Bijou Interior Tour – Part 1

It looks like our beautiful, warm sunny days are coming to an end. The weather forecast shows nothing but drizzle, rain and even the possibility of snow in the foreseeable future. So we decided to take advantage of our last sun-filled afternoon and take some photos of Bijou’s interior to share with you. I’m going to split this tour into two parts, because she’s so huge. 🙂

I thought I’d start by pointing out one of Bijou’s most unique features. It is so unique, we didn’t even know what it was and, even though two people, on separate occasions, have confirmed it’s function, I am still not sure I believe them. Y’all, it’s a giant, foot-long shoe horn! Seriously, I would not in a million years have figured this one out. Any of you have one?

As you can see, it has its own place in our closet, which is not very big. It holds about a dozen hanging items and the shelf thingy we bought at IKEA, which I love because it holds a lot of stuff. I just have to try not to load it down too much. Right now, it holds our extra bedding, my pajamas, and bits and bobs that don’t fit anywhere else, like my Water Pik. So far, that has been the most difficult item to store and use. There is no place for it to sit on the bathroom sink to use it, no cabinet deep enough to store it, so for now it has found a home in the closet. I have to use it at the kitchen sink. 

There is a rectangle cut out of the floor in the back of the closet, underneath is the boiler and heater. So, when we’re heating water, the closet gets nice and toasty. If we unload the hanging stuff, we can use it as a drying closet in the winter. Pretty sweet! I’m sure at one time there was a little cover that went over that hole, but we haven’t found it yet. We have to be careful not to let stuff fall down into the boiler closet. 

One thing that Bijou will do if it’s really cold is dump all her boiler water. That’s a safety feature to keep it from freezing up and causing damage. The first time we fired her up at the dealership she dumped all her water and we have no idea why. It’s like she was excited to see us. We had a cat who used to do this too, when she was stressed. I hope Bijou isn’t stressed..

Anyway, moving on to the kitchen. And by moving on, I mean turning around, it’s literally right across from the closet. 

Yes, it is tiny! But so far there is nothing we’ve not been able to cook. And yes, I’ve used the Instant Pot (I have named her Fifi!) on several occasions and she fits wonderfully in the kitchen while in use. The gas stove comes with three burners, or hobs as they are called over here. It has a tempered glass cover which we try to keep something on, like a cutting board or a dish drying mat. Also, we don’t keep anything heavy, like canned goods, in the cabinet above, just in case things shift during flight. We don’t want something to come flying out and shatter our stove cover!

We have five drawers in the kitchen. One has two small trash cans built in, which is such a huge deal. If not for this space, where else would a trash can go? There is no “under the sink” space, that area is taken up by two drawers. Also in the trash drawer is a small space to keep cleaning supplies and dish washing liquid. It’s a nice space. 

Above that is the middle drawer where we keep cooking utensils. We have everything we need (except a lemon squeezer, but really . . . .) In the top drawer is the flatware. Pretty simple organization, actually. All of these three drawers are below the stove.

Under the sink or, more accurately, to the side of the sink there are two deep drawers where we keep our dishes, pots, pans, glassware, serving dishes, and so on. All of these drawers hold a lot of stuff, so we are not lacking on storage space. There is a door that, at first glance, would lead you to believe there is under the sink storage, but it opens to reveal the side of the deep drawers and really you can’t even access stuff. I’m not really sure why it’s there. 

So, let’s go into the bathroom. Oh, wait, it’s right there! Literally across the kitchen in between the closet and the refrigerator! How convenient! When Hymer came out with this bathroom design, it was award-winning. It has everything, toilet, sink, shower, storage, mirrors, towel pegs. Yet, in spite of its ingenious design, it is quite small. Still, I can close the door and change clothes in there but I have to be halfway in the shower to do it. It’s perfectly functional although as of this writing we have not used the shower yet. The campground has a couple of nice ones we’ve been taking advantage of while we’re here. 

So, sorry if this is TMI, but here I go anyway. As you know from our last post, there is no black tank in Bijou, just a toilet cassette which requires emptying every day or two. It can last longer if you are judicious (whatever that may look like for you…) but if you wait too long it gets heavy. So, Steven does it every day, because it’s convenient and he can. One thing toilet cassettes require are chemicals. This helps to keep the smell down on the inside, but I’m not sure which is worse, the smell itself, or the smell of chemicals. They are kind of nasty, bad for the environment and expensive, especially if you empty the cassette every day.

Enter the SOG, or toilet ventilation system. (I know, those letters don’t even match, lol.) Anyway, we knew long before we found Bijou that no matter what rig we bought, it was going to have a SOG unit on it. Lo and behold, guess what came already installed on Bijou?? So from day one, no interior smells AT ALL, and no chemicals used AT ALL. The ventilation system basically has a little fan that, once you open the cassette blade, blows all the smells outside. As an extra bonus, if your neighbors happen to be sitting too close to your van, this is one way to encourage them to move on. 

So, just a couple of more things in this area. It’s amazing just what a busy little space it is! As you can see, our front door is open and there is a nifty little screen door that sort of appears out of nowhere to keep the bugs out. It’s so well hidden that Steven still has trouble finding it. From the outside stepping in, to the left is a counter, which as in Scoopy, will be known as the “Dry Bar”. There are two cabinets under it, the top one is for tall bottles, such as wine, olive oil, vinegar, that sort of thing. Also, whatever else we shove in there. Above the counter are pegs where we can hang hats, scarves, coats, etc., as well as little shelves and pockets for sunglasses, keys and the like. 

The bottom cabinet is one that we desperately needed in Scoopy but didn’t have, it’s a place for SHOES! How glorious! Every single pair of shoes we own fits into that little cabinet, including our hiking boots! The fact that it’s right by the door is perfect, as we’re much more inclined to put shoes in there rather than just kick them off and leave them at the door.  

I mentioned previously that Bijou has a double floor, she sits on an Alko chassis which by some miracle of design makes this happen. Our fresh and grey water tanks sit between the double floor which provides insulation and our floors stay toasty in winter. Inside, we have three small trap doors that allows us to access our fresh and grey water tanks, which, IDK why we would want to because dumping and filling occurs from the outside. Maybe it’s for cleaning the tanks, but, ew. The third little door has nothing between floors and leads directly to the bay below. That has now become our laundry chute. All dirty clothes now fall into a collapsible bin we added below. That, like the trash cans and the shoe drawer, is a major asset in the constant quest to have a place for everything. 

And finally, here’s the fridge. We are really lucky to have such a large fridge and freezer. We try to hit up the local markets and grocery stores every couple of days and not stock up too much. I’m sure when winter comes we will try to be a bit more prepared. There is an oven above the freezer which, frankly, seems like a design flaw, doesn’t it?  We haven’t used it yet except to put a dishrack in there, so I don’t if the heat will affect the freezer or not. Oven notwithstanding, the freezer stays very cold. 

NEXT UP:  Bijou’s interior tour, Part Two!

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