Champagne country but no bubbles for us

It was with much anticipation that we eagerly peered out of our camper van windows one chilly morning to see what the view was like.

We had arrived in Chamonix Mont Blanc, in France, the previous night – after travelling through the 11.611 km (7.215 miles) Mont Blanc tunnel from Italy.

When we opened the blinds we saw picture perfect snowy mountains towering above us with sweet sloping roofed chalets nestled in the valley just metres away from us.

The ground was icy and we were surrounded by that special “hush” that happens in the early morning when snow has freshly fallen. The only noise we could hear was directly below us – we had parked just a couple of metres away from a gushing river full of snow melt.

What a glorious place to be but much closer to the water than we thought the previous night!

Sadly we didn’t have time to hang around as we were booked on a ferry to England a couple of days later and we had to press on to get to Calais in time.

We made our way through stunning scenery – think mountains, green valleys, translucent emerald green rivers and roadside water falls – and entered into Switzerland briefly – driving past an abandoned border post now in the middle of a field.

Our journey took us through some quaint French villages, past elegant châteaux, and on to the beautiful city of Chalon-sur-Saône.

Although the surrounding district is highly commercial and quite industrial the ancient town centre itself is a delight.

As soon as we had settled in our “Aire de camping” we strolled along the river towards picturesque Saint-Vincent square.

Dominated by the profile of the Cathedral (built over the 14th and 15th centuries) and surrounded by beautiful timber-framed medieval houses, the square is at the heart of the city.

We explored some of the shopping lanes branching off the square before heading back along the embankment to the van, enjoying a vivid sunset on the way.

It would have been great to visit the Nicéphore Niépce museum – dedicated to the inventor of photography who was born in Chalon-sur-Saône. The museum is home to 6,000 cameras and optical objects, as well as over 3 million images. Unfortunately it was closed but maybe one day we will come back for a visit.

The next day we continued our travels through the French countryside and again saw some lovely views and interesting places. This included Langres – a medieval fortified city and gateway to champagne country.

Langres has seven gates in the defensive walls and the road we were travelling on actually went through one of them.

Our destination was a small village (population about 430 people!) called Trépail. It might be small but the village is very famous – it known for its vast number of vineyards.

There was a very pleasant Aire in the village where there was an information board with a map showing the location of the 24 champagne producers in the village. We were hoping to do a tasting but when we went walking we found each and every one of them was closed.

It was a pretty little village though and we enjoyed seeing the tiny church, the school and the rustic dwellings dotted around the place.

The next day we set out on our final leg to Calais where we found an exceptionally good camper van parking area which had every facility available and was nice and close to the ferry terminal.

We encountered something quite strange on our evening stroll around the port – a 12 metre high and 25 metres long mechanical dragon which breathed real fire!

Apparently the Calais Dragon can lie down, stand up, run at up to 4km/h and flap its huge wings. Passengers climb onto the beast’s back via a staircase on its tail and take a trip along the Calais seafront. Amazing!

Finally, the next morning, we excitedly boarded the ferry to Dover – we were so looking forward to a two week visit to catch up with our families in the UK.