Holiday in France - Au Revoir Morag

Monday 21st September
Well, we've now pretty well exhausted all options for getting Morag going. A member of the Motorhome Fun web site, eddievanbitz, give me a comprehensive set of instructions on how to disable the immobiliser but Lyn and I were concerned that if something went wrong with the modifications suggested we would have even more trouble getting someone to effect a repair. So we bit the bullet and arranged for Morag to be taken to the Peugeot garage and for the full repair to be done. It's not going to be cheap but we really have no choice.
 The breakdown firm arrived to take Morag around 5:30 and we watched her being loaded onto the flatbed at taken away. The garage says it will take about a week to repair.

Morag goes for a ride

Disappearing into the sunset

Holiday in France - Days 13 to 15

Thursday 17th September - Shopping and relaxing
We collected Button from Joy who had looked after her during our visit to Sue and Andy. We spent the rest of the morning doing a thorough clean out of Morag. I drove to Bédarieux to do some food shopping and after lunch we relaxed for while in the sun.
Mostyn gave us a package which contained the Graphite Spry I had ordered the previous day. This was suggested as a possible cure for key recognition problems - it didn't make any difference whatsoever! Morag now refused to recognise the keys at all.
We took some of our helpful friends to Gilles' bistrot at Les Aires for an evening meal. The meal and company was excellent.

Friday 18th September - Lunas and rugby
We drove to the Plan d'Eau at Lunas to give Button her morning walk. This used to be one of my regular dragonfly spotting locations. It has been enhanced greatly now and has good paths, information boards, a walkway across the lake and a pleasant water garden.

Lyn and Button in the Water Garden

Fishing platform at Lunas

"Come on Mum! It's a bridge!"

Information board - and everything was correct!

Another view of the walkway over the lake at Lunas

Sue and Andy had invited us for lunch and to play a board game. They were intending to go to Collioure on Andy's motorbike the next day and had offered to lend us thier car for a couple of days while they were away. Unfortunately when we got there Andy was having problems getting his bike to start which meant they may be going in their car. We had lunch together then Sue, Lyn and I played a game of Canalmania while Andy worked on his bike.
In the evening we had supper with Christine and Mostyn and watched to opening game of the Rugby World Cup. I'm pleased to say that England beat Fiji.

Saturday 19th September - Returning the hire car
On the way to Béziers to return the hire car I dropped Lyn and Button off at Sue and Andy's house. Andy had offered to lend us his car for the weekend as they were going to Collioure for a couple of days but the problems with his motor bike continued and on my return with Mostyn to Boubals I got a message from Lyn saying that Andy and Sue were bringing her back to Boubals as they were going to take the car to Collioure instead. We had a picnic lunch with Andy and Sue on Mostyn's terrace before they drove off for their break.
We took Button for a walk locally in the afternoon. Mostyn telephoned an acquaintance who worked at a garage to see if he would be able to help with our problems with Morag. Once again, no help was forthcoming! I was now getting very depressed about our situation as Morag had failed to recognise the key despite many repeated attempts.

Holiday in France - Days 9 to 12

Sunday 13th September - Curry with friends
Lyn went to church in Lamalou-les-Bains, the church she used to attend when we lived here. In the afternoon we drove to Aspiran to see Trish and Roger and, more importantly (!) their dog Olga; another of Button's puppyhood friends. We all went for a pleasant walk through the vineyards before returning to Joy and David where David prepared a very nice curry for our evening meal.

Monday 14th September - Getting Morag back 

We drove back down to the car hire place in Béziers, hoping to retrieve Morag. Once again the key was not recognised. Further tries resulted in either the key not being recognised or Morag not starting for some other reason. At this point we re-christened Morag, "Toe Rag"! We decided that there was no alternative to getting a garage out to look at the problem but, on one last try the key was recognised and she started.

Rather than leaving her in Béziers we decided to drive her back to the Peugeot garage in Bédarieux and ask if she could be looked at and, hopefully, fixed. We emptied most of the rest of our things from Morag and returned to Boubals.

After lunch we took Button for a walk in the hills behind Boubals. It was cool but bright but we kept Button well away from the very swollen River Orb. 

Lyn looks at view while Button busies herself with a stick

Grapes ready for harvesting

Our evening meal was a very nice pork stir fry prepared by Christine.

