- Sep 25, 2018
- 424
- 946
- Funster No
- 56,389
- MH
- Chausson 628eb Ford 170
- Exp
- September 2019
Hello everybody.
Our names are Paul and Val Bridgestock and we are with our two little dogs Max the Sheltie and Margaux the little rescue pup. We are English but we live in Axat in the south of France where we run a restaurant.
We are on our first holiday in years. We work hard at our business and have been successful but we are exhausted and have taken two months off to tour around Europe.
We left France a couple of weeks ago and travelled down through Italy and took the ferry from Bari to Igoumenitsa in Greece. Since then we have been travelling around the Peloponnese. We are having a great time in our brand new (and first ever) Camping Car a Chausson 628eb with the superb Ford 170bhp engine.
So far all has gone very well and we have covered about 4,000 km. We do have a problem with the electric bed which has come unhitched and I am about to place a question on the Chausson page so if any kind person can assist us it would be very much appreciated.
First impressions of being a camping car owner? We have been impressed with the general friendliness of other camping car owners and how easy the thing is to drive. We met a charming couple, Ian and Heather who had a blue Hymer van on the ferry and they gave us much good advice.
That does not mean that at times even as an experienced driver that I have not been fairly terrified by the width of the thing when manoeuvring Claude (as the beast is known) through tight gaps.
Below is a short tale of the trip so far. If it is too long I apologise but it sums up the first part of our trip so far.
We left eventually two Sunday's far too late in the day. It was very stressful as the camping car people had been ages fitting some stuff. Let me explain.
We have not had a proper holiday in years and we are determined to make this great. We ordered the camping car a month ago for collection on our wedding anniversary at the start of September.
Prior to closing our restaurant we returned to the dealer to buy two chairs and came out of the showroom having spent a further 9.000 €. Gulp!
We ordered an air conditioning unit, solar panels and a Lithium battery system with a massive inverter 'thing'. In addition we ordered an LPG gas system.
'The French equivalent of 'bring it in on Thursday Guv and she will be ready for Friday night, promise!' was said. What bollocks I hear you cry and you would be right to be a doubting Thomas.
We waited Friday afternoon but the work took longer than expected (that never happens normally, right?). 'No worries General, we will have it ready by Saturday lunchtime, promise, we won't let you down, our word is our bond and we have been doing this for 30 years' and other quotations of complete and utter crap. I, the most impatient person in the world, WANTED TO GO ON HOLIDAY!!!!!
Saturday lunchtime came. Saturday lunchtime went. My fuming and dark glares started. I was grumpy. Then I was very grumpy, then I was even grumpier. Then I was contemplating burning the whole dealership down. Where does one buy matches on a Saturday afternoon?
At last! All ready!. Errrr no. 'There is the teaniest weaniest little problem'. 'Come into the office, take a seat. Would you like a coffee? You see there are just a couple of small glitches. Almost not worth mentioning it really.
We can't fit the LPG system as there is not space under French regulations to fit the filling tap. Ok, no great problem as it had been an impulsive purchase and it was the other stuff that was important so great.
Can we take Claude (the name for the camping car)? Errr yes (and no). You can if you don't mind not having the air conditioning working. WHAT! 3 blasted days and no air con and we are off to Greece in September!?
Well the massive, enormous, huge inverter 'thing' that drives the air con when off grid is not quite massive, enormous and huge enough. We need to order a bigger one and it won't be here until Wednesday. Well, by this time I would have taken Claude if they had sawed the roof off and made it into a convertible. I was not waiting so we took it at 6pm and headed home.
Sunday morning then so I will spend 30 minutes packing Claude and then we are of, right? Wrong. It took me for ever and it was 2pm before we could set off. My dreams of hitting Italy on the first day were doomed and I was stressed and grumpy.
The good news is that Claude drives very well indeed. The 170bhp engine is a dream and it is very easy although he is wide once off the beaten track.
We stopped the first night God knows where in France but I found a great restaurant where we had excellent pizza and a gallon of wine.
We then headed over the border into Italy. If you know that part of Italy then you will know that the motorway system is an absolute swine. Very heavy traffic, very narrow lanes on the motorways, bridges, never ending tunnels and ever changing speed limits varying from 40kmph to 130 with every combination in between and terrible signage coupled with speed traps everywhere and speed cameras every 5km. It is in short a pig of an area to drive in.
