Two Go Back to France

[Wanders from Glos]

We are booked into a garage on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be fixed then, I've bought all the bits needed. If not I'm going to connect the leisure batteries to the cab battery and we'll drive back to Roscoff in two hour hops between CCP aires, recharging overnight. I drove it on the cab battery only for 45 minutes when trying to find a garage which would fix it and I think it could have done more. When I drove it to the first garage only to find they couldn't help I hadn't charged the cab battery and an orange warning light came on warning "Hill start not available" which I'm certain was due to low voltage. This doesn't appear now after I've charged the battery although a "Check engine" light comes on which I suspect is a legacy of the earlier warning light. This light didn't come on when the fault first developed. The only light was the red battery warning light.

We hired a car this week and did some exploring so the week wasn't wasted. The prospect of driving round numerous garages trying to find one which could do the job quickly didn't appeal. I'm taking the low-stress approach.

Don't blame you.

 

[Ingwe]

As3

We went on a "Pretty Villages" hunt today. The first to be visited was Puycelsi which has a long history of being besieged, firstly by the Celts and Romans then several times in Medieval times by various French factions and once even by the English. Due to its elevated position and massive walls it resisted all attacks apparently.

On a sunny day it is probably packed especially on weekends but we had the place virtually to ourselves on this wet Thursday. We found an empty parking area on the edge of the village just before a huge banner strung above the road which warned that parking was regulated beyond this point. After unsuccessfully trying to get a parking ticket from what turned out to be a charging point for electric cars I worked out parking here was free. In my defence the charging point wasn't very big and didn't look at all like a conventional charge point and identifying marks were minimal.

It was raining for most of our visit but only lightly so we deployed our umbrellas and went to explore.

The siege-defying walls.

View attachment 956156

This is an upper terrace, the square openings in the wall on the right are arrow slots on top of the lower wall.

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The front door.

View attachment 956158

A small château.

View attachment 956155

Even smaller chapel.

View attachment 956154

Views of the streets and houses.

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View attachment 956162

More walls.

View attachment 956159

No, I haven't started collecting photos of rubbish bins, it's the sign which attracted my attention, it means Robbers' or Thieves' Path. There's probably a shop for car spare parts at the end of it.

View attachment 956161

We then drove a little way to Bruniquel, another village on a hill with two castles. On the way it started to rain heavily and it was still raining when we arrived at the village. We stopped to park in an area which also allowed MH parking and on researching it later turns out to be the municipal aire which is completely free including water etc.

Bruniquel is a much bigger village than Puycelsi and it would have needed over an hour to see it properly. However, we were also stopped beside a restaurant, the time was 12:20 and we could see people inside sitting down to lunch. A change of plan was rapidly made.

Les Bastides had a €16 set menu and the reviews were generally favourable, wholesome food and generous portions seemed to be the theme.

Starters were melon and Parma ham.

View attachment 956184

The main course was turkey and rice, the mushroom sauce was very tasty. My fillet was tender but Mrs DBK's fillet was thinner and had been somewhat over-cooked as it was a bit dry.

View attachment 956187

But she pronounced her dessert as very good. It was described as a muffin but was extremely light.

View attachment 956185

I had the cheese selection and struggled to finish it as there was a lot of cheese.

View attachment 956186

The restaurant was just below the village but the houses on the right you can see are more modern I think. The castles are out of sight beyond the brow of the hill. They'll still be there if we ever come this way again.

View attachment 956188

A shopping day tomorrow and cleaning up the hire car to hand it back.

As ever DBK great photos and interesting commentary. Really hope that the repair goes to plan and that part of your trip becomes a great story point.

 

[chaser]

We are booked into a garage on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be fixed then, I've bought all the bits needed. If not I'm going to connect the leisure batteries to the cab battery and we'll drive back to Roscoff in two hour hops between CCP aires, recharging overnight. I drove it on the cab battery only for 45 minutes when trying to find a garage which would fix it and I think it could have done more. When I drove it to the first garage only to find they couldn't help I hadn't charged the cab battery and an orange warning light came on warning "Hill start not available" which I'm certain was due to low voltage. This doesn't appear now after I've charged the battery although a "Check engine" light comes on which I suspect is a legacy of the earlier warning light. This light didn't come on when the fault first developed. The only light was the red battery warning light.

We hired a car this week and did some exploring so the week wasn't wasted. The prospect of driving round numerous garages trying to find one which could do the job quickly didn't appeal. I'm taking the low-stress approach.

