Oise

Soon after setting off today, we found a car wash with an extra tall bay especially for vans. After nearly 2 months of winter driving, Martha Motorhome was filthy. We hadn't seen any van washing facility in the UK, so were glad of the chance to spruce her up.

Avoiding the toll roads we cut through swathes of agricultural land. The new shoots of crops were faring well considering many of the fields were waterlogged and some of them submerged. As we travelled we passed (or were more often passed by) a number of British motorhomes. The more we saw, the more we felt we were part of a mass exodus to Spain. Neither of us being fond of crowds or tourist hotpsots, this thought filled us with some trepidation.

After topping up the van's reserves of food and fuel, we arrived at the small aire de service in Grandvillier's residential outskirts. It was a quiet spot with a couple of small greens nearby for Poppy. Will went exploring and managed to find some new pedals for the tandem, while Vicky got to work taking down decorations and rearranging storage boxes to accommodate our christmas influx. Evening came and we both went for a stroll around town. Being the 12th night, we'd not expected festive decorations but this town obviously likes their lights, as large illuminated globes were strung accross streets and the square was surrounded by purple and white lit cone trees. The wooden fence bordering the grounds of the old stone church was entwined with warm fairy lights and there was even a model chairlift going between the steeple and the large fir tree in the corner of the square. It was a delight to see.

We stayed 2 nights at Grandvillier. Vicky had caught a bug so it was good to be able to stop and rest. After a croissant for breakfast we set off once again towards Spain.Read more