It was the 3rd summer holiday in a row where Tom (12), Izzy (11) and myself headed straight off on a road-trip after speech day. This year we were heading down to the Alps for a week, followed by a few nights in Paris before returning home.

Having spent the Saturday night in the Premier Inn in Ashford, Kent we left first thing on a very sunny Sunday morning to board the channel tunnel to Calais.

Having decided that an 8 hour drive in one day was too much, we gave ourselves a one night stop-over in Troyes to break up the journey.

We arrived in Troyes at about 3pm and were booked into the Ibis Styles Troyes Centre which at €110 for the night for a family room and breakfast was pretty good value. Had no expectations about what the hotel would be like but it was lovely, in an amazing location and impeccably clean.

Within 10 minutes of checking in we went out for a walk to the old town (5 mins away) to find food and see some sites. Troyes is absolutely beautiful – historic buildings, cobbled streets and water fountains……..and as it was a heatwave at 35 degrees, the kids just wanted to jump in the water. I made them wait until after we’d found somewhere for tea as I could just picture them falling in and getting drenched!

We found a lovely creperie (Creperie La Tourelle) where the kids were not at all adventurous with Tom having Crepes with lemon & sugar and Izzy having one with Nutella. I went for a savoury Galette – can’t go wrong with pancakes stuffed with potatoes, cheese and mushrooms!

Anyway, it was back to the water fountains where the kids did get drenched and then an early night before our drive to Chamonix.