Tuesday 24th June 2008 A busy day ahead

To make up for yesterdays relaxing day we planned a visit to Vichy to do some shopping and get the tyre fixed.

Noel was also looking for a large plastic box which he can store all the essential bits and pieces that come along with towing a van such as Jacks, wheel nut Newton tighteners etc etc and so we headed for Cora a large Hypermarket just outside Vichy which we have been to many times before hoping they may have what we need. After a complete search of the store we came across a metal box which although the right size would be awkward and also being metal might damage the inside of the car.

So we moved on and nearby was a company with a workshop, very much like a French version of Halfords called Norauto but this place seem deserted of staff and there only appeared to be a young girl on the till and so we gave this up. We had previously seen a place nearer Vichy called Speedy who seemed to do tyres and in my best Frenglish I explained that the tyre had a petit, petit psshhh, remarkably he understood and said in his best French that they do not mend punctures as they only sell new tyres and fit them. He suggested that the best place to go was a company called Norauto which was close to Cora Hypermarket. And so we went back to Norauto and Noel tried his best French again only this time Jennifer chipped in with the magic word ‘Crevaison’ Ah we (oui) he said and show me the tyre. We had to wait a while for everybody to recover from lunch and then they started.

The Land Cruiser wheels have locking nuts and the technician wanted to see the ownership papers of the car, he said with the help of a passer by. I could not understand why he needed to see the ‘Papers’ when I had the special nut remover to hand, that solved the papier’s issue quickly.

It took about 35 minutes checking to decide that it was a faulty valve and not the tyre and as Toyota fit the Land Cruiser with metal not rubber valves and of course they don’t have the metal ones and so we have to make do with the rubber one until we can get a new one from Toyota. I think there is a Toyota garage in Cahor in the Lot Valley which is where we go next in about 10 days time

During this time Jennifer went to Cora for a couple of foot long baguettes for lunch which we ate whilst waiting for the happening to begin.

The temperature when we left Norauto was about 35 degrees Centigrade wow it’s really getting warm now.

In Carrefour we found the ideal plastic box and along with some food shopping headed off home for an early evening meal of Avocado and shrimp salad followed by a Magnum ice cream, boy do we know how to live it up.

Later in the evening when checking on email and weather, we noticed that it is still quite cool in London at this time whereas the 10 day forecast for here is to stay around the 30 degrees mark during the day a then cool to around 21 degrees in the evening, very pleasant indeed.

We are reading books at a rate of knots at the moment and its really nice not to bother about the things we need to do at Piplin House when we eventually get back.