Virginie was off early this morning for her swim test. After Christophe took Sasha to her daycare, we headed off to a building center about 10 km from his house...me in Betty with him in his car. This was the big high speed test for Betty and what can I say, she excelled...or is it accelled? I cruised along behind Christophe in his white Doblo utility vehicle at 90 km/hr for a while, then the limit was up to 110...and then 130. I decided it was time to let the lady run...I passed him and put the pedal to the medal...or rusted remains thereof. I was up to 135 and didn’t feel like she was going to break apart and we weren’t contributing nearly as much to global warming as we had been for July and August...sweet! She’s passed the final test...yes, it’s been an expensive adventure with my campervan and as a friend of mine, Sika, put it, I should write a book called “A Betty-er Way to Europe”!
Back at Christophe’s house, after a pasta lunch (I’m still getting used to the big French lunches), I removed Betty’s front passenger wheel as it seemed it had a slow leak. We took it over to Philippe’s where, after Christophe finally removed the tire from the rim (it wasn’t his fault, the air compressor was set too low), I set about grinding off the rust. I swore that this was one of the tires that had this treatment already back in England but you gotta do what you gotta do. Philippe just got a new puppy (I guess he’s a hunter and his other dog’s too old for the hunt) and boy, what a cute and super curious little guy.
That evening we had a few drinks after dinner. I always loved Christophe’s when I would offer him a beer, wine or some other drink: “Allez!” (Let’s go!). He also made me chuckle when Virginie offered me a tea before going to bed and he upped the ante with an “Aberlour-tea” (a single malt scotch).
With the leak fixed, Betty is ready to rumble...I mean roll. I plan to head off tomorrow and give Christophe and Virginie their regular life back. I can`t imagine that when they stopped 11 days ago to help a stranded campervanner that he`d still be around at this point. What super kind people. I may have had misfortune with breaking down but I was also lucky to make some new great friends!
From this:
We went to this:
Thanks so much Christophe and Virginie!
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