Italy Here We Come

Taking our new home abroad for the first time proved an exciting experience. In the past, when towing a caravan we had always felt the need to plan ahead. All sites were carefully choreographed and safely recorded. Now we were determined to play to the obvious strengths of a motorhome and refuse to pre book. Well, almost! We booked a site on Lake Como, one in Verona and one in Venice - the rest we left to chance. May proved a good month to travel and there was a real sense of excitement as we drove down to our favourite CL outside Dover, Lenacre Court Farm, for an overnight prior to catching an early Sea France ferry. Sea France have grown on us in recent years. The food is good and the boat is clean and comfortable whilst we can usually also get the best deal.

Arriving in Calais at about 10am, we hit the road for our first overnight somewhere near Luxembourg. Having taken advice form other travellers, we took the autoroute to Dunkirk and headed down the A25 towards Lille. From Lille we joined the A23 to Valenciennes and turned east on the A2 to join the A7 traveling north of Charleroi. The A15 then took us north of Namur to join the A4 and once more head south towards Luxembourg. We really wanted to avoid toll charges whilst still maintaining a good average speed and this route proved excellent.
Our first site was Bon Accueil, near Hesperange south of Luxembourg. Excellent for an overnight stop, it was also well placed for us to rejoin the autoroute towards Mulhouse. Throughout our holiday we used Camping Card ACSI extensively and were never disappointed either with the excellent value or the consistent quality of the sites.
The following morning we were back on the road, keen to arrive at our second site near Mulhouse by mid afternoon. South of Luxembourge we joined the A31 south to Nancy. Here, we left the autoroute  and travelled down the N57. This proved a lovely run down the side of the Moselle past Epinal. North of Remiremont, we joined the N66 taking us to our next site at Cernay. Again, found in our Camping Card ACSI book, this municipal site, Municipal Les Acacias, was all we could have asked for. Very quiet out of season it is a large, spacious site within walking distance of the town centre. We soon learnt that Cernay is famous for its storks which were abundant nesting all around the site usually on high poles provided for their convenience.

The following morning we felt refreshed ready for the journey to our first booked site on the banks of Lake Como.