My Trip South Costs...

[staging lady]

Sad about the Solex but good to know you are en route through La Belle France. Hope you have a great time with many adventures and see you next year.
Excuse the delay in posting but family illness means I have to cut down going on this site.

( We were in France in 2000 when there was a month long petrol strike.

We found if we went on the toll parts of the motorways, the petrol ststions were more likely

to have fuel as motorists were less inclined to pay the toll just to get fuel).
Lucille

 

[Heyupluv]

Oh... on my accounts post I forgot to add two lots of €3 for this parking/aire... (2 nights)

Outrageous!

All you get is a riverside space, electricity, water, grey and black water dump place and clean(ish) toilets... I thought the French were meant to be "motorhome friendly"?

JJ

Now that's value for money "3€" with your ghetto blaster/disco unit downloading all afternoon and blasting out through the night and the battery charger charging 3 or 4 x 110ah batteries that ran flat, a senic area for you to set up your garage/workshop for repairs to the VeloSolex and any other mopeds that turn up , and the fan heater on in the evening and through the night, I think you will have a good return on your 3 euros, so a riverside space, water, grey and black water dump place and clean(ish) toilets... was all thrown in for free....not bad for this time of year when all camp sites are closed....:thumb:
Or are you only used to the free Luxury lorry parks ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz .........

 

[Heyupluv]

Well just a update..for any funster coming over to France........we are in the Normandy region....we have had a good nights sleep......woke up to blue skies and a lovely morning and a keeeeeeeeeen frost,......... what a beautiful village, and we nearly did not come due to the diesel shortage
....I hope JJ has got the fan heater on or he will look like a frozen Turd.......

Mel

 

[Patrick]

Stay safe and well my friend, hope you get enough fule in France!

Jan & I hope to get to see you early next year mate.

 

[JJ]

More expense...

Did not dare put my 1500 watt fan heater on the EHU (very Hippy to use a fan heater when "on theroad" anyway) so I fired up the Wagon central heating last night....

So this afternoon, just south of Tours, I filled up with GPL... (auto gas)

€7.75

A beautiful drive today... no fuel anywhere... the GPL place hadn't had any petrol or deisel for five days!

I have enough to reach the lake just east of Limoges... might have to stay there for some time...

Just called into McDonalds in Loches... only to ue the internet of course... but thought...

"might as well have some burgers while I am here"

(Burger King is SO much better...)

JJ

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[Wildman]

whilst in the Limoges area don't forget the Martyr Village that you wanted to visit, Oradour - Sur -Glane on the D9

 

[Heyupluv]

Well JJ, we are back home now...safe journey to you........Just an update on the diesel situation in France .......from la suze sur Sarthe 10 miles south just below le Mans.... to Rugles diesel was looking bad, places closed......but in Rugles and all the way home to above the Somme / south Pas De Calais region all pumps/petrol stations that we could see had diesel and was selling although there may have be from 6 to 12 vehicles queuing:thumb:

Mel

 

[chatter]

We had trouble getting fuel on the N10 between Chartres and Poitiers had to jump on the A10 to get fuel as none in the towns/villages we passed through, and was charged class 4 at an auto toll booth (wow what a shock €48 for a reletively short distance just to be able to fill the tank)

 

[JJ]

Thanks for the reminder Roger... had totally forgotten! Sadly have left the area now but will log it for a future visit...

Maggie, I have been very lucky and had no major problems filling up... have never been much below half full all trip.

McDonalds have been a major expense... might be cheaper to get an expensive French dongle rather than use their "free" wi-fi!!!

Fuel... Friday €25.50

Spar Groceries €19.53

McDs €12.50

...in Brive now, 150kms from my friend with his small hill farm where I will head for tomorrow...

JJ

 

[hilldweller]

Fuel... Friday €25.50
JJ

Yeh, that's OK for the Solex but what about the van ?

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[JJ]

After three nights at my friends Mark and Sasha's farm I am now on my way to visit Frankie...

Had to spend €64 on diesel at a sun drenched small, village garage... glad to give him the business but I would have saved a few euros had I known there was a supermarket by the McDonalds 30 kms down the road where I am now...

