Today we drove to Deal, caught a train to Dover and walked 16km back along the cliffs. Our final walk before sailing to France tomorrow morning. Walk number 37.

Dover to Calais (no sound; just imagine screeching tyres or a Benny Hill soundtrack)

We survived a long day at Paris Disneyland.

A quick update.

After Disneyland we made our way to Versailles where we spent two days exploring the palace and grounds on the bikes. It's a magnificent place; so much so that I couldn't bring myself to take many photos. A lot of history.

We're really enjoying being back in France. There are so many places provided by local government where you can park overnight for free that it makes for easy exploring. Also, the baguettes are all perfect and cheap. We've been living off them for our lunches.

After Versailles we headed west to the Marne region where the world's champagne is made. We've been tootling around various villages and wineries as well as getting a bit of walking in. Bottles of brut are around the €17 mark from an independent maker.

Gave the van a good clean yesterday to get rid of the winter road muck we accumulated in UK. Looks nice and new again.

Today we head to Reims (throatily said, "heem").

This is pretty much what we have for lunch every day. A grain baguette for around €1.20 with whatever we have lying around in the fridge. In this case cream cheese, rocket, gherkins and lots of pepper. No matter where you are you can find a good baguette.

It's the time of the year for pruning the grape vines.

Camping-car waste dump and water facilities are commonplace all throughout France. It usually costs around €2 for 110L water or a couple of hours of electricity but dumping of waste and grey water is free. We had an incident a couple of days ago that I'm not emotionally ready to talk about just yet. Perhaps as the years go by we might see the funny side.

Reims

These dates from Tunisia are absolutely delicious.

Three days ago we stayed at and cycled around Lac de Madine. Lovely crisp, sunny winter day with lots of wildlife.

Prior to that we'd stayed a couple of nights at Pont à Mousson where we picked up a package from the local post office using Poste Restante! Last time I used that was in 1991 and it still works.

After Lac de Madine we stayed in the small town of Liverdun where madeleines originate. Delicate flavours.

Sally's computer was offered a glass of red wine which it refused. We took it apart, wiped everything down and by some miracle managed to get it back together and working. That slightly larger yellow container has 31 M1.5x2mm screws from the final stage of removing the keyboard.

Last night we stayed up at Lac Blanc in Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges heading over the hills into the Rhine valley. Bit of a treacherous icy 4km walk around the ridge and lake.

Last night we stayed in the Lac Blanc car park but the wind was buffeting the van around so much at 10pm that we decided to up sticks and drive down to the slightly more sheltered Lac Noir a couple of km down the road.

We woke up frozen this morning to find that we'd run out of LPG in the night. In winter time when we're off-grid our 22L tank only seems to last us about a week compared to a couple of months in the summer. The overnight heating really churns through the gas.

Today we drove down out of the mountains and popped in to Colmar for gas and to wander around its pretty streets. From there to the medieval town of Eguisheim where we're staying at a small winery and we'll treat ourselves to a dinner out tonight.

As soon as we arrived at our little France Passion spot in Eguisheim in the Alsace we were treated to a wine tasting. Even persuaded me to try the gewurztraminer. More wines for our van! A walk in to town was rewarded with storks nesting atop the buildings and a lovely cafe where we tried the local speciality of tarte flambe (very similar to a pizza) and sampled a lovely stout from the area.

Just something we drove past!