When we wanted to charge yesterday on the way back from Kew Gardens, there was a long queue at the Tesla Supercharger Tottenham. So we set off today with a half-empty battery and a plan: We check in at the Eurotunnel terminal and then charge LucY at the terminal while we wait for our train. That works quite well, however our last call comes before we have fully charged.

The crossing goes without incident. There doesn’t seem to be much going on at the Eurotunnel today. We arrive in France 35 minutes after departure. The biggest problem on the return journey is the time change: while we gain one hour on the outward journey to the UK, we now lose it again. So we don’t arrive in France until 1.30 pm. And then drive straight to the Supercharger near Calais to finish charging the battery.

At 4 pm, we make another charging stop in Saint-Quentin. In the meantime, we go shopping at the Auchan supermarket in whose carpark the Tesla Superchargers are located. Gabi finds lots of French crisps here, and I buy a packet of mini Oreo cookies that weren’t available anywhere in England.

At 7 pm, we make another charging stop on the eastern edge of Troyes. By this time, all the shops in the large industrial estate near the Supercharger have closed – all but one. And so I soon explore what is probably the biggest Smyth Toys toy shop I’ve ever seen. But I don’t have long. The charging station is fast and charges at up to 1,400 kph.

So far it has only been drizzling, but now the weather is getting really bad. It’s pouring with rain and we wish we were back on the British motorway with its cat’s eye reflectors between the lanes. Because in France – just like in Switzerland – motorways are bad. The lines are often faded and now barely visible in the rain and darkness. LucY does a great job and keeps safely in lane with the autopilot nevertheless. But the cold is getting to the car and reducing its range. We can see on the screen how the remaining kilometres are dwindling at a ratio of almost 3:1 to the kilometres driven, even though we are travelling well below the speed limit. LucY recalculates twice and takes us to a Tesla Supercharger in the middle of nowhere shortly before 9 pm.

When we set off again, we are rather astonished: LucY doesn’t lead us back to the motorway, but takes the overland route to Mulhouse. We drive for two hours through small villages, across wide open spaces and through forests. It seems that all the French go to bed early: there are no lights on in any of the houses and we only come across a handful of cars during this time. At 11:15 pm, we finally arrive at a hotel in Mulhouse where the Tesla Superchargers are located, and can use their toilets.

Fortunately, it’s not too far from here. “Basel 40 kilometres” says the motorway sign. Almost exactly at midnight, we cross the border to Switzerland… and are suddenly stuck in a traffic jam. WTF? Some major event in Basel, or more likely at the FCB football stadium, must be to blame. We are devastated as it means arriving home even later. And even though the worst of the traffic jam clears up after the next junction, the queue of traffic continues all the way to Bern.

At a quarter past one, we finally see the lights of Bern from the Grauholz hill and arrive home a little later. We have driven 3,396 kilometres (2,110 miles) during this holiday. While LucY recharges at our own charging station at home, we go to sleep.