At the farm I did a little Wagon sorting.. and had various visitors...

JJ

Good to be back on the road again... sun beating down...

(€6.80 McDonalds Big Tasty Menu.)

Solex parts and labour €12.60

 

[capinpugwash]

B****y hell JJ. You seemed to have solved the problem of how to get a quart in a pint pot (or whatever the continental equivelant is)! :thumb:

 

[Wildman]

I do hope you've not forgotten its Frankie's Birthday today JJ:thumb:

 

[JJ]

I arrive at Frankie's...

She guides me into the parking place...

Frankie and Didier then invite me for a drink...

Brilliant!

JJ :thumb:

 

[hilldweller]

I arrive at Frankie's...

She guides me into the parking place...

JJ :thumb:

You've been reading Jilly Cooper haven't you.

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[movan]

 

[Brisey]

Hi JJ

I have a vision.

It's a scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
I can hear the song "Raindrops are falling on my head" playing in the background.
I can picture Frankie, you and the VeloSolex.

The mind boggles.

Brisey.

 

[movan]

jj, you are certainly making all our imaginations run riot today.

 

[JJ]

Frankie was going to do the "Butch Cassidy" bike ride but sitting on the handlebars made her realise that the Solex engine was hotter than she thought!

I did think about the "parking place" quite a lot Brian!!! It started out as "the spot" and "correct place" and "preferred place" but none of them would have escaped from the "Hilldweller" wit...

(and the world is a better place for it...

JJ :thumb:

PS. No doubt the "think about it quite a lot..." will spark something too...

 

[JJ]

After leaving Frankie's Toulouse home I headed towards Spain planning to go through the hills via the Bielsa tunnel. At this point I had enough fuel to reach the border.

Without consulting me they closed this shortcut for maintenance!

Thinking a smaller pass would be fun I headed up the Col du Aspin finding that some of the route did not have enough width for vehicles to pass. Luckily locals seem to know this and only four cars disturbed my progress...

Higher and higher I went, most of it in first gear, and I watched the temp gauge go higher and higher. No laybys to rest and allow the engine a rest so, when the red warning light came on, I did a seventeen point turn and went back down and off to a bigger road.

After a night in the main square of Soumoulou I put in more fuel..

€28.88 diesel.

Once over the border (after lunch on the Col du Somport) I filled up in Spain...

€49.61 diesel

... and raced non stop to Portugal (Vila Formoso border) filling up for the last time on this trip by Salamanca...

€54.59 diesel

Plan to finish this thread by adding it all up in due course...

JJ

Man plans... God laughes...

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[JJ]

Good afternoon everyone,

I have just totted up the travel expenses of my recent trip to Central Portugal.

I had a fabulous holiday at the same time (isn't motorhoming brilliant?) and visited Heyupluv (on an aire just south of Le Mans) my friends Mark and Sasha on their farm near Toulouse and Frankie in Toulouse.

I had 12 nights on the road waking up to a variety of scenes.

I travelled 1740 miles.

Not counting what I spent on food etc it cost me...

£419.83p

Now I reckon that is pretty damned inexpensive even with the outrageous price of diesel these days...

I make it 24p per mile

£35 per day.


...of course this would be halved had there been two people on board.

JJ

 

[dellwood33]

Did the Blonde Hitch Hiker not pay anything

 

[JJ]

Did the Blonde Hitch Hiker not pay anything

I must have done something wrong Dixon... she didn't pay anything but...

JJ

 

[hilldweller]

...of course this would be halved had there been two people on board.

JJ

No it wouldn't.

 

[JJ]

No it wouldn't.

Short and sweet today are we Brian?

JJ

Dale Carnegie writes...

"the only way to win an argument is to avoid it in the first place..."

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[sedge]

Only halves it if you share costs with someone who doesn't have the same bank account number and sort code as you do, JJ !

 

[JJ]

Only halves it if you share costs with someone who doesn't have the same bank account number and sort code as you do, JJ !

Quite right!

No one does!!

JJ

(Except maybe some Nigerians villans!)