Many years of planning and talking about a tour of Europe in a motorhome has brought us to this exact moment when with a mixture of excitement and apprehension we are finally on our way.

It is a short distance between our home in Bournemouth and the ferry port of Poole, with light traffic for a Monday morning, albeit quite early – we arrive and board the Brittany Ferry without a hitch.

The crossing with Brittany Ferry from Poole to Cherbourg along the cold waters of the English Channel also known as Canal De La Mancha took us about four hours of a reasonably pleasant crossing.