Didn't your breakdown insurance try to find you a garage that could do it?

 

[DBK]

Didn't your breakdown insurance try to find you a garage that could do it?

Yes eventually but it was a slow business. They found somewhere very quickly but when we turned up it was a place which could fit a new battery if we needed one but nothing more complicated!

After a couple more days they said their French partner, SAVE Assist, had given up and couldn't find anywhere which could fix it in a reasonable time. Fortunately, the breakdown insurers had a French speaker who found a garage which would look at us but not until next Tuesday. This saga took a week to unfold during which I did contact a few places but didn't get anywhere so I just decided to stop fighting fate and make the best of the enforced stay.

 

[chaser]

Yes eventually but it was a slow business. They found somewhere very quickly but when we turned up it was a place which could fit a new battery if we needed one but nothing more complicated!

After a couple more days they said their French partner, SAVE Assist, had given up and couldn't find anywhere which could fix it in a reasonable time. Fortunately, the breakdown insurers had a French speaker who found a garage which would look at us but not until next Tuesday. This saga took a week to unfold during which I did contact a few places but didn't get anywhere so I just decided to stop fighting fate and make the best of the enforced stay.

Didn't they offer a hotel or forward to your destination or taxis and stuff, ours did but I made a mess of some of it they supplied a hire car to go to canet plage, paid for us to come home and still offering to pay for one of us to go back but will update this in my new thread.

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[DBK]

Didn't they offer a hotel or forward to your destination or taxis and stuff, ours did but I made a mess of some of it they supplied a hire car to go to canet plage, paid for us to come home and still offering to pay for one of us to go back but will update this in my new thread.

When I first called them (CMC Red Pennant) they said given the time, about 12:00 on a Friday, garages would a soon be closing at 14:00 and nothing was going to happen with the van before Monday at the earliest. I was told the breakdown truck would take us to a depot and there we would be left. There was mention of hotels but I subsequently discovered the campsite we are now on wasn't far away so I put that to them and they agreed to get the tow truck to take us there. We were lucky the van was still drivable so we could get to the pitch from the entrance.

We've got a dog with us which adds a complication but we've been fine on the campsite, ACSI rates €21 a night and after 6 nights the 7th is free and we've had two free nights so far.

Others might have spent days looking for a garage but after a few rejections I just decided to go with the flow. We have the Plan B in reserve running on combined battery power alone to get us back if we have to - but I can do without the stress of that if it can be avoided.

 

[Jane And Rog]

When I first called them (CMC Red Pennant) they said given the time, about 12:00 on a Friday, garages would a soon be closing at 14:00 and nothing was going to happen with the van before Monday at the earliest. I was told the breakdown truck would take us to a depot and there we would be left. There was mention of hotels but I subsequently discovered the campsite we are now on wasn't far away so I put that to them and they agreed to get the tow truck to take us there. We were lucky the van was still drivable so we could get to the pitch from the entrance.

We've got a dog with us which adds a complication but we've been fine on the campsite, ACSI rates €21 a night and after 6 nights the 7th is free and we've had two free nights so far.

Others might have spent days looking for a garage but after a few rejections I just decided to go with the flow. We have the Plan B in reserve running on combined battery power alone to get us back if we have to - but I can do without the stress of that if it can be avoided.

I hope all goes well for you. I think your policy is definitely the best for peace of mind.

 

[DBK]

Sun shining through pampas grass this morning.

Monumently over-engineered height barrier at the entrance to the tennis club opposite the campsite.

 

[bellabee]

I think your attitude is great! You're definitely doing the right thing by making the most of your situation

 

[DBK]

A 6 o'clock alarm call went off all to soon after closing my eyes in bed last night. At 7:30 we drove out of the campsite and joined the heavy Toulouse commuter traffic. The cab battery was fully charged but the "Hill start not available" light was coming on, probably because it was dark and I was having to drive on headlights which would have been adding to the load on the battery. After 20 minutes of stop start driving I was relieved to drive into Garage F. Dougnac with the dash still doing Christmas lights impressions but the engine still running.

This is the garage, and if you look at their website you might see why I was a bit sceptical we had been sent to somewhere who would look at us.

https://www.garage-dougnac.com/

The good news was they were expecting us, the less good news was they wouldn't use any of the parts I had bought. I can understand this from a warranty perspective. If a new component failed you can imagine the customer blaming the garage for fitting it incorrectly and the garage blaming a sub-standard item supplied by the customer.

