After The Chef came back from the Truckstop shop armed with a soft albino-looking baguette, we partly filled the fuel tank and slipped back on to the toll road. I think the journey to Amiens took about one and a half hours, most of it in rain showers.

So now we're camped at Camping Le Parc des cygnes (GPS: N49.920610˚ E2.259655˚) on the outskirts of the city. It's nothing special and didn't get very good revues for its toilet facilities, but there's nothing else available, so it will have to do us.

Having set up, with our front drive wheels still on the tarmac to ensure we don't get bogged down on the wet grass, we went out for a walk in to the local community. Just down the road we crossed over the River Somme, and a lock under the bridge. I'm sure this bridge and river could tell some tales of the past as Amiens was involved in both World Wars.

The purpose of our walk was to identify the bus stops we would need to use in order to get in to Amiens tomorrow. If we wanted the hourly service it was dead easy as the bus stops were right outside the campsite, but if we wanted the ten-minute service then it was further down the road over the river and past the small Bio power station.

Having found the correct bus stop we popped in to a small local store to find a Pakistani gentleman behind the counter who had just returned from a trip to London to see a friend and spoke to me in perfect English. Anyhow, two bottles of red paint stripper later we made our way back 'home'. Once here I wound up the laptop and booked us a crossing home on Le Shuttle for Saturday evening. All the crossings during the day were fully booked, so by travelling later we save a load of money, but it means we get home about mid-night if we're lucky.

Since returning we have been entertained by the antics of fellow motorhomers who arrive and then faff about sorting out a pitch. We even had a member of the 'French Caravan Club for the Confused' who was driving around between pitches with his habitation door locked open and his roof mounted automatic satellite dish swivelling round and round trying to lock on to a satellite. He parked in three different pitches within our section having appeared from another round the corner, and has now disappeared back somewhere round there again, presumably to watch TV or await the arrival of the men in white coats armed with a large butterfly net.

So tomorrow is to be our last full day, and we're going to try to get away in good time, though right now it's raining again and tomorrow isn't going to be too special, though it should remain dry.

WEDNESDAY 25-09-19

I hardly slept a wink last night having read that poor Prince Harry sometimes has a job getting out of bed in the mornings, so weighed down with the problems of the world is he. Let's be honest, unlike his brother, who will make a fine King in the future, Ginger's life has been one long 'gap year'. Imagine, when you want to play soldiers - Grandmama lets you go and play in her very own army, and when you want to pretend to be a helicopter pilot, Grandmama can arrange for you to indulge yourself to train at taxpayer's expense, and when you want to dress up in uniform with lots of medals and sit on a horse, then Grandmama can offer you an extensive wardrobe of uniforms and medals to choose from.

Perhaps he could give up that Windsor Castle home the taxpayers spent millions of pounds 'upgrading', and instead spend a year living with his new family in one-roomed emergency accommodation, living on state benefits and shopping at food banks to help get the poor lad's life in to some sort of perspective. Ginger, you and the wife ain't gonna save the world and you've already been upstaged by Climate Change's new messiah Greta Thunberg who at only sixteen years of age has figured out a really good way of skipping school. I think it can only be a matter of time before they move to LA and stage their own Cable TV 'Harry & Megan Show'.

Still after today I feel some kind of empathy with young Ginger.

It rained off and on during the night at our Truckstop and we awoke to yet another cool, grey day. Our spirits were to be lifted by a nice hot shower despite the drain blockage. I even got partly dressed so that I could pop out and place the levelling blocks under the front wheels in order to facilitate better drainage towards the back of the vehicle.

Our first nasty surprise was when I put the co-ordinates for the Camperstop we were heading for in Reims in to the satnav and it informed us it was something like 400km, and five and a half hours driving away. We hadn't given that too much thought, but looking back, given that we were in Italy only yesterday morning then yes, we would need to do a bit of mileage.

Scrubbed up and fed, The Chef wandered over to the shop for a baguette whilst I made the vehicle ready for the road, including backing up to the dump station and lightening the load.

We didn't get away until about 10:00, so much for having a look around Amiens this afternoon. Onward we went mile after mile, through persistent rain and heavy showers. At about 16:00 we arrived in a very busy Reims, though thankfully we managed to keep on the move. At the barrier entrance to the Camperstop (GPS: N49.250084 E4.021804) The Chef went to look for somebody to let us and, and while I waited somebody came out in a car causing the barrier to rise and in I went.

