Thursday 31st July 2008 Valence d'Agen

Very hot and sunny. I got on with the chores and did some washing. The meteo said today would be even hotter. Just after lunch the roof temperature (in the shade under the gang planks) was over 39°C. Mike suggested we went out in the car again to cool down. We went over the river bridge and turned left and went through Beaumont-en-Lomagne, then headed back through Castelsarrasin and Moissac. The sky held the last few streaks of daylight as we arrived back at Valence. The technical dept was still fiddling with lights, etc. Kept a ventilator fan on all night. The temperature outside didn’t drop below 20°C overnight.

Wednesday 30th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - finally, and at long last, fixed the car!

Hot and sticky. We waited for Citroën to ring to say the parts had arrived. The young lad rang, neither of us could follow his French, but it appeared the new silent blocks had arrived. We went to fetch them. 166€! Even worse! Filled the ZX’s tank at Géant, at least that had gone down a bit more, 1,34.9€/litre (1,38.9€ last time) back home for midday. After lunch Mike set to work on the car and replaced the silent blocks. He finished just after 4.00 p.m. knackered due to having to work in direct full sunshine. He had a wash and went for a lie down. Later we went out for a ride in the car to test it. Hooray! No more banging from the rear as we went over bumps! Took the road to Flamerens, through the lovely low hills to Sisterns and on into Caudecost, then back through Sauveterre and St Sixte (the end of the scenic route to Agen) to the boat in the dusk. Too hot and tired so we watched a film we recorded earlier, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, a modernised dramatisation of H.G.Welles’ story. Hotter and hotter. The cabin didn’t seem to cool down much after dark, even with leaving the side doors wide open (and mossie net in place). I lay in bed and sweat so much my head felt like I’d dunked it in a bowl of warm water! I migrated to the side bunk, switched the fan on for half an hour until I’d cooled down, and even then spent a restless night. Mike got up several times, he said he could hear the workmen talking who were setting up the sound and lighting system for the pageant, plus they had several large spotlights on, which he could see even though we’d got the reflective heat shields in both bedroom windows. 

Tuesday 29th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

Cloudy first thing, sunny and getting hotter again later. We went to Agen Sud to get the new silent blocks, they hadn’t arrived, Mike asked them to 'phone us. They told him they would be 80€ each! Ouch, ouch, ouch!!! 160€ = £128 for two bits of rubber in steel shells. Waah! We went to get a few groceries from Carrefour, salad etc. Back for lunchtime. Loads of hire boats had filled the moorings. Sent Peter a text to tell him Shebah-Mike’s suggestion for feeding the pups, baby doll bottles from a toyshop! Simple but effective. (He used to own a farm and horse riding school in the UK northeast).

