We have just spent the last few days travelling south. We had a couple of nights at a lovely campsite at Géraudot on the Lac d’Orient and Lac d’Auzon Temple near to Troyes. The two bright turquoise, man-made lakes, supply the water for Paris.

Camping Les Rives du Lac is a basic but friendly campsite in a stunning location. We arrived just after lunch and immediately set off on bikes following a cycle track round the Lac d’Temple with Penny and Colin running alongside and in the dogcart when they got tired.

The next day, Wednesday, we set off in the opposite direction following a cycle path to Troyes. Colin and Penny again running some of the way then riding in the cart when they needed a rest. The scenery was beautiful, through the Forêt d’Orient, round the lake and alongside a canal. That is until we came to the outskirts of the city of Troyes and the cycle path stopped. We re-fueled with a coffee at a very friendly café, and then set off to brave the traffic and attempt an assault on the city centre but the roads were horrendous and seriously scary, so we decided to abandon the city and return to the cycle paths. It was wonderful to get back onto the quiet and picturesque cycle paths and bowl along enjoying the sunshine. PJ got the opportunity to practice his French on several friendly locals. It was a round trip of 37 miles.

We left the caravan club site at Folkestone (reasonably) early to check in for the ferry crossing.

Penny and Colin are now old sea dogs and take a ferry crossing in their stride. They have their pet passports ready at check in and always like to get out for a last minute stroll round the quayside. They were particularly pleased this morning because a very nice Belgian lady, returning from Crufts dog show with her Shih Tzu asked if Penny and Colin were travelling home from Crufts as well. Colin thinks he’d like to be a show dog, he suspects it involves biscuits.

Anyway … I digress… we left Dover in beautiful warm sunshine and arrived in Dunkerque in thick fog, which fortunately cleared as we headed south.

Now when I mentioned a bit of French Passion in the title to this post you may have thought that Jennings has been getting a bit carried away. I can reassure you that this is an altogether different ‘French Passion’. Passions are farms and vineyards that allow motorhomes to stay with them free of charge in the hope of flogging their produce.

We stayed at Luzoir, north of Laon with a Charcuterie and bought an enormous chunk of paté de champagne for €5.

11^th March near Folkestone

This evening we shared a bottle or two of Pinot Grigio with Arthur and Joan at Black Horse Caravan Club Site near Folkestone. They, like us, are heading to France in the morning.

Joan wandered over from the motorhome ‘next door’ and asked Peter if “he could help her fiancé get onto the internet” and as Peter left she told me “I thought he looked like he would know how to work a computer” (???).

The computer problems were quickly sorted and before long Arthur and Joan were in Mavis and what an interesting couple they turned out to be.

As they both approach the age of 80, they are en-route to Charente, house hunting. They are selling their respective homes in Shropshire to move to France to live. Next month, they are getting married – fourth time for Joan, (on the subject of changing husbands; advised me to “Always move upwards”) – who will be walking down the aisle to ‘The arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ when she ties the knot with Arthur a retired Red Arrows pilot.

10^th and 11^th March

We had a very pleasant drive down through the Cotswolds to arrive in Alresford, Hampshire in brilliant warm sunshine. We parked Mavis on the drive of my brother Paul and his wife Nel’s house

We had a lovely walk with Paul, Nel and their boys Harry and George, through the picturesque market town and along the river to the pub where we sat in the garden and relaxed with a glass of wine.

We returned to the same pub in the evening for an excellent dinner. The dark chocolate cup filled with coffee mousse and served with white chocolate ice cream was amazing and was washed down very nicely with a couple of bottles of Pinot Noir, a perfect evening.

We drove down to the village of Broadway, in the Cotswolds, and stopped overnight in the caravan site here. It is located in a defunct GWR (Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway) station so there are sidings, old rolling stock and other geeky items scattered about.

We are about to set off on another of our jaunts in Mavis the motorhome. This time we’re going to head south through eastern France in search of some sun.

Colin the blogging border terrier – a legend in his own lunchtime – asked us to set up this blog so that he can add his comments to ours and give you a dogs perspective.

Peter and Nia will also be adding the occasional comments.