There's something surreal about actually starting this trip since its been such a long time in the planning stage but today's the day! It's also Liliya's last day at nursery and my last day in the current job so it feels quite emotional.

I've done a month long trip once before when we went to Australia for our honeymoon but that was pre kids so everything was more care free then. Heaven forbid I forget their favourite teddy, or enough to entertain them between locations. Don't get me started on the amount of snacks I've packed. I know other parents will appreciate how much you do not want a grumpy hungry child so I think this should cover us for a few days 😂

With everything checked off my many lists there was even time left over to give the van a good clean ready for her big trip. We're hoping we'll be able to add to our sticker collection so I'll take an after picture at the end so you can see how many we end up collecting.

As we left the driveway Robert asked if it was bedtime. It was 7pm so we said if he wanted to fall asleep it was fine. Liliya yells out she's not going to sleep and 7 minutes later she was gone 😴

That girl loves a good power nap, who doesn't 😍

The drive over was nice and quiet which means we got to the tunnel ahead of time and they let us on an earlier train which pleased me greatly because they were more expensive, and I smuggled milk and meat across the border. Ooh I love being a rebel 😂

Once we were on the train what do you think the kids said first, that's right 'we're hungry we need food', ha don't worry kids mummy's got this! I told them to open the cupboard and they would find a snack bag, oh the joy, you'd think it was Christmas morning.

Snacks snaffled and Robert's mind was once again blown by the fact he got to use a toilet on a moving train. Looks like the bar for excitement has been set low.

We've set Robert the challenge of writing a daily diary. He decided he's going to start each entry with the best thing that's happened that day. In case you haven't already guessed it from the earlier pic of his face it was indeed the discovery of the snack bag.

Our bed for tonight was planned to be the car park of a supermarket. France has stops called Aires where you can stay for free and they range from zero facilities to toilets, picnic areas and more depending on the location.

On arrival there were barriers at every entrance with signs staying that for a short period of a couple of weeks no camping is allowed.

This seemed very strange until we turned the corner and I saw a sign for the circus which was almost the same dates. Then right behind that we saw all the trucks and tents. Clearly they've closed the car park to prevent the circus vans parking there 😕.

Another site was located a few miles away however it said it was for vans under 2m and we are 2.1m. We decided to go check it out just in case and yes the barrier stated it was 2m. I jumped out and decided we'd creep up just in case. Don't think we could have been much closer but we made it. Just on the road outside was another high top van who clearly decided just to park on the road so we have the place all to ourselves, woohoo. Looks like we're very near the beach so might check it out in the morning.