Chim to France...

[ropey]

Hi All,

The GF and I are planning on taking the Chim to France from the 17th July, for a week. We were originally going to do this in October but she has a couple of weeks in July when she won't be working, so it made more sense to do it then.

Just wanted to know if anyone knew if the French kids are still at school then, or are they on hols - and therefore it is likely to be very busy?

We don't have Air-Con in the Chim, so are we likely to boil to death in mid-July? It is primarily a driving holiday, so might it be better to wait til October, and just do something else this time?

Also, anyone have any recommedations for places to go/drive through/stay - nothing massively expensive - this is not a 5* trip!

I know this has been done to death on the Le Mans forum, and I shall be looking there for my list of spares to take, but can I have some definitive answers to the following please:

1. Do you have to take a spare, or is tyre weld sufficient?

2. If you just take tyre weld, do you need a mini compressor - or are the cans enough to do the job?

3. Are GB stickers still mandatory? Or is it better to just get a new rear number plate with the GB and Eurostars? (Don't fancy sticking a GB sticker to my bumper!)

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Ropey

[rjben]

2) take a foot pump

and on top of all that....just remember 3-point turns are ilegal in France....long story.

Enjoy!

[bsdnazz]

We took our Chim to France on a long weekend in May last year.

It was hot and we ended up driving with the top on to provide shade!

We took our spare and tire weld but needed neither.

For our GB sticker (just voted UKIP so no Eurostar number plate for me) I cleaned up the back of the chim, applied vasaline, polished it off and stuck the GB sticker on. A week later the GB sticker came off pretty easily.

[peak 911]

alsace/lorraine,eastern france and only 6 hours from calais.superb roads smooth and sweepy,loads of cols with little traffic.the area is a cross between alpine french and german and plenty of wine. accomodation is good value at about 30 to 40 pounds a night for 2.

[mickrw]

my partners a teacher so we always find ourselves in France at peak holiday time, but if you stay off the autoroutes and travel down the N, D and C roads you'll have fantastic drives on some empty roads, apart from popular tourist towns. We took our Chim down twice and have done it twice in the Tuscan, through the centre of France down to the south.

You'll find the car attracts a great deal of good attention! Done many spur of the moment photo shoot's at petrol stations! Taken many spares (touching wood) and never needed any of them. A good recovery insurance is a must, just in case. Have fun, it's a great country for driving in.

Mick

[Le TVR]

ropey said:

is likely to be very busy?

Depends where you are going....

School holidays (all zones) start 30 June.

If you ar driving around topless all day I would suggest carrying a large quantity of drinking water.Probably far more important than worrying about GB stickers!

Last summer we had 45° so check your coolant and sun cream levels......

[DustyC]

Just come back from 5 days at Le Mans and did a lot of driving whilst there.

My Griff doesent have a cold setting for the cabin air (warm or fecking hot) so I closed all the vents, left the roof off, applied factor 8 and donned my cap.
Perfect.
Didnt get too hot or burnt and the car handling everything nicely.

We are doing a Euro driving holiday in September too. Im going to buy a couple of bags which I can strap in to the parcel shelf. Should leave the boot fairly free for other bits.

[mean'n'roofless]

Did a run from Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and down through France to the Dordogne last week in a week and it was fantastic.

Didn't do anything they told me to (spare bulbs, warning triangles etc) but had not problems.

Be careful with the speeds now because they're really tightening up on speeders over there and watch out for some of their smaller fast roads as they aren't flat and you get a lot of trns with negative camber. Also beware that on the smaller roads in more urban areas that the old French drivers may pull out from adjoining right hand roads straight in front of you. There used to be the law that anything joining from the right has priority and some of the older ones in the small villages still do this.

You will get a lot of interest in the car though and you wont need to worry about parking in some of the smaller towns, they dont go in for keying cars over there.

If you can take a small reserve of fuel and remember on Sundays it can be impossible to get fuel. Practically all garages are closed on Sundays and those that are open only use the 'chipped' cards.

There are very few cameras in France and most times if you are away from the tourist runs then you will be permitted a little tolerance on the limit, they wont do anything for 130 in a 110 but faster than that and you're asking to be pulled, that said in my week long journey I didn't pass a sngle copper, sorry gendarme.

Get some good windscreen washer though. Chimaeras see to be the car of choice for bugs to kill themselves on and in France there's a lot more bugs, a lot more.