Monday 28th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

Still very hot, wind picked up late afternoon and it clouded over making it much cooler. Mike 'phoned Peter (on my suggestion that he knows lots about mending old motors and might come up with something Mike had missed) His American bulldog, Mini, had had her pups! Thirteen were born in total (the world record is twenty), five last Thursday and they thought she’d finished giving birth until one was born dead on Saturday, followed by six more live ones! One was sickly and died soon after, but the remaining eleven were doing well. Peter said that Mini looked like a ghost of her former self though, all skin and bones and was very clumsy getting into the box he’d made to contain the pups, she treads on them and lies on them making them squawk! He said he was having to bottle feed some of them, the biggest, so Mini could feed the smaller ones herself, but the baby bottle teats were too big for the bulldog short snouts, so he was going to try getting teats for premature baby bottles. His answer to the knocking noise on the ZX was immediately shock absorbers. He suggested taking them off and having a ride round to see if that stopped the noise, Mike said he would try it. He took the wheel off again and jacked up the hub to take the weight, then made the noise reoccur by inserting a long screwdriver between the metal body of the silent block and the sub-frame (effectively levering the silent block the wrong way) and recreating the noise by loading the wheel and taking the load off again with the lever. A new silent block, front one driver’s side, was required. Roy’s camper van was missing - Shebah-Mike said he’d gone to Narbonne. I made some lunch while Mike put the car back together again. We went into Agen Sud (even the air was hot with the wind through the open windows) via the scenic route. There were two types of silent block, did we know which one? Mike said their mechanics would know which one, so they said they would put the ZX on their “pont” (lift) and have a look. In the meantime one of the mechanics said the two types were just different manufacturers, either would be OK. They had none in stock so they would arrive overnight, collect them next morning. Back home via the scenic route. “My” house near St Nicholas-de-la-Balerme had been sold; the for sale notice had disappeared ages ago. The boat cabin felt humid and sticky after being closed up for a couple of hours even through the temperature was still 38°C, the same as before we went out. Stripped off and sprawled in front of a fan. Bill sent two texts to ask if we had Garry the lorry’s phone number. Nope, never dealt with him, we went with someone else’s transport. Mike tried ringing Bill, but got his answering machine – Bill was trying to ring us. He said forget the texts, the numbers he had were working OK. He had arrived at Agde and was moored by the place with free electric (which was still full of boats). He’d seen Paul at Bézièrs, who had been expecting his next load of visiting friends until he had a last minute 'phone call to say they were at the UK airport about to board the plane and someone in the group had an expired passport, so they weren’t coming. Luckily he hadn’t been out to do a big shop in preparation for their arrival. 

Sunday 27th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

Hot and sunny. Mike organized the ladders and plank under the car to lift the fuel tank back into position, I helped by lifting it while he replaced the bolts. He fitted the brake cables and I assisted with the adjusting, listening for the clicking to finish.  I made lunch while he finished putting the car back together. After lunch we went out in the car to test it. We hadn’t gone far before we decided that the banging was still there. We drove north to Cahors, paused to drink a cold coke under the trees by the river Lot and watched a trip boat go by, then carried on towards Figeac with the intention of going to Aurillac, but the traffic along the Lot valley was heavy so we turned left into the hills on narrow roads at Lamagdeleine, up to Mels, Valroufié and Francoulès; then headed west through St Denis-Catus, Catus and St Mèdard along the valley of le Vert stream. Then up and over the hill to Luzech, where we crossed the Lot and headed southwest down the valley of the Seoule to Castelsagrat and back into Valence. Sweltering hot and very sticky - had a ventilator fan blowing into the bedroom all night.  

Saturday 26th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - still working on the car

Cloudy mainly, a few showers of very light rain and long spells of sunshine. Mike started work again on the car, taking the fuel tank off. After lunch I gave Mike a hand to finish emptying diesel out of the tank and sticking bits of one of my green kitchen mats on the areas of the tank that were showing signs of vibration damage. More hire boats filled the moorings up again. The town was having a night market from 5.00 p.m. until 2.00 a.m. with live music (and British beer according to Roy) as part of the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the creation of the department Tarn et Garonne. Mike decided that the one bolt that just turned and wouldn’t tighten on the fuel tank fixings would have to be replaced by a special fixing. Roy hadn’t got one so he said to borrow his car to go to the DIY, which Mike did. He brought several special bolts from Weldom. He drilled a hole in the car’s bodywork to accept an expanding cavity wall fitting. 

Friday 25th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

Sunny morning, clouding over later. Hot, cooling a bit with cloud cover. We went shopping. First to La Poste to post letters to the UK, then to Agen Sud via the main road. Bought the groceries and called at Géant their diesel had gone down another cent down to 1,36.9€/litre. Back home via the scenic route. After lunch Mike went outside to start on the car, emptying the fuel tank ready to start next day on changing the brake cables and finding the noise. 