They soon brought the 'van into the workshop and after jacking up the front right removed the wheel and wheel arch as Landy Andy had suggested was the way to do it. I could see all this through a glass door next to the waiting area.

While we were waiting I had a wander around the garage.

Lamborghini Espada

E-Type

A couple of Ferraris, 308 on the right and a silver 550 or 575 behind it I think. This car like quite a few others in the showroom were covered in a fine film of dust.

The 308's V8 engine. I was surprised to see it had a toothed camshaft belt, I thought all Ferrari engines had chains.

It took four and half hours from arrival and departure to complete the job and in the end they did use the parts I had bought. The cost was four and half hours @ €80/hr plus 20% tax.

After a quick stop at a supermarket to buy a few essentials and fill up with diesel we drove a little way north to the CCP aire at Montech which is beside a big canal. This afternoon we walked along it and did a bit of geocaching, finding 3 out of 4 which is good going for us.

We'll be opening this soon.

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[Orion]

Congratulations on the repair being finally completed.

 

[Grianan]

Great news that you’re back on the road … it sounds a fair price too.

 

[DBK]

I've been very impressed by the CMC Red Pennant service throughout this episode. Of course it has taken time to resolve the problem but given their French rescue partner more or less washed their hands of us after a week CMC stepped up, found the garage we used today and have kept us fully informed.

I had a call from them yesterday, checking up I was ready for today. They had earlier called the garage to confirm they were ready too.

I got a call from them at 10:00 this morning to see if work had started and then again this afternoon to check it was finished. In this call I learned I can claim the cost of labour and they will send me a claim form.

They also said they will ring again in a couple of days to check all is still well.

 

[Figaro]

Well done, you must be very relieved and pleased to see the last of that campsite
Enjoy the rest of your holiday

 

[chaser]

I've been very impressed by the CMC Red Pennant service throughout this episode. Of course it has taken time to resolve the problem but given their French rescue partner more or less washed their hands of us after a week CMC stepped up, found the garage we used today and have kept us fully informed.

I had a call from them yesterday, checking up I was ready for today. They had earlier called the garage to confirm they were ready too.

I got a call from them at 10:00 this morning to see if work had started and then again this afternoon to check it was finished. In this call I learned I can claim the cost of labour and they will send me a claim form.

They also said they will ring again in a couple of days to check all is still well.

Brilliant, I just can't understand where all these bad stories about breakdown firms come from.

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[scousebird]

Great news, enjoy your bubbles and the rest of your journey.

 

[MichaelT]

A 6 o'clock alarm call went off all to soon after closing my eyes in bed last night. At 7:30 we drove out of the campsite and joined the heavy Toulouse commuter traffic. The cab battery was fully charged but the "Hill start not available" light was coming on, probably because it was dark and I was having to drive on headlights which would have been adding to the load on the battery. After 20 minutes of stop start driving I was relieved to drive into Garage F. Dougnac with the dash still doing Christmas lights impressions but the engine still running.

This is the garage, and if you look at their website you might see why I was a bit sceptical we had been sent to somewhere who would look at us.

https://www.garage-dougnac.com/

The good news was they were expecting us, the less good news was they wouldn't use any of the parts I had bought. I can understand this from a warranty perspective. If a new component failed you can imagine the customer blaming the garage for fitting it incorrectly and the garage blaming a sub-standard item supplied by the customer.

They soon brought the 'van into the workshop and after jacking up the front right removed the wheel and wheel arch as Landy Andy had suggested was the way to do it. I could see all this through a glass door next to the waiting area.

While we were waiting I had a wander around the garage.

Lamborghini Espada

View attachment 958761

E-Type

View attachment 958762

A couple of Ferraris, 308 on the right and a silver 550 or 575 behind it I think. This car like quite a few others in the showroom were covered in a fine film of dust.

View attachment 958763

The 308's V8 engine. I was surprised to see it had a toothed camshaft belt, I thought all Ferrari engines had chains.

View attachment 958764

It took four and half hours from arrival and departure to complete the job and in the end they did use the parts I had bought. The cost was four and half hours @ €80/hr plus 20% tax.

After a quick stop at a supermarket to buy a few essentials and fill up with diesel we drove a little way north to the CCP aire at Montech which is beside a big canal. This afternoon we walked along it and did a bit of geocaching, finding 3 out of 4 which is good going for us.

View attachment 958781

We'll be opening this soon.

View attachment 958797

Glad you got it sorted. Why did they use your parts in the end?

