I wish I could tell you that we did Bruges in Belgium justice, but we didn’t. We literally parked up, took a ride around town, looking for lunch and waffles, then after a good sleep at the marina parking lot we headed south into France and back to our happy place where we spent lockdown.
We returned to our beautiful aire in Sens for two reasons: first, we wanted to get Bijou’s Controle Technique, which is like the annual inspection in the States, only in France they are good for two years. We wanted to get this done now so that we could travel without having to return to France just for the CT. Second, it was time for Bijou’s 100k service. That’s 100,000 kilometers, which is just over 62,000 miles. When we bought her, she had 52,000 miles on her. It feels like we’ve traveled a million miles, from France to Ireland to Morocco and back to France, but it’s just not really that far between countries over here.
During the service they found a couple of things that would not pass the CT test, so we needed to get those things done. The new owners of Euro Camping Cars (the folks who assisted us in our purchase of Bijou) were very helpful in setting our appointments and helping us get things done. Ultimately Bijou is in good shape, but we needed two new front tires and two lights fixed, and other than that, we were good to go.
We’d had enough of hot summer days, so before we hit the road again, we decided to install a fan. We would LOVE to install an A/C, but that would just add more weight and ultimately it’s not something we would use much, so it’s very hard to justify both the cost and the added weight. But we could install a Fantastic Fan in the kitchen area, and that’s what we did! Actually it’s a Fiamma fan, and so far, we are loving it! The cost of having one installed is not cheap, but during a walk-thru Sandrine (the new owner of Euro Camping Cars) noticed we had a crack in our kitchen skylight, which, conveniently, is where our Fiamma fan would be installed. She had an adjuster from our insurance company come out and they ended up covering all but 155 euros of the cost of our new fan! How perfect is that? Sandrine did all the work on our behalf with the insurance company and we can’t thank her enough. She really went above and beyond!
Steven decided he needed to visit Paris while we were so close. It was an interesting experience. Tourists were almost absent when he was there. At the Louvre, there were only a handful of people outside where there would usually be hundreds. Not so great for tourism but Steven was in his element.
As we were preparing to leave our aire in Sens, a couple of reporters from the local newspaper came knocking on our door. They thought we were French and were just looking for a few comments from travelers regarding the town. We gave them our story and you can click here to see what they wrote. It is in French so you will need to translate.
In all we spent just over two weeks getting stuff done. Somehow, Sens feels like coming home and it’s as good a place as any to kind of reset and prepare for upcoming travel. We went through every cabinet and drawer to see what we could do without. We ended up buying two large plastic tubbies and filling them with a few things we no longer want to travel with, but that we want to eventually sell with Bijou. We left the storage with Euro Camping Cars, and it helped lighten our load a bit. We deep-cleaned Bijou, got all our laundry done and did a final shop before we hit the road again. We cooked a ton of food so we would have plenty to eat as we traveled. And, given that we are heading to Switzerland, we pulled out a few bits of autumn clothing.
We changed our route into Switzerland several times. As you know, we chase the good weather as much as possible and up until the day before we left Sens, it looked like our best route would be south through Geneva. But in the end, we went north instead. It was a long day of travel, but we finally crossed the border into Switzerland at Basel. We were expecting a border crossing and passport control, but we stopped only to pay road tax and were then on our merry way!
Next Up: Beautiful Switzerland!
~
Fixing things and improving the rig… sounds familiar!!
It’s a very similar lifestyle, except you have more wide open spaces and we have more parking spaces. 🙂
Linda, I was worried about those sheep! Glad you rescued them. As always, lovely photos and great post. You’re keeping up much better than me.
I tried very hard to take those sheepies to their Grandmother at the ranch last December, but Steven was having none of it. So they are here and always sitting in whichever window I want to open. 🙂 Thanks for your kind words about the blog, we are really trying hard to stay current, but when we’re on the move it gets difficult, as you know.
No matter where you are, getting those fixes done and making space where you can are always part of the life. Of course not everybody can just bip over to Paris in between! Sens really is such a sweet spot to call “home”. Love that river pic and of course all of Paris – surreal to see it so empty.
Looking forward to seeing Switzerland (probably cooler in all ways than our day trip to Willcox).
Idk, Willcox is kind of cool. I think you will love Switzerland, it is everything you think it is. Yes, there are cows with big bells on and they are on vacay in the mountains right now. Later, they will be taken to a heated barn. No a bad place to cow if you ask me.
It always feels so good to get those essential tasks and cleaning accomplished before moving on to new adventures. I’m glad you rescued the sheep. I would have been very sad if you had left them behind. Our little stuffed raven and chickadee go everywhere with us. 🙂 Your washing machine makes me laugh. It really does seem like a member of the family!
How extraordinary to experience Paris without the crowds of tourists. Surreal times, indeed. Happy travels to you, the sheep, and Max!
It is good to get things done, but as you know, it’s a never-ending list. And cleaning only lasts a half day, if we’re careful. Still, it feels great before it all falls apart again. LOL!
My style of lunch and dessert in Bruges. Something is always needing repaired after bouncing down the road.
The waffles along were worth the trip! 🙂 I hope Bijou has had all the love she needs for a while, we’re ready to stay rolling. Venice coming up! Very excited about that!