Starting the trip back always elicits mixed emotions.

Planning brings with it that sense of anticipation and the ‘itchy feet feeling’ to get on the road. Anticipation is tempered with a sadness that the trip is over. Then there’s excitement to be heading back to family, friends and Christmas, knowing that we can always come back.

The journey starts, throwing you into the unknown. It has the energy and trepidation that comes with going somewhere new and not knowing what you’ll find there.

The journey itself is never from A to B. There’ll be surprises on the way bringing a whirlwind of feelings and that, of course, is part of the reason we travel.

Leaving Tuscany

With the storm raging around our Volterran hide out, we make our plans for our route north. Originally, I wanted to see the picturesque towns of Cinque Terre and then Genoa on the way along the coast. Alas the coat tails of Storm Ciaran brings high winds and rain sweeping into our path from the Ligurian Sea.

The twisty route out to the coast takes us to La Spezia. The simple but clean and tidy aire here is in the port and it’s great to see the sea again. The sea front of La Spezia is a half hour walk away but at the halfway point, the heavens open and by the time we get back to Beatrix, all three of us are drenched to the bone – Merlin is not amused!

We’re so close to Cinque Terre here and the billboards offer us trains, boats or scooters to reach the UNESCO World Heritage site. Unfortunately there’s no let up in the rain and sadly we’ve just run out of days on this trip. One for next time.

The next night, our last in Italy, we find ourselves at the stunning seaside sosta at Santo Stefano al Mare. On the approach the wind has really gotten up and is gusting at 50mph. This makes driving a bit hairy to say the least. The sosta itself is in a fantastic location and right on the seafront and we watch the angry sea crashing against the seawall. Well, we do for a while until the windows become completely covered in salt from the spray.

France then on to the UK

To reach Le Tunnel on time, we have a few long driving days ahead of us. The wind has dropped and our route takes us back into France past Monaco, Cannes and Nice. Although it’s not in the mountains, the coast road is in the foothills. As the valleys open up we catch glimpses of the clear turquoise sea out to our left. It’s really inviting and takes all of our willpower not to head back to the campsite we loved in Cannes.

Fuelled by fresh croissants from a lovely bakery in La Val, we head north to a cracking little stop called Aire de la Grappa in the town of Orange, famous of course for it’s duck.

We’ve decided to balance our trip back to Calais with a mixture of toll and non-toll roads. This means the drive up to Beaune the next day is much easier on the A7 but it still takes us 7 hours with stops.

We know Beaune pretty well now and it’s so comfortable arriving back at the town centre Aire. Sadly, the rain has returned and it cancels our planned glass of wine in town. Still, we’re able to replenish Beatrix’s cellars from the Carrefour next door.

Next day is a non toll day and we’re going to check out Chablis for the first time.

Our hearts are in our mouths for the second half of the journey as the dreaded Engine Warning light and beeping starts after the lunch. Engine Failure 0139 appears to be related to the Throttle Valves but doesn’t seem to affect us driving other than providing an annoying flashing light and beeping noise. On arrival at the campsite, I disconnect the battery and restart it to find with relief that the fault has cleared.

Will we make it to Calais?

Chablis is a very pretty little town, even in the rain, and well worth a visit. We’ll plan to come back here and hope for better weather when we do.

Our anxiety eases the next morning as we pull out with no reoccurrence of the red light. Kilometer by kilometer our confidence grows that we’ll be ok.

Today we’re stopping close to Merlin’s vets in Ay (Epernay) so that we’re ready for her appointment the day after. As we arrive at the little river side park up we used 2 years ago, we find ‘No Motorhome’ signs blanket the banks. The towns Aire is being rebuilt and whilst it looks like it will be fantastic, we can’t use it today.

Plan B.

Instead we try the nearby town of Avize and it’s town centre Aire. We’re really in the heart of champagne country here and on the way we drive past the enormous, sprawling, space age facility of Moet & Chandon.

It’s Sunday and Avize is really quiet. Exploring the town, we’re excited to find that Veuve Clicquot and Moet & Chandon have old warehouses here to gather and store grapes from the surrounding hillsides. Presumably they’re one of several that are used to triage the harvest before they’re combined at the space port.

Our night is restless. We’re a long way from level and an early morning bin lorry wakes us all up and we can’t get back to sleep. We decide on an early get away.

Happily, Merlin receives the stamp of approval from the vet and we make our way to Arleux as our staging area before Calais. It’s a super little Aire beside the river run by the local community and provides water, electricity and a drain. As we’re out of season it turns out to be free too!

The weather has made the final part of our journey through northern France really hard work. Driving rain and high, gusting wind makes it a constant balancing act to keep Beatrix pointing in the right direction. Although the motorways allow us to move more quickly, the effect of the weather is much stronger. By the time we reach the Calais terminal, I’m exhausted and very grumpy.

The rain is still lashing down as we check Merlin in for the train but Sally cheers me up with a big bag of sweets from Duty Free.

The end of the Grand Tour still has a mixture of emotions.

We can’t help but feel a bit sad with this wet and miserable end of our trip. Only a week ago we were wearing shorts and t-shirts in 22c and now there’s a thick, low mist and it’s 5c. There’s more rain to come as we arrive back in the UK but we’re returning with a long list of happy memories having packed so much in to the last 10 weeks.

Oh, to be back in Italy.

We hope you enjoyed coming with us on our Grand Tour,

Sally, Toby and Merlin x