Thursday 24th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - still fixing the car

  

Sunny morning, clouding later, a bit cooler. We went to Agen Sud to Feu Vert, as we had booked an appointment for them to investigate the knocking noise coming from the rear driver side of the ZX. Mike had suggested that perhaps the shock absorbers were the wrong ones and were too short which had been rejected by the garage boss. We waited in a queue at the desk, then another guy served us and said he would find someone to have a look at it, so we went and sat in the car to wait for a mechanic to become available. One passed in our direction at 11.45 a.m. (they closed for lunch for two hours at twelve) on his way to a car which had arrived well after us. Mike went back in the shop to have further words with the chef. Yes, some one would come and have a look at it. Eventually the guy who had originally booked the appointment, the garage chef, came and looked at it himself. Up on the hoist, he tried to waggle the wheels, no play in them; then he got a short pinch bar and tried levering the arms, again no play. He banged on the tyres. Strangely the noise appeared booming on the left no matter which tyre was banged! He and Mike carried on banging the tyres and trying to identify the source of the noise. The fuel tank! Unbelievably it was the left side of the tank vibrating. We thanked him and he seemed pleased and bemused that he’d found the source of the knocking noise. Mike thought it may have been caused by the garage in Valence when they did the welding, taking the tank off and not refitting it properly. He said he would call in at Citroën next day and ask if there should be any packing material between the tank and the bodywork. We gave up on the idea of going shopping and went home. Mike took more photos of the scenery and the seating or the pageant. He got waylaid on the way back, chatting with Shebah-Mike and Roy.

Wednesday 23rd July 2008 Valence d'Agen - day out in the car

Puy-l’Evêque>

Hot and sunny all day. We decided to go out in the car. Slung some sandwiches in the cool bag with some cans of pop and some frozen ice packs. Mike sorted out the maps, GPS, camera, etc and we went via Agen Sud to call in at Citroën as Mike had forgotten to get a single small securing clip to hold the brake cables underneath the fuel tank, which cost an exorbitant 1€. Called in Géant to refill the car’s tank at 1,38.9€ (£1.10) a litre and we set off through Bon Encontre to find the D215, heading north-east through Sauvetat and Cauzac; north of Beauville (moto-cross on on Saturday) carrying on up the valley of the Petit Séoune, a tributary of the Garonne, on the D41 to the head at Couloussac, then over the hill and down into the next valley. We stopped on the shady, little used road for our picnic lunch before descending to the Boudouyssou, a tributary of the Lot, and up the hill through Saux and found the D44 (saw a road accident with pompiers in attendance where a motorcyclist had been hit by a car) through Floressas, a lovely little fortress of a village on top of a hill with seven roads radiating from it, to Puy-l’Evêque, a large town on the Lot. We paused while Mike took a photo of the hillside town, then crossed the river and carried on on the D44 to Frayssinet, another village on a multiple crossroad, taking the D673 through Montcléra, Cazals and Salviac, then followed the river Céou, a tributary of the Dordogne, for a short distance, passing a tumble down château on a hill, with big holes in its slate roof, called the Château de Repaire! Over the hills through St Martial-de-Nabirat to Domme, where we crossed the Dordogne. The river at this time of year is shallow and slow flowing, so the tourists were out in their hundreds along the bank, kids in hired canoes and loads of cars generally slowing down the passing traffic. We followed the river road heading upstream to Vitrac then up the valley of the Vitrac, towards Sarlat-La-Caneda, into more slow moving holiday traffic (Germans, Brits, Dutch and Belgians mostly) so we took a left up a very steep hill road with hairpins to the ridge road and turned left, heading back towards the river to la Roque-Gageac. Turned right heading downstream alongside the Dordogne, still filled with paddlers and canoes, past loads of souvenir shops in la Roque and turned left across the river to Castenaud-la-Chapelle. 

