This has been a lovely, peaceful and isolated stop. We fell asleep to owls hooting last night and are woken by the cockerel this morning. The temperature is down to 14C but once the sun shows it face around 08:00 the cabin warms up quickly. The River Aisne is flowing quickly but the surface is like a mirror until the first of the day's barges rumbles past. Although we intend to cover a good bit of ground today it's such a pleasant place we linger here until...

We sleep soundly and are woken only by the first of the workmen's trucks arriving at 08:00. Ali pulls down a blind and discovers all of Champagne has been stolen in the night, but gradually over breakfast the mist lifts and we start to see the scenery that was there when darkness fell last night. It's clear and sunny when we leave at 11:00 but the temperature is an autumnal 14C. Today we are going to follow part of the Champagne Route Touristique, mostly...

We are woken briefly by the milk lorry going up the lane at 04:00 and again at 06:30 by machinery in the barn but soon sleep again after the new noise has registered. Ali arranged to see the animals at 09:00 so we are up and ready before then. At 08:45 all the machinery stops and it is peaceful while we eat breakfast, using the milk that was delivered last night. What a taste! It's as thick and rich as what we would usually have as single cream, by the time...

This little campsite is so quiet and peaceful that we don't wake until 08:00 and it's another 40 minutes before we begin to stir ourselves. Over breakfast we look at the ferry timetables Ali downloaded last night and choose our route home. Ali phones the Camping and Caravanning Club and books us overnight from Cherbourg on 8th, exactly six weeks after we sailed from Plymouth. Then we get out some maps and plan the next two nights' stopovers. We abandon th...

Today we planned on taking a ferry across the lake to the island of Mainau, famous for its botanical gardens. We are up in good time and head into the town to buy tickets for the 10:10 ferry. Yesterday when we made our enquiries the desk was manned by a very helpful chap with excellent English, this morning we are not quite greeted by Frau Ichnichlichenglisch, and we are the second group of English in the queue. OK, we're in a foreign country and have no rig...