Bright sunny morning. We leave Blondel's yard at 10:30 and drive some of the 'Champagne Route Touristique' towards Verzany where a large wooden windmill stands high on a hill overlooking miles of fresh vines.

We continue through to the Somme region along the D903. The huge, flat pastures planted with barley and wheat waving in the wind, or fields of yellow rapeseed, belying the horrors and bloodshed of a century ago. We pass through villages with familiar names: Dommartin-Dampierre, Vericourt and Valmay, knowing the names but unable to recall the details of the history lessons. At Ste-Menehou the town square is dominated by a massive ginger-stone town hall with 1730 inscribed in the walls.

Near Verdun we stop by the roadside at one of the many cemeteries for a moment's reflection. There are around 4000 plain, stone crosses in military rank and file amidst a ring of trees. It is very peaceful and quite moving. The scene is repeated in a few places as we continue our journey.

At our lunch stop we watch buzzards hovering over the fields. The views extend for miles, interrupted only by single rows of trees along the ridges or at the edge of the road, but nearing Metz the open pasture turns to thicker woodland and we see the first animals since leaving Champagne.

It's busy driving through Metz, then after a few more miles of picturesque roads, during which place-names and buildings start looking more Germanic, we join the A6 motorway and head into Germany.

60 miles later we arrive at the Stelllplatz [camperstop] at a carpark in Kaiserslautern.

After we are parked Nick W notices a flat tyre on their van. He tries inflating it but is not hopeful that it will stay up.

Despite the frustration, we have a good evening with dinner being Grete's sausage casserole.