We avoided the motorway entirely and let the small roads take us where they wanted. It added a day to the trip and took a year off my blood pressure.
We bought peaches from honesty boxes, waited twenty minutes for a herd to cross, and ate lunch on a hay bale with permission from a farmer who thought we were mad.
Back roads
The back roads are slower and narrower and almost always more beautiful. Every bend gives you a new field, a new barn, a new reason to pull over.
If you have the time, take the long way. You will not regret the extra hours.