Granada and back with broken fridge door

[DavidG58]

so we now know which was the correct place to stop

guess what, not where we or the other 12 or so MH's were

the first place we chose was apparently only for MH's to park to go to the chateaux, but the area is not really separate from general public access areas

anyway, 20:45 knock on the door, monsieur, etc. we have to move, really no idea quite why, but not my country or my land I am parked on so move we do.

Now right next to the railway tracks, que sera

still not found water and dump, still too dark to look, will update tomorrow

 

[DavidG58]

things I have learnt today

1. apparently I cant walk in a straight line, this of course is the opinion of my much better half, 55 years I have been walking the way I do, she now thinks I walk a few degrees off straight

so what I queried, apparently she has to keep on adjusting her route, has done for years but is now fed up with it (or me)

2. some things you think should stay as thoughts, apparently I said out loud that the very pretty girl in a calf length coat could have nothing on underneath you could not tell, now I don't think I did say that, I fully admit to thinking it though, so guilty by association, next time I will think more quietly

3. satellites are not as sensitive as people make out, having just moved about 100m, albeit now parked in same general direction as before, sat dome required no retune

4. trains are an awful lot louder when parked only 10m from them instead of 50m, I now retract some of my positive comments about the aire, it really depends how many run over night

 

[champers]

Yes David I am reading this ..sounds an interesting trip .


But how could you complain about paying for such scenery around you whilst geocaching lolol and Lola loved it....think about it though it normally states there is a fee to pay ie car park or similar on the geo details


Looking forward to hearing your next days travelling ..brill pics too

Kath x

 

[DavidG58]

Yes David I am reading this ..sounds an interesting trip .


But how could you complain about paying for such scenery around you whilst geocaching lolol and Lola loved it....think about it though it normally states there is a fee to pay ie car park or similar on the geo details


Looking forward to hearing your next days travelling ..brill pics too

Kath x

Hi Kath, you make it sound like I have half a clue what the pair you get up to

and to defend Bev a little it is in French, so only really understand about 25% of it

Lola really liked it and is snoring in appreciation

till tomorrow .................

B + D x

 

[sedge]

I hate to say this, but I have to! So if I get in trouble so be it.

Chenonceau has never had an X on the end of it. Only when it's mis-spelled.

Chateaux however is a word, it means more than one chateau.

Chenonceau has only one chateau. As do most places but then if your trip is to visit several chateaux, they will all be in different places, one at a time.

It's similar to Aires. When there is only one, it is an Aire. Pronounced "air" in both French and English, since we don't have a word for this thing, so have to use theirs. I cringe when some people say 'We were on the "airs" at Azay le Rideau ...' or wherever, cos they weren't - since for starters, it has only one!

In any event, if there are two of them the plural is 'Aires' and you would pronounce that as "air" also, just to confuse people cos the French don't pronounce the S at the end of the plural.

To be fair I do realise not everyone was taught French at school if at all even, by an extremely pedantic Welshman who could make you feel like dog muck on the bottom of his shoe when you mis-pronounced anything, he clearly had a lot more influence in my head than I thought ..... hence why I cringe probably. Not at all happy that I had passed my O level he soon wiped the 'results' smile off my face by criticising my grade. Thanks pal ........

Now not being at all infallible so who am I to criticise etc etc , I would like to enquire how the hell you pronounce the name of the town 'Rugles' ? For ease we were saying 'ruggles' but I know very well that won't be right and suspect it's more like 'rouge ul' with the emphasis strongly on the 'rouge'.

Can anyone tell me?

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[DavidG58]

I hate to say this, but I have to! So if I get in trouble so be it.

Chenonceau has never had an X on the end of it. Only when it's mis-spelled.

Chateaux however is a word, it means more than one chateau.

Chenonceau has only one chateau. As do most places but then if your trip is to visit several chateaux, they will all be in different places, one at a time.

It's similar to Aires. When there is only one, it is an Aire. Pronounced "air" in both French and English, since we don't have a word for this thing, so have to use theirs. I cringe when some people say 'We were on the "airs" at Azay le Rideau ...' or wherever, cos they weren't - since for starters, it has only one!

In any event, if there are two of them the plural is 'Aires' and you would pronounce that as "air" also, just to confuse people cos the French don't pronounce the S at the end of the plural.

