At Sainte-Livière the sun rises after 7.00am now and it feels very cold. It is, it’s 6°C outside with brilliant sunshine slanting through the trees giving them an autumn copper hue all of their own. Inside it is only 12.6°C so the heating goes on and we make coffee. Soon it is warm and we sit and plan our route back to Calais: through Reims and then… north through Belgium or the west across the Somme, we choose the former. We always have mixed feeling about this stage of any trek in our motorhome, the memories of all the good things we have been able to experience are in our minds, but there is something calling to us and urging us back to familiar surroundings. The weather is cooling rapidly, mornings are cold and the nights are longer. Our regular activities – English Folk Dancing and American Square Dancing have been missed, it’s time to return.

We service Hymer, emptying tanks and filling with water and leave Ste Livière taking the road to Hautville. From here onto N4 a good road to Vitry and then N44 through Châlons en Champagne all the way to Reims. Instead of queueing to the way through the centre on A34/334 we are directed to a new road, a ring road around the massive new Europe commercial and shopping centre (and Ave de l’Europe). This was certainly not here the last time we came through Reims and it makes traversing the city to much easier. We leave the east side of the city on A34 to Rethel, and D946 north to the small town of Rozoy sur Serre. Here we find a super Aire, five serviced pitches (and one free for us) next to a walking route along the old, disused railway line: Terres des Rubans, all the way to Montcornet. The Aire is spacious, lots of green space and picnic tables, perhaps the only down side is the 1km walk to the village.

It is only 2.00p m so reluctantly we press on along our journey towards Calais (less miles to drive tomorrow). From Rozoy we take D977 to Brunehamel and D5 to Aubenton and D1043 to Hirson. D963 ring road and then D1043 takes town through l’Avesnois Regional Park and forest to Trelon, Liessies and Solre le Chateau (our destination). We see the distinctive church with its crooked spire in the centre of the town but the Aire is on the other side of the town.

Surprisingly we find the road through the town closed, with no warnings or ‘deviation’ signed. We also take a few wrong turns including turning down a narrow one-way street the wrong way! This was interesting as I had to get out and stop the traffic in both directions while Mr C. backed Hymer across the road to turn out of it! As we approach the town centre we see the cause of the disruption: a large vintage car and vehicle fair on the main square, La Grande Place in front of the church: Eglise St Pierre.

It is chaos with vehicles trying to drive through the town, a million people spilling out across the road, with old tractors and 1940s cars on display. We find the Aire (surprisingly with plenty of space) and park up. Walking back to the town we get a good view of the church spire with its definite lean and join the throng looking vacantly at all these old vehicles. The fair has a good atmosphere, lots of people milling around, eating, sitting out in the place and drinking. We seek the quiet sanctuary of the church and note how the spire is slowly tearing itself away from the main body of the church. Large cracks are propped up at roof level with scaffolding and acro-props. Damage caused by the ingress of water shows in many places, we reflect that repairing a building like this church is a very costly undertaking, no doubt beyond the means of the people who now support it.

Back at the Aire de Camping Cars at Solre le Chateau we open a bottle of Fitou and enjoy stirf-ry chicken as the sun sets behind the trees.