Week 7. 11th April – 19th May 2026. Cantallops, Spain to Home – 1,019 miles.
Our last week of a 7-week spring trip that has taken us down the middle of Spain, along the south coast, back up the east side of Spain, and into France, where we have a terrifying incident, where we are run off the road by a truck. More here….
Monday 11th May 2026 (Cantallops, Spain to Millau, France – 157 miles)
We had a very quiet night here in our private parking area overlooking the Costa Brava and the Bay of Roses. We have a coffee and light breakfast while listening to the birdsong echoing around the trees. It’s such a lovely spot here, now in our top 10. We pack up and head down to the chaos of La Jonquera, where we need to do a shop for the last Spanish goodies, and a last cheap fuel fill-up before France. Note: Diesel is €1.65 a litre here in Spain.
It’s not too long before we are over the border and in France.
Everything looks different; we always love the novelty of driving over a border and seeing things change. It’s a beautiful day, and we are heading to a campsite in the valley of the Millau Viaduct, but first, we are stopping near Beziers to see one of only 2 water slopes in the world.
We have already visited one of the water slopes, located in Montech, which we did a couple of years ago. The slope today, the Fonseranes water slope on the Canal du Midi, was built to bypass the 7 locks built in 1680, which are now famous.
There’s an easy place to park Jess, so we walk along the river in the warm sun. It’s 24 degrees today. The locks are impressive, and there are a few tourist boats at the top preparing to make their way down.
The water slope runs parallel and, unfortunately, is abandoned and in a bad condition. The huge vehicle straddled a dry, deep channel and pushed a wedge of water uphill on which a boat would sit.
It’s all a bit mad and only lasted less than 20 years as hydraulic leaks dripped on the track, making the massive tyres unable to get traction up the hill. It’s still fascinating, though and very rare.
We have a spot of lunch in Jess before turning left to head north up the A75. Having crossed the Millau viaduct a few times, we decide that we want to see it from below, so H has found a campsite in the valley underneath.
We are trundling along quite happily at 90kph on cruise control when a lorry comes up very close, within a metre of our rear. We can see his windscreen on our downward-pointing reverse camera. He keeps backing off and then approaching again, and even threatening to undertake on the hard shoulder.
We are in the right lane (slow lane), the left lane of the motorway is empty and permitted for trucks to use. We don’t understand this behaviour. He finally passes us, giving us the finger and then runs us off the road into the hard shoulder. H is screaming; it’s intensely frightening.
We have to pull up and stop after turning off, this is the most frightening experience on the road we have ever had. H has been driving for 37 years, and we have both driven all over Europe, but never experienced this. H (who was the passenger for this) is very shaken and upset. We spend the rest of the afternoon filing a police report and emailing the trucking company.
Luckily, the campsite is peaceful.
We get a very friendly welcome. From our pitch, we can hear the sound of a stream and a few cuckoos. There are chickens on site, too. It’s very nice and typically French, surrounded by beautiful scenery.
Tuesday 12th May 2026 (Millau to Issoire, France – 117 miles)
We are up early despite being a little tired. We set off without breakfast or coffee, as over the next few days, we have to get some miles done through France, which is bigger than you think. So we will get something en route as we have a long journey today. 214 miles and probably about 4.5 hours in Jess. Some of it is up and over the hills south of Clermont-Ferrand, which rise up to 1100m above sea level. The roads are quiet, thankfully.
Before we crack on, though, we thought it might be nice to get a view of the fabulous Millau Viaduct from underneath it rather than cross it. We have crossed it before, and it is quite spectacular. H finds a few spots that we drive to. We are in luck, and we are the only ones there when we get there, and we get a good eyeful of the viaduct, which is a truly marvellous piece of engineering and looks fantastic as it bridges the beautiful valley and town of Millau. Well worth the stop.
We slog on. It seems to take ages. We stop at a service station for a croissant, and 2 strong coffees back on Jess. We are both a bit under par today and struggling with the drive. A combination of bad sleep and the unsettled day of yesterday.
After what seems like many, many hours, with another 2.5 hours to go, we decide to call it quits and stop at Issoire. We have stayed here before in the town in the depths of winter a few years back, and it was lovely, but we opted for a municipal campsite right by the motorway.
At the municipal campsite, we get a large grassy pitch. H goes off for a refreshing 2-mile walk around the local lake. The temperature is a cool 14 degrees, and we are missing Spain.
