We’ve just returned to bonnie Scotland from our annual sojourn to la belle France, visiting again our favourite areas around Semur-en-Auxois and also to the west of Tournus, near Cluny.
The car covered just under 1700 faultless miles – thereby doubling the mileage of the previous 11 months. The odometer now shows 93010. I don’t know the French pricing/tax regime for petrol but it averaged 86.6p per litre – the same as Edinburgh and the old girl drank it at 30.7 mpg.
One day, whilst bimbling about the back roads I drove over what I initially thought was a leaf. I stopped, walked back and found a tiny vole running around, so I picked it up, placed it into the hedgerow and drove off, feeling well pleased with myself. The following day we saw a hedgehog tottering around the middle of the road. Again, we dutifully picked it up and placed it in the undergrowth.
On the third day, feeling terribly ecological as we returned to our gite at dusk, a deer leapt out of the bushes to my left about 15 feet ahead. Its second leap took it directly in front of my right headlamp where it made contact. I was doing about 30 but there was an ’orrible splintering sound. As Mrs Del started to cry, I wailed ‘ma motor…’
I stopped to inspect the damage – which did not include the lately deceased – and apart from some hair stuck in the bumper, could see nothing. A few days later I discovered that I had, in fact, lost the flap that covers the towing eye beneath the bumper. We felt a bit sorry for the poor deer as it had survived the first day of the French shooting season.
Our return to Zeebrugge involved the tedious 80 mile drive up the A26 through the featureless plains between Troyes and Reims. Glorious weather, perfect surface and almost no traffic, we did it in just under 50 minutes. The engine whined smoothly and even above 120mph, there was a lot more available. So none of the dozen astutely purchased boxes of wine were bruised!
Belgium… what’s it for??? Road surfaces are crap, signs are hidden in trees and road markings appear to be painted in thinned down grey emulsion. And they’ve got tailgating down to a fine art - especially if their MB has an AMG badge. Grrrr!
...now got to catch up on three weeks’ posts...
The car covered just under 1700 faultless miles – thereby doubling the mileage of the previous 11 months. The odometer now shows 93010. I don’t know the French pricing/tax regime for petrol but it averaged 86.6p per litre – the same as Edinburgh and the old girl drank it at 30.7 mpg.
One day, whilst bimbling about the back roads I drove over what I initially thought was a leaf. I stopped, walked back and found a tiny vole running around, so I picked it up, placed it into the hedgerow and drove off, feeling well pleased with myself. The following day we saw a hedgehog tottering around the middle of the road. Again, we dutifully picked it up and placed it in the undergrowth.
On the third day, feeling terribly ecological as we returned to our gite at dusk, a deer leapt out of the bushes to my left about 15 feet ahead. Its second leap took it directly in front of my right headlamp where it made contact. I was doing about 30 but there was an ’orrible splintering sound. As Mrs Del started to cry, I wailed ‘ma motor…’
I stopped to inspect the damage – which did not include the lately deceased – and apart from some hair stuck in the bumper, could see nothing. A few days later I discovered that I had, in fact, lost the flap that covers the towing eye beneath the bumper. We felt a bit sorry for the poor deer as it had survived the first day of the French shooting season.
Our return to Zeebrugge involved the tedious 80 mile drive up the A26 through the featureless plains between Troyes and Reims. Glorious weather, perfect surface and almost no traffic, we did it in just under 50 minutes. The engine whined smoothly and even above 120mph, there was a lot more available. So none of the dozen astutely purchased boxes of wine were bruised!
Belgium… what’s it for??? Road surfaces are crap, signs are hidden in trees and road markings appear to be painted in thinned down grey emulsion. And they’ve got tailgating down to a fine art - especially if their MB has an AMG badge. Grrrr!
...now got to catch up on three weeks’ posts...
