Last night was bitter cold, down to 4 degrees so we run the heating for a while before getting up. The tide is almost all the way in giving the estuary a very different look from yesterday. Canada geese and gulls float on the tiny incoming waves only 100 yards away and an endless stream of headlights arc across the bridge. Our plan was to go to visit Cognac and then onto a nearby passion, but with low grey skies and showers imminent we decide to drive s...

Cold but sunny this morning. Porridge for breakfast. This Passion has a service point so even though it's our first night the adage 'do it whenever you can' means we service the van before heading on our way. We pass alongside some more fields of stunted, black vines before joining the road to La Rochelle. At St Floeent-des-Bois we stop at a boulangerie for baguettes for lunch and the other side of the town the landscape changes to gentle rolling pastures. A...

It's still dark at 06:15 when the celtic strings music wakes us, and no lighter as we emerge from MV Armorique an hour later, although it's actually 08:15 in Euros. We stop for coffee at St Pierre de Plesguen from 09:30 to 10:00 and again near Bain de Bretagne for sandwich/baguettes at midday. From Rennes to Nantes it drizzles and rains most of the way. Just after 13:00 we leave the main roads and have about 8 miles through the vineyards to the France Pass...

We turn the key, fire Mary*Lou back to life after a couple months of inactivity and leave home at 15:45 making a short detour to Asda to fill with fuel. It's an uneventful ride to Plymouth with the odd bit of drizzle and across the Torpoint Ferry at 17:30. Although the tow bar scrapes on the ramp as usual, Michael's work to reposition the plug proves successful and it remains undamaged this time. We eat our pasties before check-in starts and are first in ...