Days 49-51 An unexpected stopover, almost taken prisoner in an Aire, and a return to Auffay!

Called back in to the workshop by the manager, we were able to see what all the banging had been: the bearings had failed on the axle, leaking oil through a failed seal, wrecking the brake disc in the process. The good news was that the axle had survived intact!

We could see that the repair would necessitate a new disc and pads – and we remembered from our warped disc adventure in Italy, that it’s standard practice to replace both at the same time. Plus some other bits and bobs of course…

What came as a surprise a bit later after a couple of hours squirming on the metal reception chairs, was being called back in to have a look at the passenger side again. The mechanics had discovered that we had a faulty hub from a previous repair where a bolt had sheared off and been replaced with a slightly longer one. Not a big issue if you are happy to drive with the other bolts taking the strain – unless you are a professional HGV/PSV garage of course where it’s just not done!

So a further delay whilst a new hub was sourced and delivered…

Still, we’d been reassured that if needed, he could get another mechanic on the job so we could be away late afternoon, fingers crossed.

Of course, as we were in a French garage, everyone stopped for lunch at 1230 – and we were invited to have our lunch in Evie in the workshop if we wanted – which of course we did! Appreciating their kindness and loving the idea that all the workers have a chance to socialise together over their midday break, we also managed a crafty nap, before it was time to let the mechanics crack on and for us to rejoin those chairs…

All seemed to be going well until the manager came out to see us again. Clearly not a poker player, it was clear that something else was up – WTF! After some intense use of Google translate it became clear that as the mechanics were testing the new brakes, it was clear that all was not well with the front ones. Nooooooooo! we cried – surely not? With careful explanations and with the evidence laid out before us, the driver’s side disc and callipers had shifted and warped, no doubt a product of insufficient braking power at the back whilst one of the wheels was covered in oil… 

Can they be fixed we asked? Bien sûr, came the reply – but we won’t be able to get the parts until the next morning…

We had already talked through a contingency of getting a cab back into Dax if needed, but we were pipped to that post by the manager asking us if we’d like to sleep in Evie overnight in the garage? We jumped at the chance, and as we were marvelling at this incredibly generous and friendly offer of help, he added:

Would you like hook-up?

Access to the mechanics’ shower room?

Customer toilets and drinking water?

A demo on how to work the huge roller doors so we could get some air until bed time?

Flushed with the relief of being able to stay with Evie, which he clearly understood, we were given a quick tour of how to access the locker/shower room which turned out to be way better than many campsites we have stayed at!

We felt very humbled to have this level of trust invested in us!

As the team packed up to leave, we were invited to leave those lovely chairs in reception and check out our new pitch for the night. To add to the incredible thoughtfulness, the mechanics had also put Evie’s front wheels back on pro tem, and levelled her off for sleeping with a trolley jack!

Feeling very lucky indeed, we made full use of the showers, before having dinner in one of the most unusual locations of all our combined travels!

And we loved that amongst all the equipment you’d expect in a large commercial garage, was this essential tool…

Next morning we reflected that although we may not have had the best night’s sleep (it was sooooo hot once we rolled the door closed, and the compressor for the air lines cycled on and off all night) we were so lucky to have found such an accommodating and caring garage to help us on our way!

The mechanics had told us about a little café that opened 0630 to 1230 a short walk away, which is how we found ourselves, up, dressed, and eating out at an ungodly hour for us, as the delivery of the new parts could be any time from 0730!

Unfortunately, the delivery took longer than expected, and our hopes of getting off by mid morning-ish were modified to accept that we might end up doing another ‘drive and see where we get to trip...’

And then, with minutes to go before the 1230 lunch shut down, a smiling manager came out to confirm that we were good to go – hurrah! The bill was largely made up of parts – luckily cheaper and easier to get hold of in the EU than back home, with labour rates less expensive too. So, although it ended up being an unplanned big expense on this trip, it’s a risk we take travelling with an older campervan – and at least Evie now has a set of new brakes all around, and she drives better than when we first bought her back in 2009 as that empty builders van from Essex…

Bowling along and heading north towards Bordeaux, you can imagine our surprise and disappointment when a brake warning light suddenly lit up on the dashboard! Mr B immediately decided it must be a faulty sensor, with all the work that had been carried out moving and replacing bits (they can go off by driving over a pothole, for example, as the wiring can get brittle over time) but, even though we knew we were returning during lunch, we headed straight back, just in case.