Tuesday 15th September - Trip to Clermont l'Hérault

We had breakfast with Christine and Mostyn and then drove to Lac de Salagou to give Button a walk. Unfortunately, it started to rain just as we arrived. Despite the rain Button got a short walk. We drove on to Clermont l'Hérault for a snack lunch. 

We drove back via Liausson as we were hoping to call and see other friends, Jenny and Allan but we couldn't get a reply on the phone so gave them a miss.

We relaxed back at Boubals before eating another very nice evening meal courtesy of Christine.

Morag (the Toe rag) at Boubals

Wedenesday 16th September - Quizzing with friends

We had a relaxing morning then all 5 of us (Mostyn, Christine, Button and us) drove up to Les Aires for lunch at Gilles Aubert's bistrot. Gilles used to own Les Marroniers, our favourite restaurant in Lamalou, but had to sell up because of illness. His new bistrot at Les Aires has a terrace with excellent views over the Orb valley to match his excellent and very reasonably priced food.

Later we drove to Bédarieux to see what the garage had to say about Morag. The mechanic was not very encouraging saying that it was difficult to obtain the parts for Peugeot Boxers and that it could take weeks to effect a repair to the immobiliser system. We decided to take Morag back to Boubals for the moment and to limp back north on Saturday. Morag satrted first time!

Lyn drove her to the Aire at Lunas to empty the grey waste and the toilet cassette. We left the engine running just in case!

Sue and Andy had organised a quiz evening in aid of the "All Our Children" charity. We formed a team with Mostyn and Christine. Many of our friends were there and it was really good to be able to see them and to chat. We didn't win the quiz! Andy gave us some songs playing his newly acquired 1934 National Duolian guitar. He was as impressive as usual and the guitar has a lovely sound. Sue and Andy raised about €200 on the night.

Holiday in France - Days 5 to 8

Wednesday 9th September - At Bouysse de Caudon
Enjoyed Croissants and Pains au Raisins for breakfast. Did a bit of tidying up in Morag. We walked up a footpath to Montfort for lunch. The path was quite steep in places. We had a beer at a café/bar in Montfort then lunch, Menu de Terroir, at another restaurant. It was a very good lunch. We walked back down to the campsite. By now it was very hot and Button had a good swim in the river to cool off.

Montfort village and castle

The Cingle de Montfort from the village

 

Interesting rocks at Montfort

Button cooling off

We sat outside and had a cold drink and I had a short siesta. Later ewe each had a G&T and I got the wifi password from reception and I posted the blog entries for the first four days.

Thursday 10th September - On to Cahors
After breakfast we packed up and left for Cahors. We stopped near Gourdon to give Button her walk. We found a nice path through woodland near to the Plan d'Eau. The path followed a "Parcours Sportif" (Trim Trail). Needless to say we didn't do all the exercises - or any of the exercises!
We parked in the centre of Cahors and walked to find a restaurant for lunch. We sat at a pleasant pavement café sheltered from the sun by trees trained over a trellis. The meal was ok, but the service was terrible - even by French standards!
We returned to Morag to leave for the campsite but she wouldn't start! The immobiliser wouldn't recognise either of our keys. After several attempts and several minutes of panic We rang Ray at Cara in Stoke where we bought Morag. He advised that we might need the keys re-programmed. We were wondering where we were going to find a Peugeot dealer to help when Ray rang back to suggest that if we hadn't activated the 90 day breakdown cover that we were given when we bought Morag that might help and gave us the relevant contact information. I decided to have one last try before contacting them and, wonderfully, she started!
We decided that we would complete our journey down to our friends Mostyn and Christine in Languedoc but had to stop to top up with fuel. Morag started fine after the fuel stop so we changed our mind and looked for a nearby campsite. We found one near Montricoux. The site was nearly empty but we were allocated a pitch and were happy to stop for the night. G&Ts and Pasta and cheese lifted our spirits.

