France (2)

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Ok, so, Ollie wasn't fixed for a couple of days so Neil and Lesley kindly let us stay for 2 nights - Thank you!!

Then we were finally off!! Dropped the hire car back and headed down towards Bern in Switzerland with a possible stop in Langres, France.....or so we thought!!!!!!

We were doing great and made it passed Langres, however, a couple of times we needed to stop for breaks and each time, me and Adam had to push the van to bump start it...not ideal!!

Anyway, we got down to a place called Besancon (quite close to Swiss border) and there was a problem. A tunnel that the lovely Tom Tom wanted us to go through was blocked off for repairs - the alternative route was up a narrow windy road over a steep hill. Ollie struggled and we had a queue of traffic behind us so Geoff decided to pull over to let them go - the van stalled and wouldn't start again so me and Adam tried to bump start it. It started but made the most almighty grinding noise and we knew it was serious!

Adam was upset, we were stranded up a huge hill in the middle of nowhere! Then a really kind French chap came over to help. He towed us to safety and asked Geoff to try the engine - he knew what was wrong and told us to follow him and keep the revs low. We did and he took us to a VW garage - sadly it was closed but we were very grateful.

We made it to a Mercure hotel and decided to call the AA once again. They towed the van to the garage the following morning and we were back to a hire car but at least we had a bed for the night and the town was ok.

We stayed here for a couple of nights but were itching to get to Switzerland....

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