# France - didn't go as planned! - Part 1



## carol

This is going to be in parts, so this is Part 1 - maybe of 4...too soon to know!T

ell do you 'plans' work out? Maybe you do plan them..

As you may recall I had posted about our trip at the end of August, and had said our 'plan' this year was to go to Rapido, Millau Bridge, and south of France (Narbonne sort of to Perpignan and inland...

Well it started OK, got to Dover - earlier ferry no extra cost, thank you P&O, parked at Calais as planned.

Head off next day towards Mayenne for Rapido, but didn't start until after lunch, due to shopping and wandering around Auchan as you do when you first get over...well we do anyway...

Stopped on Aires virtually every night, never stopped on a campsite.

Buchy was the first one, slightly north east of Rouen, sort of on a parallel with Cleres, but we have been there lots of times, so thought we would try another one... Then on to Mayenne next day. Found Rapido, and even without an appointment they did solve a few of our problems, like replaced the radio which had never worked, sorted out the table which either slid side to side all the time, OR, it wouldn't slide at all.... WD40!!! (Great isn't it?)

We found a further problem on our way to them, we had this chattering and after having to get up and walk back whilst Duncan drove to find out what it was, I located the noise to the Omnivent Fan over the bed...well the roof cover to be exact. Rapido didn't fit it, but did tell us the problem, when the fan had been fitted, apparently, instead of fitting a complete unit, they just inset the fan into the opening, but this necessitated removing the locking device for the cover, hence the chattering.... This was to make us somewhat angry as it wasn't the model we had agreed to have fitted anyway.... 

We then drove across country towards Clermont Ferrand, stopping first at Le Mans (dont stop there on the 5th September, they have an annual do in the local roads, and ANYTHING parks in the Motorhome Only Aire.... which made it extremely difficult for those of us that wished to stop.... Next day onto Chateroux and then a very nice aire at Premilhat (Montlucon) - newish, only 6 proper parking spaces, lake view and fenced and illuminated, very nice, free parking, elec was €2 for 6 hours and 150ltres of water was €5 - all payable by CC. Thought the latter a bit steep especially as we only use 100 ltres when empty.... excellent stopover, and an easy 5/10 min walk to an Auchan....

Next stop was St Eloys Les Mines, which was nice, again by a lake (another walk around that one too) and its only downside, was that it was alongside a main road, but if you are lucky and get a lakeside pitch, it isn't so bad... there is an Intermarche within 5/10 walk again.

Lunch was at Brueil la Couze just off the A75 on our way down to the Millau Viaduct, having transversed Clermont Ferrand and the trams without any mishaps (thank you Jack our GPS).. That aire is free (but on our return there was roadworks and we couldn't get off there which was a bummer!), but nice stop.

A nice stop off for a quick look on that route down, think it was before our lunch stop, was at Aire de Garabit - lovely old bridge there...

We had rain on this bit journeying down, and I had gone to open the Omnivent when it stopped, only to have a wet hand, and water run down my arm...looked down at the bed, and there was damp/wet patch about 2ft - 3ft in diameter, circular.... fortunately as it had been hot, we had only the duvet cover on, no duvet in it....lifted it up off the sheet, which was damp, but not wet.... and I thought...no lock..leaking.... (Now I knew why the mattress protector had felt damp before we left home - we couldn't work it out...and I had taken it in, washed and dried it...but now we knew what was causing it - we had scratched our heads over this, after all you don't expect leaks on a NEW motorhome - do you?)

Millau you all know about, nice aire, bit tight for larger motorhomes, best to reverse down to them if you are around the 7.4m... We went under and over the viaduct cost was £6.80 I think (from memory after checking bank)... brilliant bit of design, British of course...

Off then down to Carcassonne, and stopped just outside the city walls as recommended €10 for 1-24 hours - poured with rain whilst we were there and this I reckon could be difficult for larger motorhomes again.... seemed to be busy all the time and we only had a choice of about 4 places!! and that was around 1700 when we got there.