Still. The good news is that I have lots of experience now. Why? Because 75km into Italy both the mobile phones and our new superfast, hyperdrive, turbo, life changing, guaranteed forever and 'it will do you proud Sir' WiFi dongle 'thing' stopped bloody working. As we could not ring Orange, the phone provider until we had a signal, we took the decision to go back to France and being a man, I HATE going back. Eventually we had a signal and a 1 hour conversation took place. Eventually we got the 2 phones going but the blasted dongle which we bought especially for this trip is faulty. So having left the French place at 5am while Val was still in bed and having driven in rush hour traffic past Nice which is always an absolute bitch and then having driven until 1pm we were back just past Nice again. I was not happy (again).
We pressed on into Italy and found a small village where we parked in the square next to the church. We had a so-so meal. The owner was very snotty about the doggies so we had to eat outside which we prefer anyway but we had to sit on a bench.
I simply don't understand why dogs can't be taken into restaurants..................................Errrrr. I had better not go down that route of conversation. You see little Margaux has been in season and Max has shown not a jot of interest and had continued to be only interested in toys and chasy doggie games. That is until they were both under the table at the restaurant. Like lightening three humps, spin and ..........arrggghhhhh. Locked together for 20 minutes while Max slept and Margaux whined. Thank God the grumpy owner did not see. He was very snotty when I asked for salt for the French fries I am not sure what he would have thought to an unbridled orgy under table 5.
Max (hereafter referred to as 'the sex beast') has since ravaged Margaux 9 times! She is a virgin no longer and the vet will need to be visited for special injections in a week.
I have to say that I did not like Italy at all. The roads were good after the first 150km but we saw some absolutely outrageous driving. We witnessed nearly 5 serious accidents and as for Italian lorry drivers whom I now have a very special and normally rarely used word for that I save for special occasions, they were absolutely terrible.
The acceleration lanes onto the motorways in Italy are very short and blind when you enter them. Luckily Claude accelerates like a Ferrari (well not really but he is quite quick). Never once did any of the miserable, dangerous pigs move over despite in every case the lane next to them being empty. The very worst driving that I have seen in well over 2 million miles of driving.
The food in Italy was quite expensive but then we came to the coast road down to Bari. Palm trees, unimpeded views of the beach quiet roads and a wonderful drive? No. Think Friday night rush hour in some miserable town without the good bits . It is a concrete jungle with nowhere to stop and it went on forever. It was in short an absolutely terrible journey.
We arrived at the port to be met by complete mayhem. Once you are in you can't get out so Val my wife who is in a lot of pain with her hip had to walk miles inside to the ticket office. It is an overnight crossing and we had booked 'camping on board' which means that you can stay in the camper van with the wufflesnuffters. Problem. We could not. Val rang me and I could hear the conversation where she went into full on Nazi Obergrupenfurer snotty bastard mode. 'Today Poland, tomorrow ze vurld'. Eventually we got it all sorted and we had a very good crossing. I slept all night which I never do and then we were in Greece.
We came off the ferry at 6am and stopped at a simple little roadside café. We had 2 excellent super short espressos and then some pastries. Spinach, feta and nut pastries which were just about ok and then being a man I had what I thought was a double savaloy sausage in pastry. Well yes, but it was also stuffed with very sweet cheese. It was one of the very worst things that I have ever eaten but the owner was very friendly.
We drove to a sublime spot on the coast where the doggies played and I slept for an hour. The road turned into a VERY expensive toll road where we spent about 80€ in 50km but it was superb.
Eventually after a very long drive we ended up on the edge of a river mouth where we had cold cuts for dinner and 2 bottles of wine. Totally deserted and very tranquil.
We have had several nights now in Greece and while some of the roads are awful with huge bumps and lots of subsidence we have found excellent places to eat and sleep, never once going onto a camp site.
We pulled up in a medium sized town called Petalidi on the quay and had the best meal of the trip so far. The bottle of white wine was faulty and had to be refilled and my roast pork was so good that I am going back for more tonight.
Well that is the trip so far. We are finally starting to relax. The doggies are having a wonderful time. I intend to get absolutely whammed tonight and we are probably staying here tomorrow.
The best of luck to all you fellow camping car owners and drivers.