As soon as the mechanics saw us returning to the compound, they came out to see us, got us straight over an inspection pit, and fixed – a faulty sensor!

Heaving a sigh of relief, we headed north again, stopping to shop, have lunch and refuel before deciding on our route home. With two nights to stop over before arriving at Dieppe on the third evening for the ferry at 1800, we decided to abandon our original idea of sticking to the west coast past Bordeaux, and head over instead towards Limoges, as we know this route (the free A20 and beyond) well enough to make some informed guesses at journey time.

Which is how we found ourselves pulling off the route at St Junien, west of Limoges, to try out what looked like an OK Aire run by the Camping Car Park consortium. We’ve stayed at a few, and the standard can vary hugely, but this looked OK and was convenient to get back onto the A20 the next day.

These CCP Aires (only one C short of a Russian joke) are a mix of old small aires that have been taken over, and a smattering of small ex-municipal camp sites that seem to be run in conjunction with the locals. This was one of the latter, and we were very pleased to see that it had a fully functioning toilet and shower block – as well as loads of shady pitches – phew!

After a very relaxed night, we were up almost with the lark and made our way to the exit barrier. Entry is via a code, generated by swiping your CCP card upon arrival. In the past, we’ve just had to scan the card at the barrier, where the fee is generated, paid, and off we go…

Not this time though. The system has been updated. Your CCP card needs to be pre-loaded with enough funds to let you out! Ours was empty, as we’d lost some ‘leftovers’ when we’d done pre-loading before… Still, it looked straightforward to load up, if vexingly in €10 bundles, leaving some ‘leftovers’ again… And sure enough, a quick visit to the CCP website allowed us to upload €20…

Except, no matter what angle Mr B offered the CCP card to the scanner, the barrier remained stubbornly closed...

It was at this point, blocking the exit for about 15 minutes or so, that an English voice piped up “you’ll not be getting out any time soon...those Brits over there have been here for three days trying…”

Preferring to trust his French negotiating skills with the CCP helpline, Mr B was soon chatting, in English, with a helpful person who could not only tell us where we were, but scarily told us to back further away from the barrier, and try again (CCTV)!

Success! The barrier opened and our CCP App was still showing a €20 credit! Having been told by the remote warder who let us escape that the system was experiencing some glitches following a software update, we were just glad to be back on the road, if slightly later than we had originally planned! (When we checked later, our CCP card had been debited for the correct amount – and we wait to see what happens with the leftovers!)

The drive north was long and hot. We stopped in familiar territory for lunch north of Vierzon…

...where we decided we’d just head further north, see how we fared, with the aim of neither stopping too late, nor too far from Dieppe. As the day wore on, and the heat chose not to relent, we remembered we had stopped at a small municipal site in St Remy-sur-Avre between Dreux and Evreux on our escape from the last French canicule back in 2019. With the timing about right to pull over for a cold shower and shady pitch, we followed our noses back to the site, only to find this…

...clearly not yet part of the CCP network, but hopefully only in limbo. So we had a tactics tea break in the nearby carpark of the leisure centre, which had also been flagged on our P4N App as a possible, where we decided to press on into the dusk to see if we could go full circle and get back to Auffay – where we had started over seven weeks ago!

And we made it, with a pitch just waiting for us, as usual! So with the light failing, and a French family next door having a dinner party on the one shared bench on the adjacent pitch, we did what we wouldn’t normally do on an Aire like this, and had a lovely last supper alongside Evie…

...accompanied by the local birdlife…

… and packing up at the point that our French neighbours did. The protocol with these aires that have a shared table is vague – it was right at the back of our neighbour’s pitch so even of they’d not been using it, it would have been weird having our dinner at the back of their van!

