My last full day of road-tripping in France, I left my campsite in Occoches early and drove through the lovely farmland to a village called Montreuil. I didn't go directly there, as I stopped to take a couple of photos of the pretty fields with their golden bales of hay.

I made it to Montreuil, parked up and got out to go have a look around. But first, croissant time!

Montreuil has an interesting history for a little town. There are the remains of ramparts that were mostly destroyed in the 16th century. In the first World War, the British army used it as headquarters for their operation. Then the Germans used it as a base in World War 2, destroying a statue that had been erected in WW1 (it was subsequently rebuilt). It is also the town where Jean Valjean from Les Miserables was mayor and where his factory was located, and where Fantine was from and worked.

It was a pretty little place to wander around in, not busy and mostly full of locals which was nice!

I left a little before 11 and drove about an hour to my next stop Boulogne-sur-Mer. This is quite a touristy seaside town and I drove around for a while before I found a parking area that had empty spaces. I parked and got out, not quite sure where to head as there were people everywhere. I spotted a large dome and figured I'd head towards it - turns out I was right and that was the Old Town area!

The church was open so I popped in to have a look around. Annoyingly, I was being hassled by this guy inside the church - some French men just don't get when to go away. I'd already made myself very clear that I was here to look at the architecture. Grr. Anyway, the church itself was really nice, and the underside of the dome had some lovely decorative elements to it.

I wandered around a little more.. You really could see that dome everywhere you went! It was time for lunch by that point so I picked a restaurant and sat down to eat a steak frites, my last French meal for the trip and a glass of wine. Then I had to work out where I had parked and navigate back down to the camper again...

I decided that I would stop at Cap Gris Nez on the way up the coast but the roads were SO busy and there were people everywhere and nowhere to park in the cute little towns I drove through that I decided to look for a campsite for the night instead. Being close to Calais, I figured I'd need to get to one fairly early anyway in order to get a place for the night. I picked a campsite at a place called Peuplingues and set my GPS. It was only about a 15 minute drive to the ferry terminal at Calais, so a good place for an early morning getaway.

I got to Camping les Epinettes at about 2:30. They had two spots left so I took one of them and proceeded to start packing my stuff back into my suitcase. Over 6 weeks of being away, most of it had slowly migrated so there were clothes and toiletries and other bits and pieces all over the camper. The importance of good storage in a camper cannot be overstated, and this one didn't really have a good system so it ended up with stuff being everywhere because it was too hard to access otherwise! I cooked dinner and settled in for an early night, as I wanted to catch one of the early ferries back to England.

Campsite: Camping les Epinettes

Rating: 9/10. Really nice campsite in a great place for Calais, especially for early morning ferries. The site itself was quiet, the showers and facilities were clean and tidy. Only one thing annoyed me was that the shower token ran out while I had conditioner on my hair so I had to wash it out in the sink but otherwise, excellent. Also very good if you have an early morning ferry as I did - there isn't a gate or barrier so you can leave anytime! In high season, you probably need to book - I nabbed one of the last remaining spots and I got there at 2:30pm. Reception opens after lunch at 5pm.