Paul and Val Bridgestock
Our names are Paul and Val Bridgestock and we are with our two little dogs Max the Sheltie and Margaux the little rescue pup. We are English but we live in Axat in the south of France where we run a restaurant.
We are on our first holiday in years. We work hard at our business and have been successful but we are exhausted and have taken two months off to tour around Europe.
We left France a couple of weeks ago and travelled down through Italy and took the ferry from Bari to Igoumenitsa in Greece. Since then we have been travelling around the Peloponnese. We are having a great time in our brand new (and first ever) Camping Car a Chausson 628eb with the superb Ford 170bhp engine.
So far all has gone very well and we have covered about 4,000 km. We do have a problem with the electric bed which has come unhitched and I am about to place a question on the Chausson page so if any kind person can assist us it would be very much appreciated.
First impressions of being a camping car owner? We have been impressed with the general friendliness of other camping car owners and how easy the thing is to drive. We met a charming couple, Ian and Heather who had a blue Hymer van on the ferry and they gave us much good advice.
That does not mean that at times even as an experienced driver that I have not been fairly terrified by the width of the thing when manoeuvring Claude (as the beast is known) through tight gaps.
Below is a short tale of the trip so far. If it is too long I apologise but it sums up the first part of our trip so far.
We left eventually two Sunday's far too late in the day. It was very stressful as the camping car people had been ages fitting some stuff. Let me explain.
We have not had a proper holiday in years and we are determined to make this great. We ordered the camping car a month ago for collection on our wedding anniversary at the start of September.
Prior to closing our restaurant we returned to the dealer to buy two chairs and came out of the showroom having spent a further 9.000 €. Gulp!
We ordered an air conditioning unit, solar panels and a Lithium battery system with a massive inverter 'thing'. In addition we ordered an LPG gas system.
'The French equivalent of 'bring it in on Thursday Guv and she will be ready for Friday night, promise!' was said. What bollocks I hear you cry and you would be right to be a doubting Thomas.
We waited Friday afternoon but the work took longer than expected (that never happens normally, right?). 'No worries General, we will have it ready by Saturday lunchtime, promise, we won't let you down, our word is our bond and we have been doing this for 30 years' and other quotations of complete and utter crap. I, the most impatient person in the world, WANTED TO GO ON HOLIDAY!!!!!
Saturday lunchtime came. Saturday lunchtime went. My fuming and dark glares started. I was grumpy. Then I was very grumpy, then I was even grumpier. Then I was contemplating burning the whole dealership down. Where does one buy matches on a Saturday afternoon?
At last! All ready!. Errrr no. 'There is the teaniest weaniest little problem'. 'Come into the office, take a seat. Would you like a coffee? You see there are just a couple of small glitches. Almost not worth mentioning it really.
We can't fit the LPG system as there is not space under French regulations to fit the filling tap. Ok, no great problem as it had been an impulsive purchase and it was the other stuff that was important so great.
Can we take Claude (the name for the camping car)? Errr yes (and no). You can if you don't mind not having the air conditioning working. WHAT! 3 blasted days and no air con and we are off to Greece in September!?
Well the massive, enormous, huge inverter 'thing' that drives the air con when off grid is not quite massive, enormous and huge enough. We need to order a bigger one and it won't be here until Wednesday. Well, by this time I would have taken Claude if they had sawed the roof off and made it into a convertible. I was not waiting so we took it at 6pm and headed home.
Sunday morning then so I will spend 30 minutes packing Claude and then we are of, right? Wrong. It took me for ever and it was 2pm before we could set off. My dreams of hitting Italy on the first day were doomed and I was stressed and grumpy.
The good news is that Claude drives very well indeed. The 170bhp engine is a dream and it is very easy although he is wide once off the beaten track.
We stopped the first night God knows where in France but I found a great restaurant where we had excellent pizza and a gallon of wine.
We then headed over the border into Italy. If you know that part of Italy then you will know that the motorway system is an absolute swine. Very heavy traffic, very narrow lanes on the motorways, bridges, never ending tunnels and ever changing speed limits varying from 40kmph to 130 with every combination in between and terrible signage coupled with speed traps everywhere and speed cameras every 5km. It is in short a pig of an area to drive in.
