...starting tomorrow morning at 7am when the car is finally packed to the gunnels and I set off for Folkstone and my first trip with a car through the Channel Tunnel.
Then after surfacing in Calais, I drive all the way across France to Provence!
Sounds simple doesn't it.
It's actually over 1,000 kilometres (626 miles) which is nearly 12 hours of non-stop driving. Personally speaking I stopped doing non-stop driving on my own after a consultancy assignment lasting several months which involved me driving for five hours from London to Penzance in Cornwall every Monday morning - and then put in a full day's work.
These days I like to make steady progress but break it up.
I've actually driven across France before - but never done it both ways having previously let the motorail take some of the strain, mainly to save time. All navigation came courtesy of the big yellow book otherwise known as the Michelin atlas of France. This time my new satnav comes too.
Current plans are to stop in
Epernay, the
capital of the Champagne world, on Thursday night, somewhere on the south side of
Lyon, the
the capital of
gastronomy in France,
on Friday night before getting to my destination on Saturday. You may have guessed by now that I like the way the French value fine food and wines!
After that I'll be getting down to some serious drawing, sketching and painting. The alkyds and new brushes have been bought and packed along with the amazing amount of other stuff I seem to have decided it's essential to take.
You can follow what we all get up to on
Four Go Painting in Provence. You can follow all the places we paint in
Places We Painted which also includes possible prospects for painting.
Today's post is about
The first time I went painting in Provence - when the BBC came too!
I'm also planning to post my sketches to
Travels with a Sketchbook. Not sure if I've quite got a hang of mobile posting yet but I'm going to give it a go.
I'll be back writing this blog normally again after 4th July - which is when I'm due back home after I've driven all the way back to London!