Monday 7th September 2026
With our glorious long hot summer days coming to an end, or shortening anyway, I decided to chase the fading rays from the orange ball in the sky and head off across the English Channel for some French charm, and maybe some wine and cheeses.
Destination isn't certain yet, as usual I'll follow the weather to try and keep a comfortable warm and sunny vibe, hopefully without anything too extreme.
With our glorious long hot summer days coming to an end, or shortening anyway, I decided to chase the fading rays from the orange ball in the sky and head off across the English Channel for some French charm, and maybe some wine and cheeses.
Destination isn't certain yet, as usual I'll follow the weather to try and keep a comfortable warm and sunny vibe, hopefully without anything too extreme.
Plan A is to head south through central France with some overnight stops planned for lakesides, rivers and in some pretty villages, eventually arriving in Lac d' Annecy.
We came here a few years ago and I loved the Alpine scenery of the area and the lake is just beautiful with clear turquoise waters and a backdrop of mountains.
We stayed close to the medieval town of Annecy last time, which is very pretty, but my main recollection is it was incredibly expensive.
This time I plan to stay well out of town and have a few days on a lakeside pitch hopefully and get my kayak out on the lake for a paddle.
I'll visit the town for a couple of hours no doubt, but take a bottle of water to consume avoiding the tourist premium prices 😀
The ferry is booked for Wednesday, so I've got a bit of time for a leisurely drive south to Newhaven.
Today I've arrived at a little village called Sherfield on Loddon, Hampshire, near to Basingstoke and about 40 miles west of London.
It a nice little place which I'll explore later.
Exploration done, and it's a sleepy village with a common, a duck pond and a cricket pitch, all the essentials for a home counties village and this one is like stepping back in time to another era.
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| The Village Green Cricket pitch |
Unfortunately for the ducks the pond has been drained and a digger is sitting in the middle dredging the gloop from the bottom, so essential maintenance underway but I'm sure they'll be back in a few weeks.
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| The empty duck pond |
I'm on a pub called The Four Horseshoes, they kindly allow motorhomes to overnight on their carpark.
The pubs actually closed today being a Monday, but that suits me, they told me I was welcome to stay and I don't really want beer tonight anyway.
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| The Four Horseshoes Pub |
They have a Thai restaurant on site and although they're closed a lady came out with a plate of Thai nibbles as a welcome, how nice.
Nearby is a National Trust site called The Vyne, so that's my plan for tomorrow before heading a step further south towards Newhaven in the afternoon.
It's just me and Louis on this trip, Sue decided to stay home this time.
So boys having fun 😊