There are only seven parking spaces in this Aire, or Camperstop, and when we arrived at the parking area there were...er... eight motorhomes. A German had parked where he shouldn't have, and when he arrived back at his vehicle while I was manoeuvring I asked him if he was leaving, but no, he was staying and spending the night there. Due to his selfish parking it was really difficult to turn the vehicle round, but once I had succeeded we were back out in to the busy traffic heading out of town towards Amiens. According to the satnav that was another two and a half hours away, and I told The Chef there was no way I was doing that amount of driving having mentally switch off thinking I was done for the day.

So here we are on yet another Truckstop for the night, looking to drive to a campsite on the edge of Amiens about fifty miles away tomorrow. We'll stay there for a couple of nights because tomorrow is going to be wet, and Friday dry and reasonable. Then on Saturday, to Calais and home. There's just no point in prolonging this trip, I have to be back home by Monday at the very latest anyway, and we have decided we won't be coming over this way again during September. I hadn't realised just how busy it would be with motorhomers, but I suppose they're all doing what we're doing - waiting until the kids are back at school and then setting off to enjoy one last good break before winter sets in.

Tonight's DVD entertainment may well be another episode or two of 'Fleabag' series one. We watched two of them last night, and agreed that if we hadn't already seen series two on TV then after one episode, two max, that would have been it - binned.

I trust poor Ginger and the family are coping out there in Africa with their nanny and entourage, on their self-promotional photo-shoot while we all learn to cope with our situations back here.

TUESDAY 24-09-19

Optimistically I put my shorts and sandals on this morning before stepping out of the vehicle. Within twenty minutes having done some chores ready to move off, I put my trousers and shoes on - it was another cool cloudy day.

Our intension was to firstly drive further round the lake heading north to check out the next Camperstop, and if we liked it we'd park up for a day or so, and if not then we'd head towards home.

Having bought a baguette from the Carrefour supermarket down the road, filled up with water and dumped everything, we were on our way.  The Camperstop in Maccagno-Agro (GPS: N46.039817˚ E8.735670˚) was only about four miles away and turned out to be just a large hard-standing area with no facilities and few motorhomes. It backed on to the grandstand of the community football stadium, such as it was. We climbed out for a look down at the lake's edge, and it didn't take our breath away. There was also a campsite there, Camping Lido, right down by the edge of the lake, and so we went to take a look. It was as if somebody had put a flock of starving sheep in there for a fortnight such was the lack of grass on the pitches and abundance of dirt. There was no way we were going to spend our money paddling around in mud when the rain came.

So it was back to the vehicle for an early lunch and a mull over the maps and books, before deciding that we wouldn't now bother with Luxembourg, since we knew nothing about the place, but would certainly not rule out passing through it at some time in the future. Instead we would make for Reims where they make champagne, and where we'd identified a Camperstop on the edge of town. After that we would try and find somewhere to park up in Amiens, for another quick visit on the way towards Calais.

As we pulled away I spotted a poster stuck to the back of the grandstand advertising an open air concert in the stadium starring none other than ''Sister Philma Creviss and The Teasers', the Vatican's very own girl band. No doubt they'll be performing their recent big hit 'Treat Me Rough'. It looks as if this Italian tour is being promoted by the Holy See - the Pope's optician.

So that was it, a job of work to do heading towards Strasbourg en-route to Reims, and we'd see how far we got.

Fortunately just as we crossed in to Switzerland along the lakeside road we came across a petrol station selling diesel at around €1.50 a litre, so we topped up and continued north across Switzerland. To use their motorways you have to buy a vignette for about £33, which is valid for a whole year which is good value given the high standard of their roads, but not such good value if you're only crossing the country, top to bottom the once. We managed to cross it on just a quarter of a tank of fuel, so big it ain't.

Tonight we parked up at a Truckstop about thirty miles from Strasbourg. I've made a point of parking the vehicle so that we should be able to have a shower in the morning and have the water drain  away downhill and in to the one functioning shower tray drain hole.

Needless to say it's raining and we're having a problem getting a WiFi signal, so hopefully things will improve later. As The Chef said a few days ago "This is not our best trip", and I had to agree with her.