[ropey]

Cheers Chaps, this is great stuff. Think we're gonna do it, and just hope it's not *too* hot (typical bloody English - complain when it's raining, complain when it's hot!!)

I'm compiling a list of spares to take (bulbs, accelerator cable, etc) - any essentials? So far I have listed:

- accelerator cable
- headlight bulbs
- rear bulbs (x4) - are they all the same?
- coolant
- fuses (which ones?)
- fan belt

Is a spare tyre a legal requirement in France?

Just looked for prices on Speed Ferries, and going from the Friday to the following Sunday is £105 for me and the GF. Not too bad I thought.

Keep the advise coming. Many thanks.

Cheers,
Ropey

[mean'n'roofless]

Yes believe it is. I just took a can of foam filler though. But then again I didnt take any of the other stuff you're taking

[mrmaggit]

Go onto the Griff forum (I dare you ), i've just posted a list this last week with what Dr. Joolz put in a spares box for me to take to the Continent.

[raceboy]

mrmaggit said:

i've just put Dr. Joolz in a spares box for me to take to the Continent.

Thats one way of doing it

>> Edited by raceboy on Friday 18th June 12:09

[DustyC]

The master fuse would be a good idea.
Must get a spare myself.

Have all the rest ready to go.

Dont forget your Sunglasses and a towel to leave in the car to lay over the steering wheel and gear knob.
(and perhaps that other lever near the gear knob, whatever it does ).

[WRINKLY]

DustyC said:

The master fuse would be a good idea. Must get a spare myself. Have all the rest ready to go. Dont forget your Sunglasses and a towel to leave in the car to lay over the steering wheel and gear knob. (and perhaps that other lever near the gear knob, whatever it does ).

Be careful with the sunglasses! Use sparingly! After 2,700 miles in France last month, sunglasses on, after 1200 miles looked like a cross between a panda and a negative of Zorro. Kept the French amused until the tan maerged in, though. Back over again later this month for another 8 weeks or so, and will squint a lot.

[mrmaggit]

raceboy said:

mrmaggit said: i've just put Dr. Joolz in a spares box for me to take to the Continent. Thats one way of doing it >> Edited by raceboy on Friday 18th June 12:09

Hehe, nice one. But I think you'd prefer him to be fixing your Chim, wouldn't you?

[raftom]

Check the scameras list below. They are normally well signaled in the road, but just in case...

www.radarsfixes.com/c_carte.asp?carte=F

I've driven with fellow PHer drum4it2 from Le Mans to the Spanish basque country in last Monday. He messaged me yesterday after arriving in Barcelona. His Chim has been fine, with no problems at all.

[raceboy]

mrmaggit said:

raceboy said: mrmaggit said: i've just put Dr. Joolz in a spares box for me to take to the Continent. Thats one way of doing it Hehe, nice one. But I think you'd prefer him to be fixing your Chim, wouldn't you?

I've got a chim? I'd forgot all about that
It seems to have been away so long I think I need a retest
no fault of joolz, or anyone doing any work on it, it's just taken a long time due to going bang in a big way, and it not being scheduled to go bang
Fingers crossed, engine and car will be reunited sometime next week

[N17 TVR]

raftom said:

I've driven with fellow PHer drum4it2 from Le Mans to the Spanish basque country in last Monday. He messaged me yesterday after arriving in Barcelona. His Chim has been fine, with no problems at all.

Nuno, thanks for looking after him !!! He called me yesterday from Barcelona and seems to be enjoying the trip. Glad to hear the car is holding up well.

[w4dge]

I also travel back to France that day, we are going to watch Le Tour in the Alpe Duez, a little cooler in the mountains.

Recommend anywhere in the Dordogne region, lovely people fabulous food and drink lots of cheap places to stay.

>> Edited by w4dge on Friday 18th June 13:34

[mrmaggit]

raceboy said:

mrmaggit said: raceboy said: mrmaggit said: i've just put Dr. Joolz in a spares box for me to take to the Continent. Thats one way of doing it Hehe, nice one. But I think you'd prefer him to be fixing your Chim, wouldn't you? I've got a chim? I'd forgot all about that It seems to have been away so long I think I need a retest no fault of joolz, or anyone doing any work on it, it's just taken a long time due to going bang in a big way, and it not being scheduled to go bang Fingers crossed, engine and car will be reunited sometime next week

I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time.