To be fair I do realise not everyone was taught French at school if at all even, by an extremely pedantic Welshman who could make you feel like dog muck on the bottom of his shoe when you mis-pronounced anything, he clearly had a lot more influence in my head than I thought ..... hence why I cringe probably. Not at all happy that I had passed my O level he soon wiped the 'results' smile off my face by criticising my grade. Thanks pal ........

Now not being at all infallible so who am I to criticise etc etc , I would like to enquire how the hell you pronounce the name of the town 'Rugles' ? For ease we were saying 'ruggles' but I know very well that won't be right and suspect it's more like 'rouge ul' with the emphasis strongly on the 'rouge'.

Can anyone tell me?

you can forget Rugles for now, we have still not resolved Cenonceau / Chenonceaux, see below

It is possible the French railway sign makers have got it wrong, but maybe not??

However, having looked back at the local signage for the chateau du Chenonceau, I do now concur with your spelling of Chateau and thank you for that, I will retain that knowledge until at least after breakfast




Now Rugles surely must be Roo Glay, it will forever be my way anyway, even though I have never heard of the place

Back to route planning (rowing).......

 

[DavidG58]

Quick update ref aire at Chenonceaux, it is indeed very convenient for the chateau, best to park in right place first time though if stopping

HOWEVER

There are no facilities other than a bin

Further down the same road there is a municipal site that charges 16 euros for a MH, but for 4 euros you can dump and fill, but at this time of year it is very firmly locked up and all facilities are too far from the gate to think of reaching, even presuming the water is still turned on

So, come full, be prepared for train noise, we are parked no more than 10m from the tracks, but it was Saturday night and we had three trains in the evening, one overnight (4am) nothing since

You do however get hourly updates from a fairly soft spoken auto tannoy system (all night)

not on my list of sites to return to

 

[DavidG58]

Gentle run up to Pont de l'Arche aire today, stopped off on way down during day, looked a nice place some come back for the night.

Only 4 places of which we got the second (sort of), a Frenchman had saved one for his friend and a Brit MH with trailer was parked further sway so doesn't really count

Now there are at least 7 parked around, gendarme just drove through, reassuring but doesn't look necessary

used the dump area which is in separate car park outside now closed municipal site, free dump but credit card for refill, not bothered cant bring myself to pay for water, still got half a tank, will just have to make sure I shower first

These photos are from the drive up today, classic French and lovely autumn colours, below is church at Pont de l'Arche, sat here for beer / chocolate before sun went down

 

[DavidG58]

last night tomorrow, any suggestions of nice place to stop between Rouen and Calais, we are on a 11 am tunnel, so nearer to Calais is better, we don't do early starts very well

 

[deanroofing]

Wissant is a nice Aire but does fill up quick, short walk into the village, restaurant just down the road from the aire and a Carfourre with self service pumps, not too far away.

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[DavidG58]

things I have learnt today

1. When I say I can find our way back the way we came is that alright? Yes does not necessarily mean yes, when we come to a diversion and can only go left or right, I confidently ignore Bev and TT and go left. Trouble is we came in from the south and are now going north (or should have been)

2. when we walk into town, just because we like to, I am supposed to have said before we left that if we see a bar we'll have a drink, Oh Please! why else would we walk into town, so now Bev is too cold to stay for another, be grateful for the one maybe?

3. eating out - cant go to the Moroccan place, why? because we wouldn't at home, could go to the Chinese but translating the menu to be sure there are no prawns isn't going to work, pizzeria cant go wrong, not open till 6, now 5, back to the bar hopes I, too cold says she, we have food in MH anyway says she, so why are we even looking says I

Placing an order with Ocado as we write, normality resumes on Wednesday, eat in, go nowhere, log burner lit

 

[DavidG58]

so we are going out under a bit of a cloud, but it already has a silver lining

two days ago the 12V sockets on the habitation side failed, must be a fuse, but I cant one that's gone, so not looking any harder, could easily make things worse, even taking a couple out and back in again I managed to lose the hob ignition, which I mended again (to be more precise put the fuse back properly)

so with no 12V socket my laptop charging has to be done from the cab socket, which stays live even with ignition off, now we have had a problem with this in the past (flat cab battery) so am now cautious, charged while driving, but lap top went flat and I wanted to post about Pont de l'Arche last night, so decided 1/2 hour wont hurt, so did that, but then the mifi went flat so plugged that in.

