Ashford to St Dizier

Up at 6.45 & away to Dover for the 9.25 P&O to Calais. Some concern that we'd miss though, as the queues at The Border Checkpoint were awful. Heightened security & a sign of things to come perhaps. They were estimating the delay at 90 mins, so I guess we were lucky to get through in about 45 mins. Got on the boat anyway!

A simple, but expensive breakfast on the boat. 😏

Out of Calais and into the A26 autoroute for about 1pm. We headed SE as the day warmed up rapidly. Pretty dull motorway work for the first 110 miles, then we dropped off onto the D1029 at St Quentin and headed for Laon; a very pretty mediaeval city perched on a big hill. Bought lunch at a Lidl and then picnicked a bit further up the road. 

A bit more autoroute past Reims to Chalons en Champagne. A couple more drink stops, because it was now 30 degrees! 

We finally got to the Ibis Hotel at St Dizier at just before 7pm. Got sorted and ate at the adjacent Grill.  Both had an unremarkable chicken salad, although the the wine was ok. 

Le Picnic: