We've a static in Normandy, and tend to do the journey in one chunk both ways - figuring an hour to sit on the chunnel. It's about six hours door to door, two in the UK and four in France. Most of the time we just dial in 130kph and cruise down - I simply adore French motorways for ease of use.

But I can't help but think that we are missing so much of France by doing this...

This year, we will have some time to kill on the way down as there is little point arriving in Normandy before 14:00, so any suggestions for a stop on the way? The car will be loaded outbound so I'm not keen to park it up and walk to far off.

Of course I could just dial 110kph into the cruise control and just take the trip slower and save a few Euros for more cheese and wine. Now there's a thought.