Del cleans the van while H is away and has a shower. Now that we are reset, we will have dinner at the only local “restaurant“. It’s a ‘Buffalo Grill’, which is a French, American-style chain which we would normally avoid, but we decide to make life easy and give it a go. Just for a change…
The restaurant is very clean, and the service is very friendly, but H is disappointed with her steak. Del has a chicken burger, which he enjoys. It turns out to be quite expensive for the quality, but it saved a 40-minute walk each way into town, and a night off from cooking in the van.
Wednesday 13th May 2026 (Issoire to Clamecy, France – 173 miles)
It’s grey and cold today, 10 degrees. The temperature and the weather in France is a massive contrast to Spain, which, whilst it wasn’t always scorching, was always pleasant, and we were always in shorts. Now the longies are on and the long-sleeve tops!
H goes to the reception to collect the croissants and baguette which we ordered, and we leave soon after. We’re not sure how far we will go today; we’ll see how we feel. It’s an easier drive than yesterday. H drives first, then Del takes over, while H looks at where to stop for lunch.
We pull in for a quick loo break at a service station called Magny Cours, which it turns out is the Magny Cours racing circuit, and H has found us an unusual French restaurant near there called the Ferdinand at Magny Cours. This was once the French F1 circuit until 2008. The restaurant is in a modern building but decorated with motoring memorabilia.
The lovely smell of vintage car hits you as you walk in, and in the corner, there is a Mustang fastback like the one from the Bullitt movie. The whole place is beautiful and done in that classy French way. Del has Pork Rillets followed by Coq au Vin. H has blanquette de veau and a chocolate mousse. It’s all very delicious and set in an unusual place.
We set back off for Clamecy, where we have found a nice-looking campsite set between a river and a canal.
As usual, we end up on some really narrow roads that we probably shouldn’t be on. If anything comes the other way, we have had it…! Thanks, Google…
We finally arrive, and we feel like we’ve come a long way today, but looking at the map confirms that we’ve nibbled away at only a small part of France. It’s a massive country. The blue skies that we briefly had on the way soon disappear, and it’s grey and cool again. Never mind, we get togged up and set off to the town on the bikes.
There is a medieval centre which is very cute, there are very old wooden buildings overhanging the streets, but some of them look a bit neglected and abandoned.
It’s still a nice place with some lovely niche shops. Stained glass, anyone?
It starts to rain again, so we cycle back, just making it in time for a downpour, which we sit out in under the awning, while having a nice cup of tea. Very British.
Thursday 14th May 2026 (Clamecy to Mutigny, France – 136 miles)
It was cold again last night, so we had the heating on! Today it’s grey and cold. We have an idea to go to the beautiful city of Troyes, but if the weather is going to be bad, then we might as well press on. First, we need to do a food shop, but most of the shops are shut as it’s Ascension Day, another bank holiday. We do find an open Aldi and manage to get the basics.
En route, the weather deteriorates further, and we get some heavy rain. We decide to turn off and have a coffee in Jess.
Del is sent outside to put the gas on and gets soaked (well, it was his idea). After a little break, we set off again. We shall push on to just south of Reims in the Champagne region.
We pass lots of the big names and their vineyards. There’s a Moët & Chandon winery that is ultra-modern and huge. You can see inside through smoked glass to about 60 huge stainless-steel vats full of the good stuff.
The first parking spot we try is in the town of Ay, which is where Bollinger is based.
The small parking aire is full with 7 vans, so we move on to a place that we know in the hills that we have been to before.
Mutigny is a tiny champagne-producing village, and the parking spot is free and overlooks the rolling hills of vines. Today it’s raining, misty and very cold.
We are the only ones here at the moment, we settle in and then head out for a walk to the very quiet village where one producer is open despite the bank holiday.
When we enter their tasting area, it’s packed with people, all tasting champagnes. We join in and end up buying 3 bottles. Back on the van, we open a bottle, once chilled, and have steak, dauphinoise and peas. All rather good. The Maurice Cugnet Tresor went down a treat…
The parking spot here is now full with 8 vans from many different countries.
Friday 15th May 2026 (Mutigny to Cappy, France – 116 miles)
The sun is out at last, and we set off after admiring the view over the wonderful vineyards of Mutigny. The way out to get back on the road north is a bit tricky. There are a few small villages to navigate, all connected by small, narrow, twisty roads. Del suddenly spots a 2.4m height restriction sign on one of the roads, so there is a bit of shuffling around to get us on another road, and finally, we are on our way.
