News from Doris - The Roving Reporter
- April 2022

Bonjour my friends,

Yes, once more I've broken the border and am in France! It's the first time we've headed over since Covid and the first proper time since Brexit. As a result I had to pay for an Animal Health Certificate, a stonking £250 and 17 pages long. Once we had it though things were very smooth. We travelled on the Shuttle through the tunnel as usual and a new pre-France pet reception has been built. The staff were very friendly and all my paperwork was fortunately in order. 

We stayed the first night in the motorhome stop in Calais. It's built on the site of the 'jungle', the old refugee camp in Sangatte, the irony of it now being a carpark for expensive motorhomes is not lost on us. It always makes Elaine feel sad and the new problems in Ukraine only heighten that. 

Next up was Lac D'Orient, a large lake in Champagne-Ardenne. It's a beautiful huge lake with a nice safe car park to pitch up in overnight. Around 20 vans were there, Dutch, French and German, which was a surprise as the temperature was -4 degrees at night. Normally it's only us and the odd German out in those temperatures! 

Our third night was a in Villefranche-sur-Saone, a nice little campsite once you'd got through the confusing barrier. Buy a card from the machine (all in French), register said card, charge card with money (all on machine) and 30 minutes later after much arm waving and arguing it'll let you through the barrier. All fun! Oh and again, -4 at night. 

And finally, the next day we made it to our family in Montpellier, a lovely medieval town in the south of France. Obviously it was raining and cold but was wonderful to be reunited. My chariot came in very handy for jaunts around town, not only keeping me dry but making my sightseeing tres comfy! 

Right au revoir for now pals, I'm off for a snooze, then maybe Spain.... x 

Dozza x 

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