When we arrived the town was quiet and seemed deserted, there wasn't a car in sight until we turned down a narrow street and saw a flurry of people gathered at the end of it. There was a small bric a brac sale going on with all sorts of bargains to be had. Lots of traditional little French vintage gems, suitcases, children's toys, pieces of furniture and so on, if we weren't so tight on space (and on a budget) we definitely would have been buying.
The La Sarthe river ran alongside the site and beyond that were cow field upon cow field, which made a pretty decent view for breakfast. Camping municipals are notoriously basic and relatively cheap to stay on, this one cost €16 per night (inc electricity and the dog) compared to the €42 per night we paid in Paris. The facilities at this campsite were really good so we decided to make the most of them and the good weather and do all our laundry whilst we were there.
The next day we walked with the dog into the village which seemed much busier, there were people all over and a little market selling fish and vegetables. We carried on through to the outskirts of the village and along the La Sarthe where we saw a huge bridge with some beautiful houses lining the river. Beaumont-sur-Sarthe was a lovely place to stop for a couple of nights but any more than that and you'd probably find yourself pretty bored. The next morning we got up and set off for the next stop La Rochelle (this is where the fun starts).
We started the 5 hour journey to La Rochelle, making good progress along dual carriage ways and A roads, trying to avoid any road tolls. We stopped at an Intermarche to stock up on food along the way and were set to reach our next stop around 6 meaning we'd have plenty of time to get set up and settled before dark. Little did we know......bumbling along through a village doing about 50km/h (30mph) we heard 2 loud popping sounds, we looked at each other perplexed but put it down to noise from a yard we'd just passed, as we pulled up to a set of traffic lights we heard a scratching noise coming from under the bonnet. We pulled over up the road and had a look around the engine (neither of us being particularly savvy on motoring) we sprayed a bit of WD40 and tapped a few pipes with a screwdriver and continued along the journey believing we had probably solved the problem. A little further up the road travelling about 80km/h (50mph) there was an almighty rummble which sounded like we were about to take off. We stopped at a busy industrial estate in the hope we might come across a) help and b) somebody English who would understand us. One panicked phone call home to dad later we determined that a bearing (or two) had shattered on the water pump belt meaning that the chances of the engine overheating and cooking itself (again) were pretty high. Due to the fact that our poor little camper blew up a few weeks back meaning we were delaying leaving the UK by almost a month we didn't want to chance it happening again so called the RAC. After a few conversations with their offices in the UK and Lyon they sent someone out to have a look. After almost two hours and with night time falling a recovery truck appeared in the distance, both so relieved we jumped out of the camper desperate to get the van fixed and get back on our way. This proved difficult as the recovery truck driver didn't speak one word of English (and our French is poor to say the least). With a translator on the phone he told us it was irreparable at the side of the road and we would have to wait until Monday to get it into a workshop. 'Would you like to be left in the car park at the industrial estate or would you like to be taken to a (closed) garage' the translator asked. We managed to persuade him to take us to the nearest campsite so we had somewhere safe to stay until we could find a garage on Monday.
Our good fortune didn't run out there, after half an hours drive and a travel sick dog (won't go into detail but needless to say we were scrubbing the inside of the truck with disinfectant) we pull up outside an Aire. Essentially this is a carpark for camper vans and mobile homes to stop and sleep when making a long journey. It's almost midnight, we turn up in a dark, silent village, covered in dog vomit on the back of a huge recovery truck, flashing lights the whole shebang. Curtains were twitching and we knew we wouldn't be popular the next day. When we woke the following morning (although neither of us really slept wondering if we'd be on the next ferry home) all wasn't as it seemed, this Aire was actually pretty good. It cost us €7 to stay the night, there was drinking water, toilets and access to electricity if you could get plugged in quick enough and we even managed to get some free wifi. We walked about 10 minutes down the road and came across a 4* Campsite with an English speaking receptionist who offered to help us, she said she could call her mechanic first thing Monday morning and get them out to look at the van.
Monday morning we arrived at the campsite bright and early checked, playing it by ear as to how long we would be staying. The mechanic arrived and with the receptionist with translating he told us we would need a whole new water pump. The mechanic said he could have the part a fit it the following day so we needed to arrange a recovery truck to get it to the garage 5km down the road. We phoned RAC EU to ask for help, a couple of arguments and £20 of credit later they agreed to pick the van up first thing the following morning. This was all we needed, we only left home three weeks ago!!
We were intending on saving the box sets for winter when we are stuck in the van but with nothing much else to do without a van we decided to get started on Game of Thrones, we didn't leave the van for the rest of the day. The following day a recovery truck turned up to collect the van and take it to the garage, the recovery guy looked exactly like one of the Mario Brothers. He was loaded and off within 10 minutes and warned us we the van wouldn't be ready until this evening. With nothing else to do but twiddle our thumbs, the receptionist recommend we go on a 21 km bike ride. It went through 3 villages and lots of cow fields.
We packed a survival bag of peanut butter sandwiches apples and strawberries and set off on our bikes, Oscar in tow. The route was easy to follow and there was loads to see, a couple of horses play fighting in a field, a beaver swimming round in circles in a river and loads of frogs (possibly toads) singing the loudest strangest tune you've ever heard, so much so it caused Oscar to jump straight into a stream full of cow poo.
The survival bag only lasted us to the first village about an hour after we left, we returned four hours later with major saddle sore. We had a phone call to say the van was fixed and ready to collect, the receptionist insisted we took her car as it had started to rain so one of us needed to learn to drive a left hand drive on the right side of the road pretty quick. We collected the van and headed back to the campsite for an early night before finally settling off again the next day. We had a hamper of chocolate and wine made for the receptionist to say thank you for all her help.
We arrived in La Rochelle to beautiful sunshine Thursday afternoon, time to relax after a crazy few days.
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