After the success of my first road trip around France in 2016, I had saved up and decided to go on another one. This time, I had planned on 6 weeks going to France and Italy, my first time driving in Italy.
I started planning the same way as I had the last time, by mapping out everywhere I wanted to go, picking up some places I'd missed in France last time, adding some in Italy and Switzerland. At the beginning planning stage, I had planned to include Switzerland, but as more and more points appeared, it seemed like it might end up being too much to fit into the allotted 6 weeks. So I will have to save those places for another day! This is what my map looked like...
The next step was to work out the average line between all the "Want to go" places, identify outliers and sadly say goodbye to them (sorry Lourdes, Pau and Chateau du Gudanes... you're always too far out of the way!). I also identified "Must see" places, in orange and yellow identifiers, as well as some campsites (in red) for stressful situations (near cities, tourist destinations or as the first one to head for after crossing the channel), and some purples for food places. Very organised, I know!
Next, I had to find a camper. I had it down to two - one was cheaper and looked slightly better but was quite far away, while the other was near London. In the end, I went with the latter because the further away one added about 2 hours to the first day journey and would have caused problems for coming home. I then compared channel tunnel prices with the ferry prices and found that there wasn't a great difference in the prices if booked in advance (about £20), and the train actually only took 35 mins to Calais (while the ferry took 1.5 hours), so the train won!
The morning that I picked up the camper was a particularly stressful one. It was located down in Woolwich, not too far as the crow flies but a long way away by public transport. I had to catch the Jubilee line all the way to North Greenwich, then catch a bus. I managed that ok, but then it turned out that there was an accident or some incident on the bus route and the driver had to take an alternative route. Oh my goodness, of all the days! Eventually I got off the bus, a little later than the pick-up time but not too bad. My stress levels though....
I was picking up a Getaway Camper and they were all organised for me, with the camper parked out the front. The lady took me around and showed me all the features of the camper, how to sort out the bed, etc. I wish she'd shown me the handbrake, as I couldn't work it out when I first picked it up and parked in a few places without it on! (Turns out that it was a footbrake instead, which I'd never encountered before, but it was thankfully detailed in the info booklet with the camper!). I stopped to get fuel and to go to Tesco and then I was on the road to Folkestone to catch the train to France.
I got to the port and went through security - they were quite thorough with checking the camper which was complicated as I'd just picked it up and hadn't quite worked out how to open all the compartments yet! But then I parked at the little food area, picked up a cuppa and waited.
Driving onto the Eurotunnel train was one of the weirdest experiences ever. It's basically just a metal tube with a door that opens up on the side so you just drive straight into your carriage. It wasn't much wider than the camper. Then, when it was ready to go, the side doors closed and the gates in between the carriages closed as well, so it was basically like being locked in a metal coffin. Very strange. You could get out of your car, but there wasn't much point as it didn't take very long. The only time I got out was to fit the European headlight reflectors on the car, otherwise I just sat there, ate my lunch from Tesco and changed out of my hiking boots, which I had to wear because they didn't fit in my luggage.
I popped out at Calais 35 minutes later, then took my time to drive to the campsite that I had decided on to stay at, Les Portes de la Baie de Somme. I got there about 5-ish, parked up and got settled after what was a crazy day. I felt like I'd been on the go for ages, and I guess I had because I left home before 8am! I was very pleased with my campsite choice though - it was a very simple campsite, nothing flashy, but I think these are sometimes the best. I sorted out dinner, paid for the night once the reception was open (about €7 for the night), and had a good night sleep!
Campsite: Les Portes de la Baie de Somme
Rating: 9/10