This years road trip

As old users on here know I do at least one annual road trip around Europe , this year it was due to be France (dordgne) then the Salou area of Spain , well this virus thing has other ideas.

Both lots of accommodation were booked up late last year before all this came about but the firms we booked with were really helpful , delaying final payments and allowing us to change venues .

The Dordogne section was to go ahead and we stayed at a lovely site called st avit lousiers , plenty of space , great food and facilities , to get here involved what should of been an 8 hour drive through France but Marth the sat nav( as the kids call it) had other ideas, Routing us down the Atlantic coast as far as Rouen and then an abrupt turn towards Paris , which was certainly not on the route but it was fine we got to the destination and were rewarded by a nice dip in the pool

on the second day it was hot, up in the high thirties but come late afternoon we got what can only be described as a biblical thunderstorm , rain going sideways and a good combination of fork and sheet lightening . Time to take refuge in the bar and enjoy a few beers!
The kids hadn’t seen a storm a intense or long lasting so they loved it, although walking back through the woods to the accommodation a medium sized branch did fall and hit my wife snd son, no damage done to them though

Then we moved on to our second destination , this was due to be near Salou in Spain, but as soon as things changed in Spain regarding the number of cases in that area we managed to move it to southern France, but of a bonus as it was cheaper and less travelling.
The journey here was eventful , car started to vibrate badly so pulled in to a service area to find three wheel bolts sheared off in the passenger front wheel, quick call to my uk based brake down assistance and was told I had to call the local police to recover me off the motorway!
Not a problem , they arrive swiftly , look at the car and say his lucky we were , whilst loading on to the truck another wheel bolts snaps clean off in the hub! This is not going well !

so the car is on the flat bad, he instructs my wife to get in the cab with him , whilst me and my two kids are made to sit in the car on the flatbed , I’m not sure this is legal and will be following it up when I get home!

so he drops us a garage who look at the car , few intakes of breath thru teeth and shaking heads , the wheel is soon off and they attempt to drill the bolts out , they are not moving so it’s new hub time !
Not an issue a quick google shows they are easy to get of hold of the uk, but apparently not here, none of his parts places Have one it is main dealer only!
No issue I know in the uk , order one day the dealer will have it the next, well not in France it’s at least three days!

so cars in the garage Boris introduces a quarantine upon our return and we can’t even attempt to return I time!

Not the holiday we had planned!

but the best bit is the french recovery driver tried it on with my wife whilst en route to the garage , saying she had a lovely smile and breasts and that he was well endowed and a very good lover whilst fondling his crotch!

I feel a large complaint coming on!

Repairs totald £536 euro
Including two hours labour !
It’s only eleven bolt
Four on wheel ( missing)
Two brake Caliper
Driveshaft
Four holding hub in place!

Tj 0785 said:

You do like your road trips, best time way to see the world getting around foggy places to many just head for the beaches, at least you managed to squeeze one In With everything going on at the moment, our Florida trip got cancelled so we Hope to do a road trip from Florida ,Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and round Texas road trip next year,maybe year after if they don’t get control of it soon
don’t know why but hearing about a french guy trying it on made me think of pepe le pewView attachment 208712

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An American road trip is on the cards but I think that is a few years away when the kids are old enough to not need/want to come with us !

already planning g next years which looks like will take in the German autobahn and a few scenic trans alps roads to and from Italy

Most of them are fairly boring as we tend to do toll road / motorway

but I have to have some driving roads in them if I can

1, going from France up through Andorra involved some lovely driving roads , my picture on my profile was taken randomly there

2.the gotthard pass travelling in both directions was fantastic , first time we did was following an old boy in an f4o and I was in my Alfa, Pity he drove like miss daisy!
Certainly didn’t drive to its potential

3. grand at Bernard pass ( the original breeding ground for the dogs is at the top), was amazed at how the Swiss go on about safety but there was not a barrier in site on the roads, cross the border on to the Italian side and we all know how crazy they are!
All the road on the way down had a barrier, granted they were made of wood but at least they had them

4. last year in the back country of Austria , all the roads were fantastic , nice sweeping bends and hour views of the roads

5. any trip on the autobahn is good , on the whole most people drive at around 80mph, then you get the odd Porsche, Audi, Mercedes etc that come past in a train doing over 100 mph
The ones that get me are the old focus, corsa, micro that come past as if they have just robbed a bank is funny.