From there we tried to stop at Trebes, but it seemed full - we missed the turning and were on the opposite side of the river, but it would have been tight with the only space available, so on to Le Redorte. Nice Aire, strange artisan dumping, but works OK, it was whilst we were down around here we had no satellite working except BBC News 24... bit annoying, and we couldn't lock on at all at Le Redorte....

From there down to Narborne Plage for 2 nights, nice and sunny but windy, which kept it comfortable, and Gruissan - 4 Vents for 2 nights.... (Still no satellite)... Narbonne was €7 a night and Gruissan was €6.10... good value really.

It was then we sat and chatted and decided that as our dealer in Germany Wanners, had seemed to stop replying to our emails since we got home, the only way we were going to solve this lot was to go.... should we/shouldn't we..... we decided if we wanted to do it whilst it was still in Warranty we better go.

Trouble was of course, we hadn't planned a foray into Germany, it was cold and wet (I had emailed my German friend who lives close to the dealers...she had been phoning them and not getting answers to our questions either - she was really annoyed with them )..... 

We set off, having decided, that we would do a small tour of the Vercors, as Duncan had wanted to see the Mountains there - and we could easily do that.

So I think this is long enough, I had better split it up into parts....I shall see if enough read it to make me go on...don't want to bore you all...I will upload some photos (assuming I still have some space...as I know I have too many already to go with it all later)

Carol


edited: Just to say the photographs for this are now uploaded to my albums - check out Winter 2008 - link is at the bottom of all my postings.


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## Mike48

Looking forward to next installment. 

You mention the Aire de Garabit. This was built by Eifel and occasionally the tourist centre exhibition is open whhich is interesting. Last week the Millau Bridge was 8.5 euros for class 2 vehicles.

Will look up the Aire you mentioned around Montlucon. We regularly stop at St Eloy Les Mines but it was a bit bleak there last week in the pouring rain.

We also use the Aires at Narbonne Plage and Gruissan. But have you tried the Aire near Carrefour? 7 euros with electricity and within walking distance of the town? This is a good winter stop as an alternative to the very windy Gruissan and Narbonne Plage Aires. However Gruissan I think is free after mid November.


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## Grizzly

Hi Carol...I'm waiting for the next instalment- you've got me gripped !

You weren't on the aire at Carcassone on the night of Thursday 11th September were you ?

If so, yours was the only MHF sticker we saw the whole trip. I thought it was a Randonneur that passed us as we were parked there but it was definately a Rapido. It heaved it down with rain all night so we did not go out to say hello !

G


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## carol

gelathae said:


> Looking forward to next installment.
> 
> You mention the Aire de Garabit. This was built by Eifel and occasionally the tourist centre exhibition is open whhich is interesting. Last week the Millau Bridge was 8.5 euros for class 2 vehicles.
> 
> Will look up the Aire you mentioned around Montlucon. We regularly stop at St Eloy Les Mines but it was a bit bleak there last week in the pouring rain.
> 
> We also use the Aires at Narbonne Plage and Gruissan. But have you tried the Aire near Carrefour? 7 euros with electricity and within walking distance of the town? This is a good winter stop as an alternative to the very windy Gruissan and Narbonne Plage Aires. However Gruissan I think is free after mid November.


Thank you - yes that will be in a later instalment!!! Agree it is great with free bus into town as well... Also a good dentist, another story....

Carol


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## Zebedee

Next episode please Carol.   

Enjoyed reading it so far, and may well pick up on a couple of your stopovers next time we are down that way.


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## carol

Grizzly said:


> Hi Carol...I'm waiting for the next instalment- you've got me gripped !
> 
> You weren't on the aire at Carcassone on the night of Thursday 11th September were you ?
> 
> If so, yours was the only MHF sticker we saw the whole trip. I thought it was a Randonneur that passed us as we were parked there but it was definately a Rapido. It heaved it down with rain all night so we did not go out to say hello !
> 
> G


Yes we were, we were parked on the end of the middle row as you went in...but when we first arrived we parked at the back wall, but the car in the picture moved, (on left of tree and we parked there) You can just see our back corner on the right.... Where were upi?
Can't attach a photo from here, it seems to have to be on the web already, no browse, to let me get it from my computer!!! ah well, I tried...