We are not sure about today; we feel a bit unsure about what to do and where to go. The weather is not helping as it’s cold and the rain, which is sometimes heavy, comes and goes. Do we stop somewhere in France, or press on and go to Belgium for a day or two? We just don’t know what to do today.
Finally, we pull into a garage and supermarket to fill up with diesel at €2.10 a litre or just under 2 quid!!! We do a shop and get some French goodies, a baguette, some cheese and rillettes. We set off again, two lost souls trundling through France.
We give up and decide to stop at a place in the Somme that we know quite well, the small town of Cappy. Once we get settled into the paid aire, we have a rather splendid lunch of the goodies we got earlier, which also included a Paris Breast cake…
We had plans to get the bikes out today and go for a cycle, but the rain is upon us again, banging on the roof. It’s now 5 pm. Del does some homework while H watches Queen of Chess on Netflix. But what’s this… H is not feeling too good, with a few trips to the toilet and feeling very cold. Oh dear. A quick look up and it appears that she may have food poisoning… And we think we know from where, don’t we H…? (Well, how long were you going to keep eating the fantastic Ali Oli we were given on Monday?)
With nothing much he can do, Del sets out for a walk. 30 minutes later, he’s back. It’s raining. H has stabilised a bit but is feeling the chills rather badly. This could be a long night…
Saturday 16th May 2026 (Cappy, France to Proven, Belgium – 96 miles)
Last night, H went to bed feeling quite poorly. She required a hot shower, a hot water bottle, some paracetamol, and bed early. She was feeling the chills badly, even though the van was like a sauna. She slept long and well.
H is feeling much better this morning, so after breakfast we set off towards Belgium and our most visited campsite, Stal t’bardhof.
It’s a lovely farm in the middle of nowhere in the flat Belgian countryside of Westvleteren. The farm is near a town called Proven in the district of Poperinge, a very heavy agricultural area specialising in hops of all things; it’s also next door to Abbey Sixtus, where the world’s best beer comes from. This campsite was the first European campsite we came to in Europe on our first trip in Jess! We do like this area. It’s so peaceful and gentle. It’s hard to imagine that so many young men lost their lives in the surrounding fields during WW1 and 2. H reckons that’s the reason it’s so calm and gentle now.
It’s a 2-hour drive on non-toll roads from Cappy in the Somme, France, to Proven in cloudy Belgium. The toll motorways are very expensive, and you don’t get to see any of the country, so sometimes we prefer to go the long way.
En route, H starts to have a relapse, and so when we arrive, our plans of cycling and dinner out are cancelled. The evening is spent with H not feeling great again, and another early night.
Sunday 17th May 2026 (Proven, Belgium – Day 2)
It rained most of the night, and rain is promised until mid-afternoon today. H is feeling better again today, so we will hopefully go out for dinner later to a lovely place near the Abbey Sixtus called In de Vrede, which means “In peace“.
H starts to feel stronger and better as the day goes on. We both set off at 5:30 pm, on the bikes and cycle to the only restaurant for miles. It is packed with people, but we manage to get a table where the seats are still warm from the last diners! A very popular place with the locals. Del has a burger with the local Abbey cheese, and H has pig cheeks cooked in a beer sauce, made with the local beer.
We have a Westvleteren 12 each to accompany it. It’s a truly delicious, hearty meal, and we cycle back to Jess under the grey, threatening skies and get cosy for the night as the rain patters on the roof.
Monday 18th May 2026 (Proven, Belgium to Calais, France – 43 miles)
It’s a busy day today with lots to do, and tomorrow we will be on the train, setting off for home. First, we go back to the restaurant that sells the local Abbey beer, and buy a small pack of their beer, the Westvleteren 12.
Next, we need to pick up our wine order in Calais, a rather large order that H put together last night, 60 bottles in total…!
Del stays with Jess to guard against dodgy-looking gentlemen who wander around and, in some cases, ‘smuggle‘ themselves aboard motorhomes. It has been known. We then swing by a French supermarket for a few French goodies.
We arrive at our pre-booked campsite in Calais, the Campsite Calais LA Plage. We do a little bit of a pre-pack, and Del cleans out and re-arranges the ‘garage‘, the storage cupboard at the back.
