold and wintry looking compared to where we had just been.

It was a pretty sunset. We opted to observe it from the van. We don't really do bracing, it's why we migrate south. In future the post Brexit visa rules are going to make two long trips either side of Christmas impossible. One option is to do 'medium haul' to the Caribbean, Mexico or S. America and take a six week trip to the Tropics or southern hemisphere in January. The question is can we afford it. Of course there are carbon footprint questions too. I can foresee me consulting Skyscanner a lot over the coming months.

Day 3 - St Cyr to Bréhémont, 60 miles

Top Priority - find an Auchun and pick up some beer and wine to take home. The nearest was on the outskirts of Châtellerault. Here it is, glimpsed behind a big Macdonalds. It would be lovely if most of France looked like the pretty village below, it's ancient buildings strung out alongside the Loire. In fact, architecturally ugly sprawl typifies the country these days more than any cute romantic spot that you might find in a Rick Stein foodielogue.

The further north you go, the trickier it becomes to find places to stay. We wanted a campsite so we could get a proper shower, the bathroom on-board is ok for a day or two, but not all the time. We found two sites that appeared to be open near Tours. We opted to head for the one furthest from the city at Bréhémont, both the ACSI app and Camper contact confirmed it was open. After a slightly tricky time on single track roads we found the place. There was no-one about and the sign by the gate indicated it opened on March Ist. We parked in the driveway to reset the sat-nav to the site on the outskirts of Tours. However, moments before we drove off the campsite owner approached us and said we could stay for free on a pitch since the facilities were not functioning. It was a kind gesture. We even got invited for drinks with his family at 5.00pm, to celebrate a new arrival in the family. Here he is,  just a week old. His name - Theopaul.

The only thing you can be sure about if you choose to travel as we do is that you will confronted by the unexpected. Sometimes the surprises will be unwelcome, other times delightful  - like today.

Day 4 - Bréhémont to Le Mans, 110 miles

Sunday morning...I wonder what percentage of French males aged between 35 - 50 are dressed in garish spray-on lycra, pedalling furiously down a country lane in a closely packed peloton. We had plenty of time to consider this question as the bunch in front of us took up most of narrow road making it impossible for a vehicle of our size to overtake them safely. We acted as their impromptu team truck for about 12 long kms. In fainess, apart from the odd hill here and there the group managed a steady 20mph on average.

After a while I began to miss the peloton, it was the only interesting thing that happened all day. It rained, the roads were quiet, the countryside north of the Loire looked dull and god forsaken on a wet Sunday in February.

We decided now we had the 'smartcard' we would give another campingcarpark aire a try. It was located in St Saturnin, a suburb of Le Mans. This time the smartcard technology worked perfectly. We agreed they are a welcome addition to the places to stay off-season in France. We will use them again I am sure.

Day 5 - Le Mans to Neufchatel en Bray, 158 miles

The last two times we have tried to stay at the aire in Neufchatel en Bray it has been 'complet'. Popular with British, Belgian and Dutch motorhomers, its position makes it an attractive stop-off either heading south or heading home. We arrived mid-afternoon, even then on a Monday in February there were only two places left. We felt relieved, we had no plan B other than the aire in the nearby village, but the place has no services and we needed to dump our waste water.

Day 6 - Neufchatel en Bray to Wissant, 98 miles

Gill noticed while perusing the campercontact app that the pin on the Cite Europe car park had disappeared. A bit of googling confirmed that overnight parking at the shopping centre had been disallowed due to the level of thefts from vehicles. It's a shame because the place was so convenient for people booked on early morning tunnel crossings. We decided to use the aire at Wissant, a small coastal village about 20km south of the Eurotunnel terminal.return. 