Carol

Also here is one of Premilhat (Montlucon)

Ah looking at Preview, they come out in reverse... never mind


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## devonidiot

We went to see Narbonne Plage five weeks ago.

My advice.....Don't bother.

A lot of newish holiday homes, nearly all locked up.

A very, very dreary place.


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## carol

Ah but the aire isn't - that is just motorhomes of all nationalities.... and the boulanger and deli call...well until November 15th they did...I think it goes free then for the winter, we left on 14th on our second visit. 

We didn't even walk into the Plage itself, drove around it a few times, as we were driving from one place to another, looking initially for a launderette!!

Carol


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## Grizzly

carol said:


> Yes we were, we were parked on the end of the middle row as you went in...


Whee ! we saw you moving positions then ! About 6pm just before it really tipped it down.

It's a pretty grotty aire. We couldn't find anywhere that didn't overhang the road when we arrived after lunch and we moved about 3 times. One of the places was in the bus turning circle which we did not realise until we were alerted. Thankfully this happened before one of the huge coaches came barrelling down into us.

G


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## nukeadmin

have you added all those new aires to our campsite database Carol ?
Sounds like they would be handy for other members to know about


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## zulurita

Great read Carol, thanks.

Did you get your Omnivent sorted? Pity the dealer isn;t answering your emails etc. It is a long way to go when you are not planning a visit to the dealer.

Looking forward to the next instalment.


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## Tailendcharley

Hi Carol,

Whereabouts in Mayenne is the Rapido factory...I'm going there shortly and wouldn't mind a look around...  

:lol: :lol: Smithy :wink: :wink:


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## brillopad

love a good read! all this is very interesting to people that have not been abroad or know about aires and such, keep all the info coming.dennis


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## whistlinggypsy

smithy, Rapido's address and location,

Z.I. des Perrouins
Rue. de Perrouins
53100 Mayenne

Off Rue de Rennes N12

g.p.s. N 48.30883 W 0.64244

Bob


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## carol

nukeadmin said:


> have you added all those new aires to our campsite database Carol ?
> Sounds like they would be handy for other members to know about


Gosh you're worse than DAB.... one thing at a time, I am firstly trying to get all info to Vicarious for their Aires book, write this up and if I have enought room upload the photos of the trip, then I will try to do the database.... got any spare hours? If so, we have a load of catalogues here we are fed up moving about!!!!

Carol


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## carol

Tailendcharley said:


> Hi Carol,
> 
> Whereabouts in Mayenne is the Rapido factory...I'm going there shortly and wouldn't mind a look around...
> 
> :lol: :lol: Smithy :wink: :wink:


Smithy..

Don't think that would be much good to be honest, we asked and we weren't allowed to go in and have a look, we did have a look around several of the motorhomes which were outside and being finished, ie, mattresses, those extra bits of walling they seem to put in, cleaning, curtains etc., but as we didn't want to stop any workers, it was literally a nose in the door, like seeing the new 7095df... made us think perhaps we should have waited a year to have ordered, but I reckon that could happen every year as they slightly improve models.

Where is it.... Well in Mayenne, (53) and it is going out of the town on the main road on the right, we didn't have an address either, so reckoned it would be on the outskirts somewhere and it is just after a roundabout - not really any parking when we got there. There is a guy called Paul who although English as lived in Mayenne since he was 18 months old, and he was extremely helpful, not sure what his actual job was, but they went and got him out to speak to us, and he handled all the problems we had.

His suggestion was, it would be better to make an appointment before coming next time....so I would recommend you do that, and then it may also be possible if you ask as well before to have a tour....let me know

Carol

Incidentally they are moving shortly to brand new manufacturing premises they told us, when they didn't say.


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## camoyboy

We enquired about a tour around the factory but was not possible because of Health and Safety issues. When the new factory is up and running I understand they will be organising tours.
Colin


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## Tailendcharley

Hi Carol,

Thanks for that reply.....I know Mayenne quite well as my cottage is just up the road from there in Javron so I go into Mayenne to pay rates etc at the town Mair....I take it the factory is over the river at one of the two roundabouts situated there....must have a look next time I'm there..

Thanks again
Regards

  Smithy :wink: :wink:


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