After a fraught previous day of packing and loading the Discovery, we made the decision to leave the kitchen sink behind and finally managed to squeeze in what we needed including the pets.

We left at 7am and after the taking around an hour from the Edgware Road to East London in morning rush hour traffic, we enjoyed plain sailing down the M20 to the Folkestone Channel Tunnel terminal and arrived with plenty of time for our ferry. In fact, we took an earlier one than scheduled.

This is the first time that I have used the tunnel train, having made countless trips on the ferry from Dover with my parents, and I was pretty impressed. The whole process is well organised and 35 minutes later, you are on the other side and away as all of the customs formalities are completed in Folkestone. I don't think I would take the ferry again. 

If you are early, in the terminal,  there are plenty of coffee shops, a WH Smith and even an AA Travel store for those essential compulsory car accessories including emergency triangles, first aid kits, high visiibility vests and breathalyser twin packs - yes, those are compulsory. I am not sure how that works, but there is something pretty odd about being proven under the influence using your own equipment.

We broke journey early at 2:30pm having prebooked at the Novotel Reims Tinqueux. A pretty good choice, but the real revelation was that both the motel coffee shop and the Courtpaille steak restaurant happily accepted our dog, Magnus. He thinks that this is pretty cool and so do we. Something learned - the French are very dog friendly

The pets behaved impeccably.