France & Spain October 2025 - The End

October 22nd

Today was Reggie's trip to the vet for his worming pill and passport signed up.

But first we had to get away from Veuzain sur Loire to head up towards Chartres and then Rouen.

The choice was to go to Blois and then north or diagonally north-west to Vendôme and onto the N10.

TomTom chose the Vendôme route. It was a little frustrating again as this section of the N10 chops and changes from single lane 80kph to the 90kph two lane "overtaking" sections that are so short it's still hard to overtake anything.

Still, we arrived in Buchy for the 4pm vet appointment at just after 2pm. We parked in the Carrefour Market. It's not far to the vets from there.

We did a little shopping and then had lunch before a rest up. Then go the vets.

Fifteen minutes and €36.80 later we were back at the van.

We decided to go to the Camping-Car Park aire at Incheville for the night. I had toyed with going straight to Calais Camping-Car Park but Google Maps showed it was around 100 miles.

With Storm Benjamin almost on us, it seemed two nights in the way of the storm would be a bit much.

As it was, Incheville is not that far inland and the wind hit along with heavy rain. To be fair it has rained heavily at times since we crossed into France through the Somport Tunnel!!

Saint-Léon sure Vézère? Tick
Oradour-sur-Glane? Tick
Veuzain-sur-Loire? Tick

So why would Incheville be any different?

The park up is near some lakes and is mostly flat and quiet. The wind got up and we spent some of the night listening to the wind and rain.

October 23rd

A not so long drive up to Calais. We didn't rush. When you touch into a Camping-Car Park aire you get either five hours, perfect for a rest or to use the service area, ir twenty-four hours. As we didn't have to leave Incheville until 5pm we didnt hurry ourselves.

We did the services as we left and headed back to the A28 to Abbeville. Rather than the boring D901 aka the old N1, we chose the A16 toll motorway.

We paid our annual visit to the Aire De La Baie De Somme on the A16. Storm Benjamin was still blowing a gale. Whilst I got us both a coffee in Starbucks (!), Claire made sandwiches.

Then it was back on the A16 north. At Isques there was an obligatory exit for HGV and motorcycles. Between here and Boulogne is a notoriously windy viaduct way up high and they were making vehicles avoid it. We decided to go that way.

In the end we arrived at the aire. Plenty of space and we ended up in pitch 92. There are 102 here.

Once setup we headed out for a walk to look for the beach . It's not that far and we emerged through an alley to see the closed carousel in front.

The storm had abated a little and DFDS were running so we guessed that Irish Ferries would be running the following day...

October 24th

A pretty peaceful night. I was up with Reggie a couple of times from around 6am as he cried to go out. On one occasion there were a few vans packing up to go. Too early for me.

Home day. We were up at around 8am and planned to be away at 11am to get all the jobs done and get to the port in good time, should there be any holdups through passports and customs...

Checking in with Irish was really simple. French passport was simple. Quick. Efficient. No queue. My UK passport stamped as usual. Claire's Irish passport checked in the machine.

As usual. UK passports. Slow. Longer queues... Oddly we didn't get stopped to see if we had any stowaway or if the gas checked.

The Oscar Wilde is a former P&O vessel and the "pet den" is the old pet lounge. It's generally comfortable and the crossing passed quickly enough. Reggie was a little clingy wanting to sit on us, which is something he rarely does. The crossing bought in Euros and cost £23 less than P&O, so I suppose no free coffee was to be expected!

The last 14 miles of the trip passed easily and we were soon on the drive. Time to clear all the boxes from the back of the van.

Another holiday over. Where next?