Still. The good news is that I have lots of experience now. Why? Because 75km into Italy both the mobile phones and our new superfast, hyperdrive, turbo, life changing, guaranteed forever and 'it will do you proud Sir' WiFi dongle 'thing' stopped bloody working. As we could not ring Orange, the phone provider until we had a signal, we took the decision to go back to France and being a man, I HATE going back. Eventually we had a signal and a 1 hour conversation took place. Eventually we got the 2 phones going but the blasted dongle which we bought especially for this trip is faulty. So having left the French place at 5am while Val was still in bed and having driven in rush hour traffic past Nice which is always an absolute bitch and then having driven until 1pm we were back just past Nice again. I was not happy (again).
We pressed on into Italy and found a small village where we parked in the square next to the church. We had a so-so meal. The owner was very snotty about the doggies so we had to eat outside which we prefer anyway but we had to sit on a bench.
I simply don't understand why dogs can't be taken into restaurants..................................Errrrr. I had better not go down that route of conversation. You see little Margaux has been in season and Max has shown not a jot of interest and had continued to be only interested in toys and chasy doggie games. That is until they were both under the table at the restaurant. Like lightening three humps, spin and ..........arrggghhhhh. Locked together for 20 minutes while Max slept and Margaux whined. Thank God the grumpy owner did not see. He was very snotty when I asked for salt for the French fries I am not sure what he would have thought to an unbridled orgy under table 5.
Max (hereafter referred to as 'the sex beast') has since ravaged Margaux 9 times! She is a virgin no longer and the vet will need to be visited for special injections in a week.
I have to say that I did not like Italy at all. The roads were good after the first 150km but we saw some absolutely outrageous driving. We witnessed nearly 5 serious accidents and as for Italian lorry drivers whom I now have a very special and normally rarely used word for that I save for special occasions, they were absolutely terrible.
The acceleration lanes onto the motorways in Italy are very short and blind when you enter them. Luckily Claude accelerates like a Ferrari (well not really but he is quite quick). Never once did any of the miserable, dangerous pigs move over despite in every case the lane next to them being empty. The very worst driving that I have seen in well over 2 million miles of driving.
The food in Italy was quite expensive but then we came to the coast road down to Bari. Palm trees, unimpeded views of the beach quiet roads and a wonderful drive? No. Think Friday night rush hour in some miserable town without the good bits . It is a concrete jungle with nowhere to stop and it went on forever. It was in short an absolutely terrible journey.
We arrived at the port to be met by complete mayhem. Once you are in you can't get out so Val my wife who is in a lot of pain with her hip had to walk miles inside to the ticket office. It is an overnight crossing and we had booked 'camping on board' which means that you can stay in the camper van with the wufflesnuffters. Problem. We could not. Val rang me and I could hear the conversation where she went into full on Nazi Obergrupenfurer snotty bastard mode. 'Today Poland, tomorrow ze vurld'. Eventually we got it all sorted and we had a very good crossing. I slept all night which I never do and then we were in Greece.
We came off the ferry at 6am and stopped at a simple little roadside café. We had 2 excellent super short espressos and then some pastries. Spinach, feta and nut pastries which were just about ok and then being a man I had what I thought was a double savaloy sausage in pastry. Well yes, but it was also stuffed with very sweet cheese. It was one of the very worst things that I have ever eaten but the owner was very friendly.
We drove to a sublime spot on the coast where the doggies played and I slept for an hour. The road turned into a VERY expensive toll road where we spent about 80€ in 50km but it was superb.
Eventually after a very long drive we ended up on the edge of a river mouth where we had cold cuts for dinner and 2 bottles of wine. Totally deserted and very tranquil.
We have had several nights now in Greece and while some of the roads are awful with huge bumps and lots of subsidence we have found excellent places to eat and sleep, never once going onto a camp site.
We pulled up in a medium sized town called Petalidi on the quay and had the best meal of the trip so far. The bottle of white wine was faulty and had to be refilled and my roast pork was so good that I am going back for more tonight.
Well that is the trip so far. We are finally starting to relax. The doggies are having a wonderful time. I intend to get absolutely whammed tonight and we are probably staying here tomorrow.
The best of luck to all you fellow camping car owners and drivers.
Paul and Val Bridgestock
And 
And if you don’t get to the vet soon Congratulations Grandad