It rained in the night, of course, but it let up enough the next day for us to wander into the village for coffee and croissants, spotting our neighbours from the other side of Evie to go over and tell them their alarm was going off back at the Aire! They knew immediately what it was (steering lock likely moved on the wheel, apparently) and before long one of them had been back to deactivate it, and we had a pleasant chat about travels as seniors (they had just arrived the night before, and were heading south).

With just a small amount of shopping to do before arriving in Dieppe, we were very pleased to see the sun breaking out as we pulled up in the queue to go home…

The sailing back was uneventful, we managed to draft the remaining travel blog entries (apologies this has taken soooo long to edit!) and as usual, we reflected on the trip…

We were both grateful that we had been in a part of France that swerved the worst of the heatwave; couldn’t quite believe our luck with finding such a friendly garage in our hour of need; were really glad we had managed to get to see Chris and Sue; loved, as usual, the French approach to traveling in a campervan, the culture, food, drink etc etc. And although there was some regret that we didn’t make it to Spain (again!) we both really enjoyed our extended beach-side stays, which comprised the vast majority of our time! The beauty of a (largely) unplanned itinerary we think.

Our next European trip is due to start in late September/early October. Again we are planning to get to Spain, but…

S&J 26.09.26

 

Days 44-48 Mountains, Wine, and visiting friends – with an unexpected mechanical challenge!

We had delayed our return across France by a few days to avoid the worst of the much hotter weather of the interior and west coast, but it was still a toasty 35c+ as we headed off from Argelès, with a rough plan to get as far as Foix that evening. 

This route is beautiful, taking us through the Parcs Naturels of the Pyrénées Catalanes, the Corbières-Fenouillèdes, and the Pyrénées Ariégeoises. But first, after a shopping adventure in Perpignan for some favourite southern delights, including the Banyuls mentioned in the last entry and some more Brillat-Savarin cheese; another new favourite this trip, we headed to the small village of Maury, where (courtesy of Mr B) we somewhat fortuitously pretentiously have an account at the local wine cooperative, Les Vignerons de Maury. 

Arriving during their lunch break (closed for an hour) we were super pleased to discover that since our last visit, the local municipality had opened an Aire on the edge of town, conveniently only a five minute walk away! It’s free to stop, has the usual facilities and it would have been perfect for us had we not decided that we wanted to get to Foix – but worth noting for future visits! The views are pretty spectacular…

...and after we had lunched in the very welcome shade of one of the pine 

trees that line both sides of the Aire, we deployed our beach/toilet cassette/wine trolley, just in case…

...which was just as well…

...as we hadn’t remembered they also did a very tasty rosé, as well as their fabulous reds!

Our original plan, pre-canicule, had been to explore a bit of the Cathar country, maybe visit one of the hill-top castles we’d not yet been to – but now, as time was more limited, we had to make do with glimpsing the occasional castle precariously perched atop one of the very steep hills that line the route to Foix…

The drive was great fun (for Mr B) with twisty roads climbing up the many cols that lined our route, with equally twisty descents the other side! Less fun, was the air temperature which soared to 42c outside, leaving us hot and sweaty in the non-air conditioned cab at a balmy 36c! Even Evie found the going hot, as her temperature gauge rose very, very close to the point at which the turbo cooler fan (which masquerades as a passing hovercraft it’s so noisy) would activate. Luckily, we were spared the fan, which we only remember ever hearing activate twice; when we went up, and down Mount Etna on Sicily and, more recently, crossing Andorra.

But, as we arrived in the village at the bottom of our penultimate descent before the mainly flat final section to Foix, our luck ran out when we heard a loud ‘clonk’ noise from the back of the van… Checking in the rear view mirrors to make sure no bits had fallen off Evie, Mr B guessed (based on previous adventures), and upon seeing the ABS light activate on the dashboard, that it was likely a failed handbrake shoe or binding disc, and we were very grateful that we didn’t have much further to go to get to Foix…

We have stayed on this site, Camping du Lac, before, but this was a first in hot sunny weather, so we promised ourselves once we had pitched up, we would have a dip in the pool before having a more detailed look at Evie…

