Sometimes, when you're travelling around Europe in a motorhome, you have to accept that not every day is going to be packed with sightseeing, adventures and exciting things to report.
And Day 4 was definitely one of those days!
Day 4 – Doing Absolutely Nothing!
After the previous few days of travelling and exploring, we decided to have a proper lazy day on the campsite at Colombier.
And by lazy, I mean properly lazy.
We didn't really do anything.
We went for a decent walk through the forest, which, once again, was absolutely beautiful. There's something about being surrounded by nature that just feels incredibly liberating. I seem to have got that word stuck in my head on this trip because it really does describe how we've been feeling.
We walked through the forest, enjoyed the peace and quiet, came back to the motorhome and generally did... well... not much!
Dinner was chicken skewers again, although there was a slight problem.
Apparently, I hadn't learnt from the previous night's cooking disaster.
The chicken skewers went on, things started heating up and before long, they had basically caught fire.
They were cremated.
Suzanne they were alright.
I disagreed.
I hadn't trimmed the oil and fat off properly from the night before, and it all caught fire. So, another successful evening in the Touring Ideas kitchen!
Other than that, Day 4 was simply about relaxing, enjoying the campsite and getting ourselves ready for the next part of the journey.
And sometimes that's exactly what you need.
Day 5 – Across France
Today we packed up and hit the road again.
Our aim was to make our way across France, heading towards the French-Swiss border, and according to the map, we're now pretty much in the middle of France.
We've been tracking the whole journey using Polarsteps, which has turned out to be a brilliant way of keeping track of where we've been and the route we've taken.
It also makes you realise just how far you're travelling when you actually see the journey plotted out.
We stuck to one of our travelling rules today too – no more than six hours of driving.
That's plenty for one day in a motorhome.
We also made our first fuel stop of the trip. We're getting somewhere around 400 miles from a tank, although we're driving a little slower than we might normally do, so that obviously helps.
Fuel isn't exactly cheap either. We found Super U was around €2.05 a litre, which is more expensive than we're used to paying back in Britain.
Still, you've got to keep the wheels turning!
When Fiction Meets Reality
One of the slightly surreal moments of the day came while we were listening to our audiobook.
We're currently listening to Ken Follett's Jackdaws, and as we were driving through France, we suddenly found ourselves approaching a small town called Le Châtre.
And guess what?
Le Châtre is mentioned in the book.
As the characters were being dropped off there in the story, we were actually entering the town ourselves.
It was one of those bizarre travel moments where fiction and reality suddenly collide.
We're trying to finish the book while we're travelling, so it was a particularly good coincidence.
A Quick Stop for the Dogs
We also stopped for some food and did a bit of shopping at Aldi before continuing our journey.
Along the way, we passed through another medieval town and decided to pull over alongside the river.
Naturally, this was an opportunity that Frankie and Tilley couldn't possibly miss.
The girls got to have a proper swim in the river, with us throwing sticks in for them to chase.
They were absolutely loving it.
The locals, on the other hand, seemed to find the whole thing rather entertaining!
By the time we reached our stopping point, the dogs were pretty tired. We took them out for a quick walk and they were soon ready to collapse for the evening.
We're currently staying at a free motorhome parking area, which is perfect for what we need tonight.
We'll have a quiet evening, finish listening to Jackdaws and get ready for another big day tomorrow.
Are We Falling Behind?
We're now five full days into the trip and, looking at the route ahead, we're starting to realise that our original four-week itinerary might need a little bit of tweaking.
The map makes everything look reasonably close together.
It isn't!
Croatia, in particular, is starting to look a little further away than we originally thought.
That's one of the realities of travelling this way. You can plan everything on a map, but once you're actually driving the distances, things look very different.
So we may have to rejig a few destinations as we go.
That's not necessarily a bad thing though.
Part of the fun of travelling in a motorhome is being able to change the plan when you need to.
Tomorrow – Into the Forest
Tomorrow we're heading towards the Forêt de Tronçais, which has been recommended to us as somewhere worth visiting.
We'll head down towards Moulins and then continue towards the French-Swiss border.
It's going to be another fairly big driving day – around the 200-mile mark – so we'll see how we get on.
For now, though, that's Day 4 and Day 5 wrapped up.
Day 4?
Did absolutely diddly squat.
Day 5?
Drove across France, went shopping, walked the dogs, stopped at a few medieval places and discovered we'd accidentally driven into the setting of our audiobook.
Not exactly the most action-packed couple of days...
…but that's motorhoming.
Sometimes it's about exploring somewhere new.
Sometimes it's about driving through beautiful countryside.
Sometimes it's about letting the dogs swim in a river.
And sometimes it's about sitting outside the van with a beer and doing absolutely nothing.
And we're quite happy with that!
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