That is where I think I went wrong, tiny as it is, I then forgot to unplug it, in the morning walked out for bread, came back I said I will just start engine to demist while we have breakfast, oh no we wont, deafening click, no start

SO now half past nine, no real panic tunnel booked for tomorrow, only shopping to do today, it is bright sun maybe the solar will sort it? Checked volts on cab, have actually got 12.7, seems odd that more than enough, so tried to start again with Bev watching volts, dropped to 8.5V and a quieter click

Balls, so have breakfast, watch voltage barely change, now I know you experts will remind me it is charging the hab batteries but this is meant to be semi intelligent, the hab batts are 13.2, so get on with sorting out the cab battery. But nothing doing

No problem we are in the RAC for just this kind of thing, but how about asking our French neighbours who we had spoken to last night, for a jump start, get phrase book out, the French don't seem to have jump leads or a translation for it anyway, and there is always the risk of one or both of us upsetting the vehicles by jump starting

SO I decide to go to the town look for a garage arrange my own jump start, must be quicker than waiting for the RAC, off I trot, find 2 both closed on Mondays, bad enough everything closes for lunch but whole days as well??

SO back to MH, ring RAC, open bonnet, not really sure why, just looking at things as men do, RAC are sort of brilliant, first we get a UK moron who insists on following script, right through to exactly where are you, question 20 ish, in France, or I need to transfer you, no actually you need to ring ..........................

so I ring alternative number, lovely girl in France perfect English, commented favourably on my French pronounciation of the place we are stuck at, I think I am in love with her, she is sorting things out and sounds gourgeous at same time. She says she needs to verify our RAC membership, then find a recovery option, then will call us back with timings

Put phone down, French man who has seen bonnet go up and me on phone knocks on my window, wants to help, we explain the problem. He has an on board generator, and goes to get a lead which has a UK 16A plug on end for us and plugs his back into his end. Brilliant, controller shows mains connected, 14A going into hab batts, cab batt at 14V but shown no current (never does not a fault)

Give it 5 minutes, try to start, still nothing at all, volts still drop back to 9, so agree to leave it 30 minutes, now dreading a call from RAC what to do when they do, daren't cancel them, anyway they don't call, but an English MH arrives and parks next to us, immediately comes to investigate what is going on. He has an emergency jump start thingie, I have tried those in the past without much joy, anything bigger than my mums Yaris no chance and it even failed on that once.

So it has now had 15 minutes on the generator charging, get out his jump thing and bang it starts first time, proper result, now still not sure what to do when RAC call back, should I get it checked the battery might be goosed and still not restart again

With that French recovery truck turns up, drags out a leisure battery with jump leads attached while I explain it is running now, he shrugs and goes back to truck, having first got the worlds biggest battery to try a jump start he gets the most pathetic multi meter and insists on 'testing' the battery

With the engine still running he confirms 14.4V, gives me a thumbs up and says OK, now even I know that volts while running do not tell you much, so I explained I wanted to turn engine off and check again, we did and got 13+ V and more importantly it restarted after

So 'test' now complete we sign papers and off he goes, we shake hands with monsieur le generator and kiss madam 4 x she says that is the norm, he goes we talk to new UK neighbour for a bit then risk moving on

Now having a flat battery is not good, at what point are you brave enough to turn it off again, for me my drive would be best but no option, parked on a garage forecourt possibly, maybe just after buying a jump start kit, all not going to happen

So I have just been brave enough to park and turn off in Hyper U Abbeville, Bev is shopping, I am writing this update, everything was unplugged before I turned off, just off to find / join Bev now, in about an hour I will know if it was a clever thing to do or not

Turning the engine off that is, we are now not parked at all easily for recovery

........................................................................

will let you know later

 

[DBK]

My sympathies, what a tale of woe! However, and this will be no consolation, leaving a Mifi or a laptop charging overnight should in no way flatten your main engine battery. I suspect this battery is on the way out and this winter could see its demise.

 

[funflair]

Hi David

Fit your inverter when you get home and then you could charge your own engine battery off the hab side with a normal 240v battery charger, I think the engine battery will only charge via solar when the habitation batteries are full.