The pool was just what we needed, and once we had cooled off, we went back to Evie to have a look at what had made the awful noise. It was the smell of burning which drew us to the driver’s side rear wheels, where we discovered what looked like melting wheel arch underseal dripping onto the tyres. Whatever had happened was certainly generating some heat! Evie had made the journey since the clonk with no real additional noise, and the brakes had not lost fluid, but did seem to be not quite so efficient, meaning that it was unlikely the handbrake shoe was at fault, so maybe it was a binding disc… 

Our onward journey to see Chris and Sue in Salies-de-Béarn was uneventful, if a little tense, given we knew something was not quite right, but Evie seemed to be none the worse for wear. So we took it nice and gently…

...arriving in Salies later that afternoon, where we took no time at all to accept the offer of a cooling dip in Chris and Sue’s pool – perfect! After a great evening of lovely food and drink and catching up with one another, the morning came all too quickly and with it, the final stage of our journey, where we planned to fit in maybe a night or two at the coast. 

Before we left, Mr B decided it might be prudent to check the oil level in the diff, as we have a replacement axle after failed bearings destroyed the original one, and this one has a slight leak at the prop shaft… It was as he was gathering his tools up to get under Evie that he had another look at the ‘melting underseal’… which, on closer inspection, was very obviously oil that had been sprayed all over the wheel arch, and was dripping back down – uh-oh!

Luckily, there was still plenty of oil in the diff, but we had clearly lost some – about 200ml as it turned out when Mr B refilled it to the fill level. So now, it looked as if we might be dealing with a blown seal between the hub and the half shaft – eek!

Whatever it was, we decided we would call our local mechanic who keeps Evie on the road and ask for advice. Pete (the P in the excellent D&P motors in Brighton) listened to our story and suggested in no uncertain terms that we should get to a nearby garage, as we didn’t want to damage another axle, did we…

With a sense of déjà-vu (the last time we had visited Chris and Sue we had needed to drop into a nearby garage to investigate an odd noise from the original axle) we set off, after bidding fond farewells…

...to get to the same town, Dax, and find a stopover for the night, planning to get to the garage at opening time the next day (Monday). Fortuitously, Dax has an Aire, and although it’s pretty basic…

...it’s free, convenient for the city plus an easy ten minute drive to the garage, so in our time of need, perfect! 

We had time to have a stroll around some of Dax, which was much more interesting than we anticipated, with an active bull ring and regular ferias, reflecting the shared history with nearby Spain…

With the sky threatening our first rain in weeks, we headed back to the Aire, where we had been joined by a proper Iveco campervan…

...owned by a French couple who were touring full time with their son, taking a brief stop in Dax before heading to Spain and then Morocco…

The rain, when it came, was brief, but just long enough for Mr B to put his swim shorts on and empty our chemical toilet, ditch the grey water, and top up with drinking water – all whilst having a refreshing shower!

Waking to our 0630 alarm – we wanted to have time for breakfast, tidy all the habitation stuff away and get Evie ready to arrive at the garage by about 0730, in plenty of time before it opened at 0800) – we decided that having had Mrs B at the wheel for the journey from Salies to Dax, as she is easily the gentler driver, that Mr B could do the final leg – and take note of any new noises/issues to report. And hopefully, not all in French, as last time we had visited this garage, we were helped by a very friendly guy who had spent a year in Australia, meaning his English was way better than Mr B’s French!

The drive to the garage didn’t produce any new issues, and when we arrived just after 0730 it was already open – hurrah! Pulling up in the yard outside the workshop just in case there was going to be a rush of early morning chancers like us, Mr B practised his French explanation of what had happened, secretly hoping the year-in-Aus guy was still there…

On seeing Mr B silently mouthing his explanatory French phrases, the workshop manager kindly came out from the back office to see what we wanted. He wasn’t the same guy we had seen before, but, with a command of English about the same as Mr B’s French, he eventually decided he would fit us in when the mechanics arrived at 0800, and we could wait in the small reception area if we liked.

Feeling very grateful that we were being seen to straight away, we settled down for an anxious wait. We could see Evie being driven in via an inspection window that let onto the workshop area. From where we could also hear the whirring of the compressed airgun taking the nuts off the wheels, followed by a long, long period of massively loud whacking-on-metal noises, followed by short periods of silence...followed by the reappearance of the workshop manager, Anthony, with a face that clearly signalled all was not well...yikes!

