We are sitting in the shadow of the Cité at Carcassonne only a few miles from the border between France and Spain and after five days and 900 miles - so far so good.

The planning has been going on for a few months and leaving your house and home for ten weeks does need some planning but with the support of friends and family we were able to leave Moorlinch at 1pm on Monday 15th February 2010 safe in the knowledge that we had a back up team in place if anything needed attention. We made an overnight stop in Sunbury, in the drive of Margaret’s parents, had dinner with her family and then we were off in the rain to the Eurotunnel at 7am the following morning. The motorways behaved and we were able to take an early train which saw us in Calais by 11am. John immediately felt more relaxed as we now had no deadlines until early April and were able make our way in our own time.

Northern France had suffered from snowfall in the previous week and the fields were white as we travelled south but the roads were clear and there was little traffic. We waved to Marquise as we passed by thinking of Richard and Nadine (Emilie’s family) who we would be meeting for first time on our return trip in May.

After a few years away from France the journey reminded me of how heavily the country relies on its agriculture and the large open fields of this part of the country are are showing signs of the crops that will grow over the coming months. The other thing that comes home is the number of woods (hunting?) there are and how well the whole countryside is managed. All through the journey we see neatly pruned forest, fruit and ornamental trees in country, town and village and neat piles of wood cut and split ready for drying and burning. Everything seems well kept and it is almost as though each task has had to be completed by the same date.

After lunch amongst the trees of the Forest de Crécy we drove across the valley of the Somme and were reminded again of the history that links England and France.

Late afternoon found us a free overnight stop 150 miles south on the banks of the Seine at Mailleraye, just down stream from Rouen. We were the only users of the municipal aire which offered flat ground and a great view of the river and the cargo boats sailing down stream to catch the evening tide. The weather had improved during the day and the clear skies had given us sunshine brought frost. Still the central heating performs well and we are warm.

A grey and atmospheric river greeted us on Wednesday morning and John’s cold which has been threatening for almost two years finally starts. We are aiming to reach Limoges for the night and opt for the “Péage” to provide easy driving and good speeds. We breeze past Paris via Versailles and see more wooded and forested areas and eventually reach the area of a “mille etangs” where the road runs through areas of lakes and ponds.

The weather continues wet and cold, but we make good progress and arrive at the planned stop, a municipal camp site n the middle of nowhere, at about 16:30 to find ourselves the only ones there and the site definitely closed. A damp night amongst the pines with John’s feverish cold getting worse is not what we want and so decide to push on to another site at Fleurat about half an hour away where we are again the only campers but are greeted by an Englishman. He and his wife had left the UK six years before and have not been. Living the good life on twenty four acres in “Scotland with the warmth” they have a campsite, a fishing lake, sheep, ducks and hens they and are enjoying life. Having just heard that they have got planning permission to convert a barn into a house they can look forward to moving out of the caravan that has so far been home.

It is a beautiful site where John can finally retire to bed to spend the next fourteen hours sleeping off his cold.