After a smooth but wet crossing on DFDS Seaways we arrived in Dunkirk at 1pm (French Time). The dogs were fine in the car during the 2 hour crossing and seemed very happy to see us returning to the car.

The problems started upon disembarking the ferry! Firstly I was unable to get internet connection on my phone! Resulting in my Waze App ( Sat Nav ) not working! Even the back up TomTom was unable to locate are location due to no satellites in range! We played follow the leader, whilst frantically on the phone to Three network trying to resolve the problem. Thanks to Three we were back up and running in no time, but the line of traffic we were following obviously weren't going the same way as us, hence taking us off course by a few miles!

Once we were on the A26 we made a fuel stop and gave the dogs a quick toilet break. Once back in the car we then got dirty wet dog paw prints on our clean clothes. By this time my blood pressure was going through the roof. At least the kids had fallen asleep in the back.

During the following 200 miles we drove through torrential rain, thunderstorms and gale force winds! It dried up around Troyes, so we stopped for a snack and to stretch our legs. We were impressed to find that dogs were allowed into the service station with us, we are finding France very pet Friendly. We ended up arriving at the the Hotel Balladins in Dijon at 20:15, just 45 mins behind schedule. Absolutely exhausted!