S&J 18.08.26

 

An apology for the posting delays!

 Hi

Our apologies for the long delay in posting the most recent entry. Although all the entries were drafted before returning to the UK, our lives have been pretty hectic since then and we have struggled to make the time for editing.

The next entry will follow shortly and is the penultimate one - so almost there!

Thanks for your patience.

Steve and Julie

Argelès-sur-Mer Days 28-43 Part Four – An adventure by train to Collioure…

On more than one occasion, as we lazed on the beach and our gazes drifted to the south and the hills and mountains of the Albères Massif and the Pyrenees beyond, we could make out the small town of Collioure, which we had both read was worth a visit. We had also discovered on one of our bike rides into Argelès, that we could catch the train there – something we love to do when we can. So, equipped with a timetable, we just needed to decide whether we would cycle to the station (about 30 minutes) and leave the folders in one of the impressive and free cycle cages (hoping one might be empty), or maybe get a cab. 

We decided to try the bikes, and on the morning of the day we had set aside for our adventure, Mr B checked the train times, having already shared with Mrs B that they were every hour in each direction. Somehow, upon closer reading however, they had changed to every two hours, and we had just missed the window for the next train – oops! After a quick exchange of views (!) we decided we would drive back to Port Vendres in Evie, and take the Tourist Train from there instead. We had been told about the train in the tourist office, and it sounded like a fun alternative!

This time, as we parked up in the Aire, ready for the long hot walk to the town, Mrs B proved yet again how much better she is with preparation for hot weather, leaving Mr B scrambling for his knotted handkerchief…

Perhaps not the luxury of an SNCF train, our Puffing Billy promised an intriguing 10 minute ride to Collioure, and a 30 minute return. Recognising that we may have lost something in translation, we anticipated a return journey ‘along the coast and vineyards’…

Depositing us right outside the market area of Collioure, we soon found ourselves drawn down towards the sea, glinting away in perfect picture postcard style, with the bell tower of the Notre-Dames-des-Anges church just asking for a visit…

The harbour wall we were walking along initially skirted the base of a very imposing old Vauban fort – Miradou, which turned out to be the training headquarters for the French Army commandos…

Mr B was particularly excited to learn that we might see some of their sea-borne training, but his luck was out…

...so he settled instead for one Mediterranean cliché after another, with views across the bay to Fort Saint Elme on a nearby hill…

...to the mountains in the distance…

… a very southern Med town…

...and another bay on the north side of the harbour with a small chapel Saint-Vincent…

...from where we could see back to the stretch of pine forest and woodland our site was in…

...and where we met two lovely Yorkshire women, both in their 80^th year, busy travelling the world and currently exploring France by train, before we walked out to the end of one of the harbour arms for a different view…

...with crystal clear water all around…

With our return 30 minute adventure on Puffing Billy pre-booked, we had just enough time for Mrs B to explore a Cave that specialised in Banyuls wine, a naturally sweet dessert wine she had developed a taste for as an aperitif on one of our meals out, before we were heading off into the unknown. And as the train took a very sharp hairpin bend heading up into the steep hills behind the town, we realised that we were heading into the vineyards that clung to the hillsides all around…

...that gave us views back to the coastline, rather than us travelling along it…

...and seemed to be heading to the fort we could see from the port, perched atop that very steep hill…

...surely we couldn’t be heading up there we thought, until after more hairpin bends than we’d care to remember, we arrived at Fort Saint Elme, and were allowed out to steady our nerves (maximum quatre minuits we were told)…

...before heading back down the other side of the hills into Port Vendres! Thanking the driver for his skill in returning us alive, we were torn between finding a bar for a stiff Cognac, and having a little lie down. But then we remembered the artisan ice-cream vendor, and headed off there for a cold and creamy delight instead!