 

[DBK]

Why did they use your parts in the end?

They said they didn't have any in stock, which might have referred to their parts supplier. I wouldn't have thought they meant the garage's own stocks but perhaps they do keep a stock of belts to cover the wide variety of cars they work on?

I was happy they used the ones I bought if for no other reason than speed.

 

[f6c]

At last your back on the road so to speak.

 

[lorger]

Glad you’re all sorted and good luck for the rest of the trip.

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[DBK]

Glad you’re all sorted and good luck for the rest of the trip.

Thank you, we've just got a week left and the weather forecast isn't brilliant - but we will enjoy ourselves come what may!

 

[Lenny HB]

Great result John and cheap labour rates for France. Never heard of breakdown insurance covering labour before.
Did they cover the hire car?

Funsters and pampas grass I've heard about that before

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Yay, back on the road again. Enjoy the rest of your time away. Glad it’s sorted.

 

[DBK]

Did they cover the hire car?

I haven't asked but I'll have a read of the policy although I doubt they will as it wasn't really essential.

As chaser has mentioned hiring a car is an interesting experience in France. I used an outfit called UCAR and in the end it all worked out fine for us but they wanted a €1400 deposit and the excess for damage was €1200. The deposit was shown as pending in my bank account for the 5 days when we had the car and when I returned it after driving very carefully for the week I had to make another transaction for the hire cost (€321). This was on a Friday and I was sceptical the bank account would show any changes over the weekend but by midday Saturday the deposit had vanished and only the hire car charge had been taken.

 

[Jo662]

Great news John DBK and good you can enjoy the rest of your holiday and get home under your own steam.

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[Landy Andy]

They said they didn't have any in stock, which might have referred to their parts supplier. I wouldn't have thought they meant the garage's own stocks but perhaps they do keep a stock of belts to cover the wide variety of cars they work on?

I was happy they used the ones I bought if for no other reason than speed.

Well worth having the parts, as if they could not source them for a couple of days, you may of had to either van live in their workshop or get a hotel.

Great that you can now continue.

 

[DBK]

We drove north today, heading towards Roscoff and the ferry next Wednesday.

There were a few aires we could have headed for but after our enforced stay in Toulouse we are used to longish walks in the afternoon so we headed for the CCP aire at Libourne, north east of Bordeaux which is beside a long thin lake.

This smallish aire was showing only one vacancy last night but when we arrived it was almost empty. We parked opposite the toilets.

This is where we are, under the blue blob.

The lake here was created for gravel extraction to build the motorway which runs close by but fortunately far enough away to be out of earshot.

It is a centre for rowing with lanes strung along it's 2km length.

It took us 90 minutes of brisk walking to go around it.

The aire is almost full again tonight.

Off again tomorrow!

 

[DBK]

I haven't written anything for a few days as we haven't done a huge lot as we drove north towards Brittany. We spent the last few days at the aire at Cléder a little to the west of Roscoff.

Today we drove to the port at Roscoff where we will overnight before an early check in for the ferry to Plymouth tomorrow. We will be on the Pont Aven and hopefully the restaurant will be open for a leisurely breakfast on board.

That's us in the bottom left. The ship is the Armorique which is sailing to Cork this evening. I don't envy the passengers, the Ventusky weather app is forecasting 4m waves which will be hitting her on the side I think.

 

[Spriddler]

(I won't temp fate by saying I'm glad that the m/h seems to be sorted and behaving itself).

My word, Roscoff looks very bleak 'n miserable.
Yep, the Cork ferry will be heading more or less straight into a North Wester. I took a yacht in a two-handed race from just along the coast at Dinard around Lands End to Cork into a strong N'Wester and it was certainly no fun. At least for you it should calm down the nearer you get to Plymouth and into the wind shadow of the land.

 

[DBK]

(I won't temp fate by saying I'm glad that the m/h seems to be sorted and behaving itself).

My word, Roscoff looks very bleak 'n miserable.
Yep, the Cork ferry will be heading more or less straight into a North Wester. I took a yacht in a two-handed race from just along the coast at Dinard around Lands End to Cork into a strong N'Wester and it was certainly no fun. At least for you it should calm down the nearer you get to Plymouth and into the wind shadow of the land.

Yes, this trip hasn't turned out as expected but we will be back I hope. I'm booked in for a pre-op assessment on Friday for a new hip which will hopefully be done before Christmas, allowing us to get away next Spring. Fingers (if not legs) crossed!

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