Day 15. Camping du Lac Minuer, south of Montreal

Ah yes, it's all French now.  I checked us in using appalling schoolgirl "la plume de ma tante" French. Tom  learned to say "bonjour", "comment ca va" and "merci", and he was off - he's spent the last few hours in our immaculate little campground diving into the river, and throwing himself down a water slide, trying to organise all the French boys to do it His Way. He's getting brown as a berry, his hair is all blond and tufty; all in all,   he's an urchin.

Very soothing drive north. Almost as soon as we got past our last American city, Plattsburgh, the countryside changed - it did become countryside, stretches of cornfield, granaries, red-roofed barns, everything seemed to fall into an easy rural rhythm.

Our final stop was at a roadside shack called Creamies, to get peach icecream for me, butterscotch milkshake for R, and a chocolate and vanilla combination cone for Tom that dripped beautifully all over him. American memories to go, eh?

We'd avoided the motorway, and taken the A road instead, and were rewarded with a very small border crossing, a very friendly guard, and an entry to Canada that took all of two minutes.

Now we're in this little private campground set back in the cornfields, on the edge of a lake. Tom couldn't believe his luck that the lake had swimming, diving and waterslide. I was - more practically - happy to find washing machines, happier still to plug in and get AIR CON (oh joy!!) - and quite satisfied to sit watching Tom's exertions while leafing through a novel. Ahhhh.

Goodnight all.