The Paris trip at October half term came about after seeing an offer for Camping Sandaya Maisons Laffitte just outside of Paris, followed by some swift googling of ferry prices and the realisation that a week’s French fun could be had for under 500 nicker.

Stretching the week to the max was declined in favour of a less rushed easing in and out of the week, so there was no mad dash on Friday night, rather a slow meander on Saturday, with our first experience of an Aire before an early Sunday crossing.

Starbucks at Newport Pagnell services was an expensive yet amusing window in an otherwise grim stop off on the road south. 18 quidsworth of refreshments yielded the extent of over complication required when serving caffeinated drinks. Is KB really so difficult to spell?

We took the opportunity to adorn the van with Angles of Death warnings, despite not being entirely clear if they were necessary, but not a job either of us wanted to do in the rapidly approaching dark.

We weighed up 2 options for a stop off. Option A was a curry house 6 miles out of Dover that let’s you park in their car park overnight and option B was the Canterbury Park & Ride for 4-8 quid.

It was looking like a late arrival so we decided on the park and ride with a 25 minute dash in to Dover early doors.

It took a bit of finding in the dark, but straight forward once inside. A dedicated area for MHs, well lit, pretty much level. It had fresh water and plenty of space. We paid at the ticket machine until midnight and settled down after the tail end of some very wet and windy weather for a quiet night.

I checked the ticket machine in the morning and it wanted 4 quid before letting us out again. Fair enough. Left at 6.30, in Dover by 7.

We arrived at Dover with 8669 miles on the clock, expecting delays having checked DFDS twitter updates, but got bumped on to the 8am ferry instead of the 9.10, so we’re in France by 10.40 MMT.

Having been good, conscientious citizens we didn’t import food in to Europe 😇 and turned the gas off before getting on the ferry, so despite it being Sunday and French supermarkets being peevish we needed to stock up, so we headed to Auchan at Dunkerque with minutes to spare and spent 56 euro on provisions.

Fuel and tolls started to rack up, 100€ on diesel, 33,10€ at the péage. We stopped at Aire de Hautvilliers and had a bit of a detour scenario looking for where to park up for a snack and a leg stretch.

The rest of the drive seemed deadly long. We stuck on the A16 until we hit the N184 and from there just seemed to meander through endless backstreets, weirdly passing streets bearing names of youngsters we know.

The final approach to the campsite was a one way street which ended in a bridge over the Seine to the island where the campsite was located.

Booking in was a lengthy process which involved literature, wrist bands and passing security. Well, we were in the banlieue. Emplacement I11 was sandy (thankfully), grassy and not quite level. Lots of Brits, lots of Dutch and German, not many French. Shop, bar, pool, table tennis etc.

Drinks were dispensed, pizza snaffled and bread products ordered for the lendemain. Let’s begin.