So in Oct I am going to be driving to the North of England (due to having my dog with me) and I will need to do a couple of over night stops due to driving solo. Rather than just stopping at the most convenient place next to the motorway, I'd love to stop in a/some pretty French village/s .... can anyone suggest some places between CH and Calais?

Not exactly villages but we have stopped in both Reims & Arras previously. If you take the road south of Nancy to Chalons sur Champagne and up to Reims it’s a great road with limited traffic and tolls only kick in closer to Calais.

One thing to consider is if you can share the driving then having a flexible Eurotunnel ticket can be beneficial. Yes it costs more but there have been times we have got to Arras and as the traffic/weather have been light/sunny we’re not tired and have pushed onto the UK - stopping in Kent at a pub for the night.

Another tip is the Eurotunnel timings - it’s not widely publicised but if you get a fixed time crossing eg 10:20am you can turn up two hours either side and assuming there is spare capacity get on another train at no cost. This has worked 9/10 times but no guarantee. Best to go via the ‘human’ lanes rather than the automated checkin lanes for this. Allow 15 mins or so to take your furry friend through the animal checks in Calais (worm tablet/rabies jab etc) before check-in. Feel free to PM if you have further questions...

Even without a flexible ticket, turning up several (i.e. more than the allowed 2) hours early for our booked crossing has never been a problem, although once we were a day early, was initially turned away, but came back to another gate half an hour later and was allowed through.

In any case, I've always ignored the letter they give you, which may be for up to an hour away - just proceed as if you have the letter currently boarding and the chances are you'll get on the next train without anyone batting an eyelid.