Martin

 

[DavidG58]

T

My sympathies, what a tale of woe! However, and this will be no consolation, leaving a Mifi or a laptop charging overnight should in no way flatten your main engine battery. I suspect this battery is on the way out and this winter could see its demise.

Thanks DBK, we had new starter motor fitted before we left, battery did test as OK then, I charged laptop through an inverter which I can see takes over 8 amps when connected to hab batts, so if I am honest think I left on charge for 1 1/2 hours, then the Mifi all night, but a new battery will be bought for peace of mind

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[DavidG58]

Hi David

Fit your inverter when you get home and then you could charge your own engine battery off the hab side with a normal 240v battery charger, I think the engine battery will only charge via solar when the habitation batteries are full.

Martin

Already in hand of sorts, have decided to get an inverter sorted, one that does all sorts, have heard they can even support low amp mains supplies.

Will talk to you when back

 

[DBK]

T



Thanks DBK, we had new starter motor fitted before we left, battery did test as OK then, I charged laptop through an inverter which I can see takes over 8 amps when connected to hab batts, so if I am honest think I left on charge for 1 1/2 hours, then the Mifi all night, but a new battery will be bought for peace of mind

Ah, didn't realise you have an inverter - as you say this will eat amps. Can you not get a 12 volt charging lead for your laptop?

 

[DavidG58]

Ah, didn't realise you have an inverter - as you say this will eat amps. Can you not get a 12 volt charging lead for your laptop?

I am technically still back with cave men, but bought what I think you are describing from Maplins, but that takes similar amps

2000W Inverter being hard wired when we get back, new cab batt all should be OK

 

[DavidG58]

so last night, location recommended by KSEBruce, many thanks again, got another free one

an aire at Montreuil-sur-mer, be careful there are loads of Montreuil's

free, part of a car park, but only 100 yds from lovely town centre with loads of shops bars and restaurants, does it for me, will photograph in morning

moules frites consumed, washed down with a couple of glasses of Stella and a bottle of house red, that will do nicely

it has a free loo and water top up with 50 minutes of electrics for 2 euro, odd timing but don't need anyway, presuming we can start in morning that is, might be the best 4 euros ever spent otherwise

 

[DavidG58]

Final post, delayed putting on trying I think to extend my trip a bit longer, been back for 36 hours feels like a month, straight back to work, already need a holiday

Anyway go back a couple of days, we stopped at an aire in Montreuil, basic, but free, has a toilet and option for 2 euro to have water and 50 minutes of electrics, didn't bother, gambled on MH restarting, ran engine for 1/2 hour about 9:00 to check and hopefully top up, but probably took more out starting that we put back in. But no issues since jump start in Pont de l'Arche

It is possible that the area being worked on could be an aire extension, otherwise you are parked up near some bins, mainly green garden waste, but we did have the local road sweeper emptying into them at 07:30, but were up anyway

Convenient for local facilities, got my 'needed' moules frites for final French meal, a little traditional of mine, with a few beers and a bottle of wine cost us 50 euros though, not a cheap place to eat out, possibly more important expensive to drink out maybe

Would use again, both aire and restaurant Le-Vauban Montreuil-sur-Mer

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[Carol]

Thank you David really enjoyed following your trip but on some posts a like did not seem appropriate lol, you certainly had a adventure.

 

[Taran_Las]

Strangely enough after the devastating lightning episode my van was repaired in Montreuil-Sur-Mer

 

[Al-Di]

enjoyed your reports and problems,

still not parking to close to you

Alan,

 

[PORKSTER]

Enjoyed can't wait for you to go on another trip

 

[Moodybrook]

Couldn't understand your leaving the country when there was a special offer on Bunnahabvain in Morrisons - £26 a bottle
enjoyed the travelogue though

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[TheCaller]

Great thread David. Thanks for taking the time to document the trip.

This is the sort of thread that is worth finding & reading when someone is planning a similar trip. It might be worth asking @Jim if it could be moved to the Continental Touring\Spain board, rather than being lost forever in Chat. I know search works so much better with this new software, but in the Spain board a casual reader would also find it.

 

[DavidG58]

Been told this weekend that some did not see my trip reported on here, so bumped here for those few

Many apologies for those already bored to death by my broken door woes

 

[Madwife]

I have it bookmarked as it was so helpful (and also funny) and will use the info on our trip!

Kath