I took a photo of the impressive fortress on a crag. South, running up the valley of the Céou a short distance, then turned right on the D50 running west a short distance before turning south through La Chapelle Péchaud to St Laurent-la-Vallée then took the D60 through the lovely little village of Prats-du-Périgord (saw a red deer nonchalantly grazing not far from the road so we stopped and I took several photos of it) and into Villefranche-du-Périgord. Took the tiny forest roads past Loubéjac to Montcabrier then had to divert towards Puy-l’Evêque as the D58, the road  due south to Duravel was blocked for road resurfacing. No diversion signs so we followed a Dutch car and ended up having to back track as the whole of the D58 was closed. Ran up to Duravel along the river road and turned left across the Lot to Vire-sur-Lot. We thought there seemed to be a concentration of Dutch cars then we saw a campsite whose car park seemed to be exclusively Dutch. A Dutchman must own the campsite for there to have been so many Dutch cars. We carried on through Lacapelle-Cabanac to Mauroux, then Tournon-d’Agenais then south on the D656 southwest towards Agen then south through Lacour (another hilltop gem) to Bourg-le-Visa, crossing two more valleys then down the Barguelonne valley back into Valence. Back at six. The cabin was hot having been shut up all day, but I’d left all the blinds closed so it wasn’t too bad. 

Tuesday 22nd July 2008 Valence d'Agen - working on the car

Hot and sunny. We went into Agen Sud via the scenic route. First stop Citroën to take back the gaiter that didn’t fit for a refund and pick up the two new brake cables. The return was 50€ and the two cables 36€, so he had a refund in cash! Next we went to Feu Vert. Yes, the rear shock absorbers they fitted were correct (not too short as Mike suspected) and the guy said he would book it in for them to hoist the car up and have a look and see if they could find what was making the knocking noises. Busy all day, so he booked it for Thursday at 11.00 a.m. We went in Carrefour for some CD labels, got none, went in Casto and got another can of expanding foam to finish filling the green sausage fender that burst when we came in to moor on the pontoon (Roy’s fault – he pulled on the rope). We went in Géant and bought two packs of CD labels, plus Mike had new Senheiser earphones for his mp3 player for 10€. Home via the scenic route. I made some lunch while Mike went to Casino to fill a container of diesel for the boat. The price at Géant, Agen Sud had dropped to 1,38.9€ per litre, but Casino was still on old stock at 1,41.9€. After lunch Mike examined the fender and found it was more than three quarters full of foam, so we didn’t really need the other can! Lots of people about as it was Tuesday, the day for hire boats to moor at Valence.

Monday 21st July 2008 Valence d'Agen - working on the car.

Sunny, blue skies a.m. with a few clouds in the afternoon. Had a lazy morning. Mike fetched some bread from the boulangerie, then set to work on the car replacing the thermostat. Shebah-Mike said he’d had trouble copying some of his oldest Betamax tapes (they were from the fifties!), they kept stopping and he had to restart them. 

Sunday 20th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - working on the car.

Sunny first thing, grey clouds and a few spots of rain later. I put the laptop on and had a long session on the Internet (without downloading vast amounts as it was so slow on 2G). After lunch Mike fixed the rear door fastener on the car with a part he made himself to replace he one he broke the day before. After lunch I carried on researching on Ancestry, slowly.

Saturday 19th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - working on the car.

Hot and sunny. We went to Intermarché for a few veg as Carrefour’s had seemed expensive. Theirs were just as expensive and didn’t look as good quality, oh well you win some and loose some! When we got back Mike took the back wheels off the car to try and find the cause of the banging noises from the rear end when under braking and going over bumps, without success. He replaced the rear door lock button and broke a plastic component inside the door; took the panel off and locked it permanently until he could get a replacement part from a scrap yard. After lunch Mike watched the German Grand Prix qualis 

Friday 18th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - working on the car

Hot and sunny. Mike set to work straight away on the car. I got on with the chores, assisting Mike with the car repairs where necessary. He changed the damaged rubber gaiter (which entailed removing the drive shaft) replaced it and then paused for lunch. After lunch I gave him a hand to re-weld the  brackets that hold the brake pipes and sensor cables for the brake pads (also damaged by the Feu Vert mechanics, but try proving it). Put stuff away and reconnected the electricity supply to the boat. Getting hotter. Had a text from Bill who was awaiting post at Le Somail; he said mooring ropes had been cut again a few days earlier at Capestang. Mike used up the remaining daytime allowance on emails and downloading upgrades for his security systems. I did some work on Ancestry to use up some of the remaining monthly-allocated Megabytes.