Our Blog - August 2025 - Southern England

Like the last couple years, we headed North for a summer vacation. This year, we decided to spend 4 weeks in Southern England ... beaches on the English Channel, castles, national parks, and charming British villages. We also decided to get our fill of fish & chips, pub food, cider, and beer. I will give a little advance warning here ... this will be a LONG blog ... it covers an entire month but I have split it into several sections for the different parts of Southern England that we went to (not quite a week each as a couple weeks are actually 9 days long).

Table of Contents

I added this so that you can skip to each week/section as I get them added if you have already read the earlier ones.

On the way up

The drive to the English Channel is about 10 hours, but we break it into 2 days so that it isn't too taxing for Lucy in the car :-) We had to make a quick stop at the vet on the first morning to get a an exam and a specific worm medicine that is required to cross into England, then we headed North. We made a stop at the medieval town of Donzenac for lunch and to stretch our legs. Donzenac is a "village étape", which is a small town near a highway that provides services for highway travelers. If you see the indication of "village étape", you know that if you get off the highway, you will be able to find food and gas.

I had planned another stop in the afternoon for a walk in a field for Lucy, but it was a bit warmer than I wanted, so we did a short detour to the tiny village of Levroux, which is listed as a "petite village of character". Spoiler: I didn't find much character.

We stayed overnight at a B&B that offered dinner as well. They had a dog that Lucy had a nice time playing with. She was also VERY comfy in the room! Both dinner and breakfast were great, and there were several other people there and we got some nice recommendations on other places to visit from the other travelers.

Our 2nd night was spent at a B&B at a town next to where we caught the car train over to England. We gave Lucy some quality time on the beach while we were there.

England Week #1

Same as last year, we took the Le Shuttle car train over to England, arriving in Folkestone. The first week was in a seaside resort town, where it was a short walk to the beach, the morning coffee place, and a nice little neighborhood pub. We LOVE how puppy-friendly places in England seem to be, most of them have dog treats and some sell doggie ice cream! While this one didn't have private parking (some days the closest parking space we could find on the street was 3 blocks away) ... it had a great view! We had the basement apartment in the brick building that you see, but we had a small yard and terrace overlooking the water.

We did quite a few things this week, visiting a few towns, some castles, some ruins, and the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Most of our "Lucy walks" were on the English Channel to get her some beach time while we could. All the details in my England Week 1 blog.

England Week #2

We didn't go very far for the 2nd week ... 40 miles west of where we stayed for the first week and a bit inland (10 miles from the English Channel at Brighton). No good view here, but private parking and a bit more yard for Lucy to play in. We could walk to a "Farm Shop" to do our grocery shopping but had to drive to the nearest pub since while it was only 1 mile away, the roads were not the kind that you walk on the side of. There were quite a few locations nearby for great walks for Lucy as well as castles, villages, and cities. This is actually 9 days (7 days at one place and 2 at another), but I rounded just to a week :-) All the details in my England Week 2 blog.

England Week #3

Another 9-day week, but since we stayed at the same place and all of the places we visited were in the same general area, it made sense to group them again. This move was a bit further, going 60 miles north-east to outside of Maidstone. It was interesting how close we were to "London", since about 1/2 of the places we went, we drove by signs pointing to London Gatwick Airport. All the details in my England Week 3 blog.

On the way home

Then we headed back. Not as short of a drive to the Le Shuttle as on the way to England, but less than an hour to the train terminal. Check-in for Le Shuttle was really smooth, no problem at the Pet Reception, and we were able to get on an earlier train for free. After arriving back in France, we gave Lucy another playtime on the beach and then spent 2 nights in Amiens, home of largest Gothic cathedral in France. It also known for where author Jules Verne (Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) lived from 1871 to 1905 when he died, and as the birthplace of the current French president Emmanuel Macron.

From there, it was almost a direct route back home, stopping for a puppy walk and then a wine tasting in the Loire Valley before an overnight in a B&B with dinner. There were 4 couples there and the conversation again was about places to visit. The B&B was almost literally in the middle of the country and the 4 couples were going north-south (us), south-east, from Brittany to Italy, and from Luxembourg to Spain. We had planned to stop at a town on the way but opted instead for a long walk in a forest near the B&B and then a stop just for lunch and to fill up the tank before arriving home.

Wow ... I think I need a vacation from my vacation! 4 weeks, 2 countries, lots of towns and castles ... and around 2,000 miles in the car.