There was also the question of our final retail splurge in Bolougne Auchun. It too has become part of our ritual of  return. Do we actually save much by bulk buying wine and beer, or does it simply encourage us to drink more? We are working on the beer consumption - we have managed to reduce tit to sharing one small bottle at beer o' clock. I wish we could apply the same discipline to our wine consumption - habitually we manage to polish-off a bottle between us, a couple of glasses with our evening meal, then if we are watching TV so easy to polish off the bottle. What I would really like to do is apply the same logic to wine as we have to chocolate - one small square of delicious Lindt per day with our post lunch espresso macchiato. So why can't we half the amount of wine we drink,  spend the same, but consume bottles costing twice as much? There'would be a health benefit and a lifestyle gain, just think how much fun you could have if your budget was £12 a bottle rather than half  of that. This is a sacrifice I could make for Lent, to deny myself cheap wine and only drink delicious. Actually it will have to wait a bit as we have about 10 boxes of cheap but delicious non-vintage delights stashed in the van already.

We had forgotten how attractive Wissant looks, even on a blustery day in February. The chalk landscape and cliffs between Calais and Boulogne are surprisingly undeveloped. It is instant old fashioned France. The smudge on the horizon is the Kent coast, suddenly homecoming felt imminent.. It is extraordinary how much of a cultural divide the English Channel has proven to be, as much a psychological state as a geographical fact.

Back in the van Gill prepared a tapas style evening meal entirely composed of random leftovers in the fridge - like a Master Chef invention test. Definitely a winner.

It was a wild night with gusty winds rocking the van. At least storm whoever held off while we were driving. We set the alarm for 7.30am hoping we might catch an earlier crossing.

Day 7 - Wissant to Buxton,  287 miles

We are not renowned for prompt starts. Quite often we are still mulling over the first challenge of the day - when will the van heat up sufficiently for chief morning coffee technician (Pete) to roll out of bed and put the kettle on. All the while we can hear stalwarts nearby starting engines and driving into the blue yonder before we have even opened the blinds. So the fact we managed to catch the 10.15am shuttle rather than the 10.50am that we were booked on counts as a minor triumph. One of the attractions of Eurotunnel is how humdrum an experience it provides. The only excitement this time was when we were re-directed by the French border authorities into a security zone where the van was loaded onto a conveyor belt and checked by a machine that looked like a car wash. Apparently the giant sensor can detect drugs, explosives and weapons, an infrared scanner also looks for illegal passengers, which is why everyone, including the driver, have to be outside the vehicle. The French police were really chatty and not at all officious. I wondered if the machine was new, but the operator said that they had been using it for about three years. 

Despite the diversion we still made it onto an earlier train. The earlier we can get to England the better as the trip from Kent to Buxton tends to be our  longest  and there are no guarantees that you won't be delayed somewhere. In fact this time we made excellent progress around the M25, through the interminable roadworks north of Milton Keynes, but we were not going to get away with an entirely uncomplicated journey.

It's fair to say the cause of our detour was unusual. The most direct route home takes us westwards along the A50 towards Stoke, then directly north up the A515 through Ashbourne. Today being Ash Wednesday meant it was day two of Ashbourne's traditional town-wide football match. It's been played since Tudor times and brings the whole place to a standstill. We carried on up the M1 until the junction with the A38 which links to the A6. In Matlock and Bakewell there was plenty of evidence of the recent flooding and the hills around Buxton were covered in snow, thankfully the roads were clear. Sarah and Rob were on hand, so the house was warm and they had sorted dinner - all good! 

Next morning it was a wintry scene in the back garden. We had to wait until the snow cleared from the road in the afternoon before returning the van to the farm where it is stored . 

However, homecoming had one further surprise in store. During the first few weeks of our trip our news apps were dominated by the moment when Boris finally 'got Brexit done'. February was been dominated by the spread of the coronavirus. Sitting in a Motorhome in some remote corner of La Mancha, the story seemed distant, slightly worrying but not an immediate concern.

It was somewhat of a shock to wake-up the next morning to discover Buxton had momentarily hit the headlines because a cases had been diagnosed locally. The school closure affected Burbage Primary - all thee of our kids went there - it's less than half a mile from our house. There are undoubtedly some risk involved with long-term foreign travel, on the whole staying at home is probably regarded as the safer bet. Not today!