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Journey to France, 01.04. - 08.04.2004

Route (Köln) Luxemburg, Bar le Duc, Langres, Dijon, Epinal, Sarreguermines

Our first vacation with Big Foot! 

We started April 01st, 2004 on Thursday, first direction of Cologne to Agtar. The Eberspächer hot-water central heating was made passable here.

The navigation also worked with the two new programs and the additional GPS receiver. The original navigation of Marelli still doesn't work, though! An impulse giver for the gear is required which is ordered and will be installed within 2 -3 weeks. All programs, however, proved in the course of the longer journey that they are not optimised for France.

Die rear camera is working now but only with an additional monitor in the driver's cab. A picture over a TV card on the already installed TFT strangely enough doesn't go! This problem Agtar wants to solve at an appointment in Bad Kreuznach.

After the appointment in Cologne we then went to Luxembourg via the direction of Coblenz. As in the case of our last tour with the predecessor WoMo we had exactly at the same exit at Maria Laach again a breakdown. The clutch hung! The assistance of ADAC was only conditionally since for vehicles with more than 7.5 t there isn't a take-over of the tow away costs. The person from ADAC recommended a "tap-dance" on the clutch pedal and miraculously it then worked. We were escorted by the ADAC to Mayen to the Mercedes garage. In the meantime it was approx. 22:00h and we went to sleep frustrated.

Friday 02.04.2004
On the next morning a service person from Mercedes noticed that air was in the clutch hydraulics. Since this had appeared already once approx. 10 months ago, the diagnosis was clear for Mercedes: the slave cylinder of the clutch must be leaky! This part was available from the central store in Mainz and deliverable on the same day. Since a refresh of the fluid would have removed the problem only temporarily, we decided on the "drastic way" and ordered the cylinder. It was 10:00h in the meantime and so we inspected Mayen. A nice small town (even if we would have preferred to do without the visit) with a beautiful castle and city wall. After various purchases we went back to the workshop where the slave cylinder already had arrived and was built-in.
So we were able to drive to Luxembourg in the late afternoon where we favourably tanked and bought cigarettes (the saving by tanking here passed into smoke again!) We didn't continue the journey to France due to an intense jam in front of the French border and rested on a parking lot on a minor road in Luxembourg.

Saturday & Sunday 03. & 2004.04.2004
Behind the border our first way was to a "Supermarché" in Thionville (proximity Metz) where we satisfied our strict requirement for a "Plateau Fruit de Mer". With various other delicious foods we headed for a memorial (Mémorial Américan you Saillant de Saint Mihiel) and than further to bar Le Duc.

Here the "Plateau Fruit de Mer" was disposed in a natural way. The parking space was very picturesquely directly at the channel Marne-Rhin. The local disposal station was a big help to us.

The next day the weather became better after initial showers of rain and we started to the town inspection. The town is split into an lower and upper part, the latter with a castle and the apparently older structure. There were enough picturesque corners for looking and to take a photograph. For the next day, a Monday we decided to go to the lower part of the town for shopping again.

Apparently the Monday was a day off for almost every shop. So we drove to Grand with his Roman amphitheatre and the floor mosaic and continued to Chaumont where we found a nice parking space at a channel. The mussels bought earlier in a supermarket in bar Le Duc compensated a little the starting rain. No one fancied any longer walks with the tremendously filled bellies.

Monday, 05.04.2004
The visit the next day in the town was characterized by the search for a parking lot since the WoMo doesn't find accommodation with its dimensions on a parking lot for small cars. However we managed this. We started our visit in a mix of cold wind, rain, sunshine and hail. Unfortunately, the big fastening tower from the 12th century was closed. So we inspect the further sights highlighted in brochures distributed generously by the town but this didn't last too long and so we left soon. On the continuation of the journey we then even still saw the very long viaduct from the end of the 19th century because of a non-planned deviation.

Tuesday, 06.04.2004 
The planned way to Dijon actually led us to Langres, which we saw on a mountain strategically situated with its city wallls.

Some of the buildings within the very big town walls go back until the Gothic time and are very picturesque. Nevertheless some of them are in miserable condition. The town tour didn't become a pleasure because of cold, windy weather. It would have been twice as beautiful with comfortable 20° C and sunshine. The rain, however, started mixed with hail just when we came back to the WoMo. The noise of rain dripping onto the roof whilst you sit in the dry and warm WoMo is very comfortable.

Wednesday, 07.04.2004
Since my wife had a strict requirement for "mustard with honey" and we hadn't found any in the previous supermarkets, we had to try our luck in the capital of the mustard - Dijon. And at the first Supermarché we found it! Another Plateau Fruit de Mer made the rest of the crew as well happy. So we headed now north to Epinal. Once we were here we drove out of town till we find a quiet place directly at the Mosel. The evening was as normal: Drinking, eating and falling into bed exhausted because of this.

Thursday, 08.04.2004
We have gone to Epinal only quite briefly after we had stayed extremely long time in bed. The most remarkable experience was on the parking lot: Actually the parking space we had found was only for cars but we managed to squeeze into it without blocking other cars or 4 parking spaces at once. The parking lot was directly opposite the local police station and we saw on our way to town a policeman who went around our vehicle. Full of worry that they may block our wheels with clamps we hurried back. It proved, however that the nice police man was only interested in the camper itself and after we had given him the web page for further details, everyone was happy and we started with the stroll through the town.

At 14:30h we left in the direction of the Sarreguermines to stay there overnight and to go shopping again and fill the tank. After a short coffee break we arrived round about 18:00h in the supermarket (don't ask me how much in total we visited!). So we bought a last "Plateau Fruit de Mer". Unfortunately parking for WoMo's was restricted. So we continued to drive and short time later we were in Germany. Since all of us preferred to go home now, we left the seafood in the refrigerator and ate just baguette and then continued to drive. Since Big foot is quite quick (100 km/h aren't a problem if it would be allowed. I would I never drive so fast since I observe always strictly the regulations!!!!!) we managed to arrive at 22:00h in Bad Kreuznach.

A nice, short vacation, no bigger problems or breakdowns, nothing more which we wouldn't have expected at all. Remarkable was, that the hard disk of the PC didn't fail although the streets sometimes were quite rough!

[ 04.04 France ] [ 04.07/08 England, south ]

Stand: 24. September 2010