2100 mile tour of france, NO BREAKDOWNS!!!!

[cooke331]

As some of you may remember my last post was asking whether we should sell our bay and buy a pimped t5 (this came after our 8th breakdown of the previous 12 months) OR buy a new engine for our bay (as we`d blown a valve on the old one).

Well, we bought the new engine (and electronic ignition) and had it fitted literally two weeks before our ferry was booked for france. The 500 mile run in period and final service were finished the day before!!!

We decided that it was make or break and if the van broke down while we were out there it would have to go, so the pressure was on.

Here are some pics of our van in various french locations, click on thumbnails for enlarged images!!! :-


Campsite right on the beach in Noirmoutier (got stuck up to the chassis in sand - 8 french blokes and planks got us out!!!)


Van fully loaded, roofrack was brilliant!


We bought the Khyam at Vanwest and were so glad we had it, wouldn`t have wanted to be putting up and down our old one!! Rear safari window kept us cool at night (not normally a prob in UK!!!)


Vintage camper french stylee! We were amazed at the interest shown by the natives in our van and only saw one french bay on the road in the three weeks, when we drove through Bayeux literally the whole town stopped and looked!


Most of our campsites were found in the cool camping book, well worth buying.


We saw this nice split in the carpark of E. Lecerc (supermarket) in Chateaulin - the only split we saw in whole three weeks.


The Germans are on the beach-heads again, this time they`re lowered and narrowed - and a lot more friendly!

The next few pics are my attempt at arty photography of our van!!













Continued in next post.....................

 

[cooke331]

Continued.............

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Again click on thumnails for larger pics...............








Classic french next to classic German, i like these - miles ahead of their time!


There was about thirty of these on a rally - our van would fit in their kitchen!!! One of them couldn`t even fit through the toll road pay openings!!


Nice and shiny by sword beach.


By omaha beach.


Classic architecture. And the house!!!


Mad camper, look what`s driving it!!!


Last night, didn`t even put the awning up!! Boo Hooo...................

There we are then, we are both back in love with the old girl and we`ve spent enough on her now so i don`t think there`ll be any additions before next years tour.

Maybe a 2 litre gearbox, maybe not!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bottom rung]

Its posts like this that get me back out to the garage, even more determined to get mine finished. Great pics!

 

[Tiki-Al]

nice ride, nice weather.... niiiiice! 8)

 

[ib-bus]

Well done , very nice bus you have there and the weather was on your side too, nice trip.

 

[maddog]

Cool trip, nice pics and nearly as far as we travelled Mind you, on the way back from Norway we only had 2 days to get to France to catch the ferry.

 

[rockandrollcamper]

Really nice pics. Looks idyllic.

Where did you get your engine from and what was the consumption like?

 

[windsurfer]

Very impressive, I was pleased with a 700 mile trip round Cornwall :mrgreen:

 

[Ands1]

Congrats on the trip with no breakdowns,
More info on your destinations if you would please, me & the girlfriend are planning for France next summer..
Andy

 

[cooke331]

The engine mate is a brand new 1641 from airspeed with twin 34 ict carbs and twin quiet pack exhaust, we got about 18 mpg. Could`ve got the same from a bmw m3!!!!!!!!!! Seems like a good engine.

The places that we went were, click on thumbnails to large pic:-

L`etretat - nice seaside town about 200 miles from calais.


La Vendette, Noirmoutier - From cool camping book first couple of pics in thread. Our pitch was literally on the beach and i got stuck in the sand. Lovely little town and good location for a campsite (quite big though - about 600 pitches) - this was the furthest south that we went - on the coast level with Nantes.


Camping Bois des ecruils - woodland site from cool camping (nice quiet place, used it as a one nighter between drives)


Camping la pointe, Chateulin - Cracking riverside town, between Brest and Quimper - british owned smallish site - very friendly.


Camping Du Letty, Near Benodet - From cool camping book again. Another beachside campsite, lovely little beach. Big campsite again but worth a visit cos of location.


Chateau De Martragny - One of the "les Castels" campsites (a group of mansion owners who have turned their orchards into campsites). Nice site within 10 mins of beach landing D-Day area and Bayeux, worth a visit.


So our tour was round and about in brittany and Normandy, next time we may go further south. Only problem was with the euro it was about £3 for half a lager in bars - still cheap in the supermarket though!!!!!!!!!

Also we decided to float Dover to Calais and drive the rest to save on the massive ferry bill, we reckon now though that we`ll pay more for the ferry and get further down on an overnight one - that way you`re already where you wanna be, would offset extra ferry cost with less petrol cost

 

[paul]

La Vendette, Noirmoutier-Great site.lovely island well worth a trip-thanks for listing the other sites you used-will use them one day!!
Paul