Our pitch at Montrocoux

Friday 11th September - Languedoc at last
After breakfast we were pleased that Morag started without difficulty and decided it must have been a glitch and all was now well.We continued on our journey south, stopping to give Button a walk along the Voie Vert, a disused railway line, between Albi and Castres.
We had lunch in the garden of a hotel in Réalmont. It was a nice lunch and very reasonably priced but the waiter obviously didn't enjoy his job and didn't smile once - not even to his French diners!
We continued our journey via Mazamet and St Pons, now in familiar territory near where we lived in France.We reached Mostyn and Christine's house in Boubals just after 5 pm, set up Morag in their garden and joined them for our evening meal,
Saturday 12th September - NOT a glitch!
We had pre-booked a hire car in Béziers for the week and went to collect it today. The weather had broken with heavy thunder storms during the night continuing through the day. At times the rain was absolutely torrential. Mostyn had offered to take us down to Béziers to collect the hire car but as Button is quite upset by thunder we decided to take her with us in Morag.
We completed the formalities for the car hire and were about to leave with Lyn bringing Morag (and Button) back but once again Morag refused to start! We tried several times but the immobiliser again failed to recognise either key. As the hire place was to close at midday we asked if we could leave Morag there until Monday when we would be able to contact a garage for help. We piled as much of the contents onto the back seat of the hire car and Button into the boot.
Our friends Joy and David offered to put us up for a couple of days so we drove to their house in Hérépian. Button was delighted to see Joy and her doggy friend Régis again. They played like puppies as they had five years ago.
We had arranged to go to one of our favourite restaurants for dinner with more friends, Sue and Andy. The restaurant "Auberge de Gorges de Madale", has a truly inventive chef. The 6 course meal, aperitif, unlimited red and white wine, coffee and muscat with the dessert costs only €30. The entrée was particularly impressive with a ring of sliced champignons de Paris arranged on a tomato coulis base surrounding a forest of tiny oriental mushrooms served alongside a savoury cauliflower icecream on abed of crisp fried Girolles! After a superb meal we drove Sue and Andy home and returned to David and Joy for the night.

Our 3 week holiday in France - days 1 to 4

5/9/15 3 week holiday in France
We spent a few days preparing Morag for our holiday in France. The biggest problem we had was finding somewhere with a 6Kg propane cylinder in stock! Eventually located one at GO Outdoors in Stoke. We checked the oil, water and tyres and drained and flushed through the waste tank. All ready to go on the 5th.
We left at about 10:30 headed for Kent for an overnight stop before catching the early ferry on the 6th. The journey was pretty uneventful and we reached our destination, a CL at the Waggon and Horses pub near Charing, at 4 pm. We took Button for a walk then had an early dinner in the pub. We settled down for the night early ready for an early rise tomorrow.

Waggon and Horses, Charing

6/9/15 Ferry and on to Nonancourt
We woke at 5am to get ready - it was still dark! We were at Dover in plenty of time for the 8 o'clock ferry to Dunkirk. Cooked English breakfast on the boat set us up for the journey.
Once in France we made our way via the A16 and A28 to Rouen, stopping near Le Touquet to stretch our legs and give Button a proper walk. We drove on to the Camp Municipal at St-Remy-sur-Avre. This site was small, friendly and inexpensive. The facilities were all very clean making it a good overnight stop. We ate Chilli andRice for our evening meal and polished off a nice bottle of Merlot!

Walking Button at the Aire near Le Touquet

Our pitch at St-Remy

Button relaxing after the long drive

7/9/15 On to the Limousin
We had a much more laid back start to the day leaving the site at about 10:30 to head down via Chartres and Orleans to the free A20 autoroute. We stopped for a break at the Aire du Hèron Cendré, a very pleasant rest area on the A71 with woodland to walk Button. We stopped again for lunch in Morag near Salbris then continued down to Bessines. The campsite at Morterolles-sur-Semme we had headed for (in the Caravan Club book) was closed and looked like it ahad been that way for some time so we set up in a car park near the Stade for "Camping Sauvage".

"Camping Fermé"

"Camping Sauvage"

We had our evening meal in Morag. No-one disturbed us or told us we couldn't stop there so we spent a very peaceful night.
8/9/15 To the Dordogne
Before setting out we had decided to aim for the Dordogne for a few days on our way south. We called at a nearby Intermarche for supplies before rejoining the A20. The weather was perfect with near cloudless skies all the way down to the Dordogne. We stopped at the Aire du Porte de Corrèze for a break. This is another very nice rest area with extensive open spaces to walk Button.
We reached the Dordogne around 1pm and quickly found or intended camp site, La Bouysse de Caudon, right on the banks of the Dordogne river. We had a celebratory G&T before taking Button for a walk and a swim. She seemed delighted not to be travelling on in Morag!
Once again we ate our evening meal (and drank another bottle of wine) in Morag before settling down for a good night's sleep.

At Porte de Corrèze

A shady pitch

Button Enjoying the Dordogne

The beach next to the campsite