Tuesday 24 August - Arras, France

We were up early and boarding the ferry to France at 8am. It was a beautiful day and the boat was packed with people either on a daytrip or off on longer holidays to Europe. We had breakfast and lots of coffee and before we knew it we were docking in Calais.

Our plan was to drive to the town of Arras, about 60 miles from Calais, have a walk around and some lunch and then head back to Cite Europe for some shopping. The autoroute, as usual, was almost empty, just the odd lorry and British car heading further into France. It took us about an hour to get to Arras and 7 euros in toll money, but the roads are so good in France we never mind paying to use them.

The last time we were in Arras it was November 2008 and we went for the lovely Christmas market they hold there every year. This time it was a warmish day in August and we were able to park right in the main square which is surrounded by beautiful old Flemish buildings. I love this style of architecture which is very similar to that of Bruges in Belgium.

We wandered around for a little while, exploring the town and visiting the tourist information centre in the town hall. The beautiful Belfry was destroyed in the First World War and at the moment, the square in front of the town hall, La Place des Heros, is being renovated.

Sophie and I did a spot of shopping while Keith and Mikey found a pizzeria in a small back street. The children had a pizza each and it was lovely to sit for a few hours in the sunshine with a drink, watching the locals eat their lunch. If only for a few hours we experienced the pleasure of a pavement cafe and people watching!

All too soon we had to leave the beautiful town and head back to Calais. The journey was uneventful and quiet and we saw lots of British cars all heading back to the port. Cite Europe was quite busy and we headed to Carrefour to buy some wine and French goodies, including coffee, chocolate and pastries for breakfast the next day.

I was dragged into Pimkie while Sophie shopped for clothes and the boys went into the large Toys R Us for lego for Mikey. Cite Europe has changed considerably since we first started going and the fall in the pound against the euro has meant that Tesco have closed their store there. We also noticed a lot of shops had gone and some of the restaurants had closed down. I'm not a fan of the shopping centre and I think next time we go, we'll maybe head to Boulogne and do our shopping there before finding a nice restaurant for lunch.

We had dinner at a restaurant called St James - I had chicken breast, Keith had steak while the children had nuggets as they weren't really hungry after their pizza at lunchtime. Not very French but we did have delicious French fries which are always yummy!

None of us were really looking forward to the ferry trip home as the wind had increased all day and it was blowing a gale when we drove back to Calais at 7.30pm. We were told that the ferry was delayed because of the wind and in the end we didn't board until about 10.00pm French time.

Because it was so rough, we found a seat in the bar and tried to ignore the rolling of the ship. I had a large coffee to keep me awake on the long journey home and tried to stay put but the children dragged me off to the Duty Free shop. It was very difficult to walk because of the motion of the boat and I soon returned to my seat!

We finally docked at 10.30pm (UK time) and it was 2am before we got home and sank thankfully into bed!