On the walk back to Evie, we were suddenly immersed in the sound of cicadas – a defining feature for us of travel in the south. But what we hadn’t realised until this trip and after Mrs B had undertaken a bit of research, was that they needed consistently hot temperatures of 30c+ over a period of time, before their wing membranes are dry enough to be able to make the sounds at that loud buzzing level – and we had clearly just reached those two criteria being met!

Returning to Evie to find, again, that we had been able to park for free, we had a little chuckle that although our initial train adventure had not quite gone to plan, we’d ended up with an altogether different and certainly exciting adventure by ‘train’ instead!

And, as we arrived back at the campsite later that day, we realised that our time in Argelès was coming to a close, even with our bonus canicule-avoiding days added on! Would we come back here? Oh yes! Maybe at a time with less wind would be good – but wind seems to follow us everywhere, all year it seems, these global warming days!

Our agenda for the next leg was straightforward: arrive at Chris and Sue’s in Salies-de-Béarn, with enough time to get up to the ferry at Dieppe without having to drive overly long days. Six nights and seven days to cover just over 800 miles should be plenty, or so we thought...

S&J 31.07.26

Argelès-sur-Mer Days 28-43 Part Three – An unexpected journey with Charles Rennie Mackintosh

On our most recent trip to Scotland last autumn, we had the unplanned pleasure of visiting the home of the famous Scottish architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, in Helensburgh.

So imagine our surprise, when we ventured from the site in Evie to do some exploring in nearby Port Vendres, when we discovered that he was also famous for his art, much of which he undertook in the Roussillon area, including this port town when he lived there towards the end of his life.

We had sat and pondered, over a glass or two of the local rosé, how much exploring we could do further along the coast toward Spain, and one thing we had discovered was that exploring by campervan would be tricky because of the narrow roads and restrictions in place in some of the small towns and villages on the coastal route. So, we were mightily relieved to discover that there was an Aire in nearby Port Vendres, from which it was possible to walk into the town.

The Aire was perfect for our visit, as it was a scorchingly hot day and there was plenty of shade for Evie. But we couldn’t work out whether we needed to pay or not, until a bit of delving on Park4Night revealed in a review that the local Gendarmes might wander down around 2000 to collect a fee for sleeping overnight, but otherwise it appeared to be free – hurrah!

The walk along the port basin was hot, but interesting, as we moved away from the industrial/commercial area the Aire was near, into the original old port, now much gentrified and aimed at tourists and pleasure craft owners, but retaining an interesting air all the same. This photo looks back to Fort Béar on top of the hill in the background (an active military base, once a Vauban fort) – the Aire is at the bottom of the hill – it was a long walk and the shade was most welcomed!

As was the discovery of the local tourist office, which was where, upon Mr B’s trotting out of our travelling Scottish identities, we were greeted with warm smiles (usual) and even more excitement (not usual) upon discovering that not only did we know who Charles Rennie Mackintosh was, but that we had visited his house in Helensburgh! 

Loaded up with information about our fellow countryman, and the key things to see in Port Vendres, we wandered off in the direction of the lighthouse/Redoute du Fanal and La Vierge et l’Enfant statue on the north side of the harbour. It’s a large port, with an interesting mix of vessels. We spotted this enormous converted tug that is now part of a small fleet of emergency response ships that support the French Navy and Coastguard…

...a visiting oligarch…

… and the local lifeboat responding to a shout (we figured it was real as the crew ran aboard in a mix of outfits)…

Hugging the shade as we ventured around the port basin, we passed a few information boards with paintings that CRM had done, cleverly positioned in the approximate place he may have painted them from, as well as the obligatory plaque in his memory…

...and the impressive war memorial…

As we walked further towards our destination, the local plant life gave a clue as to how far south we were…

We eventually reached the lighthouse/redoubt (unfortunately closed)…

… and the statue of Virgin and Infant …

...but it’s fair to say we were most impressed with the views across the harbour…

...and up the coast…

As we returned to the shade of the port, and after treating ourselves to a delicious local ice cream, Mrs B fitted in a couple of ‘artistic’ buoys that relayed sounds of the sea…

...before we walked back to Evie, to see whether the Gendarmes had fined, clamped, or otherwise gainsaid our assumptions about free parking!

S&J 14.07.26