It’s a little windy, but sunny, finally. Since we arrived in France last week, we have seen a lot of rain, cloudy skies, and low temperatures. We lock up Jess and take a walk to the Calais beach, which is lovely.
Calais is a very pleasant town, it’s nothing like the stories you see on the telly. It’s definitely worth a stopover and a bit of a walk around. This must be our 4th time in Calais. We like it very much.
Being a Monday, a lot of restaurants are shut, including our favourite one, so we grab some chips and sit on a bench looking across the channel. The visibility is excellent, and we can see the UK in the distance. Just.
Back at the van, we just settle in. Early night tonight, up early tomorrow…!
Tuesday 19th May 2026 (Calais, France – East Cowes, Home – 43 miles)
The alarm goes off at 6:30am. We have an idea to get an earlier Le Shuttle train, and so we are at the gate of the campsite at 6:45, only to find we’re locked in until 7am, despite being told that it would not be a problem and would not be locked… Nevertheless, we arrive early at the terminal and are offered a train an hour earlier at 8:40.
We leave on time, and 35minutes later we arrive at 8:15 (earlier than we left!). Having heard how lovely the weather has been in the UK since we left, we are greeted by torrential rain. Not only that, but a 90-minute delay on the M25. Del does the long and boring slog through the traffic and rain, well done, Del.
We still manage to get Jess jet-washed and onto an earlier Isle of Wight ferry, which is good news. The rain is so bad that we can’t even see the Isle of Wight.
Finally back at home, we unload a mountain of stuff. How did we fit this all into Jess? We take Jess around the corner to her storage lot and wrap her up in her cover. It’s time for a sit-down and a cup of tea before we tackle the mountain of washing and unpacking.
However, and here is the downer from the trip… It’s while we are relaxing that we suddenly hear a pop and a loud hissing noise from our hot water tank. Urgent investigation reveals that the mains water supply pipe into our cylinder has burst. We quickly turn off the water and call an emergency plumber. 2 plumbers look at it and say that the plumbing is non-spec, they make a repair, but they are not confident it will hold.
The next day it does indeed fail again early in the morning.
The plumbers can’t source the required fitting, in the meantime, we are tripping over dirty laundry, so H goes out to the local laundrette and spends £23 doing all the laundry. Back at the flat, Del has done some research and found another plumbing company. We end up with 3 more plumbers scratching their heads, until eventually a solution is found and by 6pm, we have the water supply back on again. Hurrah. It has been quite a stressful end to the trip.
Our seven-week trip took us from home in East Cowes, down through the Bay of Biscay to Santander in Spain. Down through the middle of Spain, east of Madrid to the south, along the south coast and back up along the east coast of Spain. Up into France via Millau, up to Belgium. Finally across to Calais and home… Whew!
On this trip, we used:
Diesel: £655.00
Distance covered: 2,681 miles (each mile cost us 24p!!!)
LPG: £21.00
Tolls: £63.00 (mostly in France, even though we were only there a week and avoided most of them. French motorway tolls are crazy expensive.)
Sunday 24th May…
The water repair at the flat has held, and we have a normal working system. The company that did the repair has been asked to quote to replace the whole thing, tank, pipes, the lot. It is something that we have wanted to do for a while, so this recent incident has only sped things up a bit. We have a rather unconventional system in our flat. The water heating uses what is called an unvented cylinder, which, if not looked after properly, can have catastrophic consequences, like blowing up your house. Nice.
That’s it for travelling for a while now, Del has a job in Madrid at the end of May with more throughout the year, so we intend to enjoy the summer right here on the island, on the river with our kayaks, and the odd local trip out on Jess…
We have had a good trip, despite the fuel price volatility. Spain was the highlight of the trip. The country is really doing well, you can see where money is being spent with new roads, railways and towns all cleaned up. The government removed a tax on diesel, so the price, whilst high, was not as bad as in France, Belgium and the UK. France was OK. The bad weather didn’t help; the diesel was expensive, so thankfully, we were only there for a few days. As for Belgium, the roads are still terrible, but we liked our stay at the farm.
Again, thank you, dear reader, for following us. We are not promoting anything, we are just sharing our trip with our friends, old and new, as well as our family, but it also helps us, as we get older, to remember what we did…!
Until the next time, our very best wishes to you all…
Del, H and of course Jess…
Welcome back, we get to spend summer with you, see you soon xx