��������

We arrived at our place in Lunigiana after a slow drive through France and three nights camping. Despite the slow journey we arrived zonked and we haven't been out of our garden since arriving three days ago. Our first night in a tent was at a site a few miles from Calais. It was fine; spotless and no Brits anywhere. Just French, Dutch and German. Two other nights were spent in Alsace, at a clean, grassy, well organised municipal campt site. VALUE. We paid 10 euros per night for ourselves, the car and our tent. We had a large private space with a view of trees and flowers, and a neat gravel track for the car. The showers were in small unobtrusive blocks a minute away and I had no problem using them as there seemed to be an understanding that each person left facilities as they'd like to find them. One thing, in a municipal site, you need to take toilet paper and soap when making a loo call, although this did not apply in the private site we stayed in at Calais, Calais was our first night camping and we got the tent up before the rain poured down - quite romantic in a Basil Fawlty kind of way!Our next stop was in the Alsace - what a lovely area. Pretty villages full of beamed houses dripping flowers. We used the Colmar tunnel instead of going over the pass and when we came out into daylight, the sun was shining and the temperature had soared. And there was our campsite waiting for us.Tomorrow is market day here in Italy, so we will venture out from our sunny garden cocoon to go and buy some salad and veg and have a coffee amongst the crowds. We haven't entirely lived on the freezer since arrival; neightbours dropped off some of their produce from the ortos. Wonderful ...........