But the internet connections at the campsite is not great – so standby for a flurry of stories when I am able to post them!
Big Bull
No Bull – We’re in Spain
Ten-Up in a 2CV
“You’re making the little car work very hard, don’t you think” an elderly man commented at the campsite the other day as we loaded Charlie to the gunnels as usual.
“I used to have one of these cars when I was a student, he added. “It was great for parties. We would take out all the seats apart from the driver, roll the roof right back and the we could get ten people in it, standing up.” And that’s not working the little car too hard, we wondered????
Then with a fond grin he remembered “one time there were only eight of us, so we picked up a couple of hitch hikers too. They were pretty surprised.”
It seems almost everyone we talk to has a fond memory of a 2CV .. what’s yours?
Getting the best view in the house
Coffee, Castles and Crusades
As we have meandered through the back lanes of France we have often criss-crossed the route of a rather less benign journey – la route de Richard, Coeur du Lion and all his caped Crusader chums.
As we sat sipping coffee in the sunshine in front of yet another glorious chateau, barely marked on the map in Jumilhac le Grand – we couldn’t help but wonder…. given the bloody and arduous task ahead of them, why more of them didn’t just drop to the back of the line and settle down in a nice little place in the Dordogne. How different things might have been now if only they have taken to the time to have a coffee and admire the view!
Our own toilet and a fridge – what more could you want?
We’ve been on the road for just over a week now, so here’s a little update – how we beat Black Saturday, our first visitor and our own toilet!
Black Saturday dawned bright and blue and we were completely unaware until the day before that the day we had picked to start our grand tour, was the same day that the rest of Europe always picks to start their two weeks in the sun. Leave in the afternoon and you will be fine (probably), was the advice we were given, and it was academic anyway. Despite being up with the lark, the flat still needed to be cleaned and then Charlie needed to be packed.
Have you heard the expression – squeezing a quart into a pint pot? It is our daily task. We have tried to pack the minimum, but even just with Chubby, our clothes bags and food provisions, we still have to wrestle it in every day. Have we brought too much gear – inevitably? Do we need it all right now – of course!
Can we fit it all in – yes we can!
So by mid afternoon, we were ready to go and “put some miles between us and Amsterdam”. Charlie ate up the road all the way to Dinant in Belgium; our advice was good and we saw no sign of the holiday exodus – so there’s tip number one, never leave in a hurry! We swapped the lowlands of the Netherlands for the craggy outcrops of Belgium’s premier climbing region, chugging slowly between the towering rocky pillars that greet you at the entrance.
Quite the arrival
Day two, country three as we crossed over into France. We’ve travelled diagonally across France from Dinant to Bordeaux, with a few stops along the way. It’s not meant to be fast, but we did not expect it to be this slow either. The GPS is programmed to avoid motorways, which has brought us through countless delightful villages and towns – all at 50 km per hour!
vive la France ancienne
Wine as far as the eye can see
A few days ago we were calculating how long to travel 250km: “I reckon three and a half to four hours,” I said. “Time was I would have said about an hour and a half,” was Geoff reply, with fond memories of a Ducati motorbike with an engine as third as big again as Charlie’s!
But we are now based in Bordeaux for a few days – staying first at the house of old family friends – Charles, Linda, Katie, Isobel, Fudge the dog and Ben the giant ginger cat – and now camping out in their soon(ish) to be summer house.
I’m not naughty at all!
They can just chat away – I’ll sit over here
Barbecue at the building site
There are walls and a roof, but the rest is a building site. It is in a gorgeous village by the sea and as Geoff says “we’ve scored our own toilet and a fridge”. What more does any one want!
Meet Charlie Charleston
They’re called Ugly Duckling, Flying Dustbin, Umbrella on Wheels, Tin Snail or even Jernseng (which sounds funnier when you know it’s Norwegian for Iron Bed).We call ours Charlie Charleston, the 2CV.
Charlie Charleston – no nicknames or shortforms please – is our gorgeous 1986 Citroen 2CV, Charleston model and pretty damn stylish, even if we say so ourselves.
It’s a little car with a fascinating history of design, social and mechanical engineering, which you can read more about from Geoff in More Hammers than Spanners, but for now, just know that he is going to carry us, our gear and Chubby Coleman on the first part of our adventure.
And because he’s special, he’s also got his own tumblr account