It was an easy 120mls/200kms from Chartres to our now habitual final stop in France at Neufchâtel-en-Bray in Normandy. Neufchâtel-en-Bray is a pleasant though unremarkable town in many ways, though it does boast an appellation contrôlée cheese which, I must confess, is one of this particular cheese addict’s least favourites. It’s two main attractions as our exit route are that it:
- has a conscientiously run and managed campsite that is open for what the French would regard as an extended season;
- has a very good Leclerc supermarket essential for last day booty hunting plus relatively cheap fuel for the run to Calais.
You’d think after a full six weeks of living in a caravan touring from place to place that I’d have it down pat, wouldn’t you? It seems not. When the conscientious management at the campsite shepherded us to our pitch I levelled the van and began connecting up all the essential services: water, waste and electricity hook-up. I, or rather Billy, didn’t seem to get any electricity. This is not particularly unusual since sometimes the circuit breakers in the connection boxes of the site pop with overenthusiastic campers trying to suck too many amps out of a restricted system (typically they are 6 amp). I tried a second connection point: same result. I tried a further two connection points: same result in both cases. I checked our on-board trip switches: they were fine. I went to report my problem to the conscientious management who promptly turned up to check their trip switches: they were all fine. Bemusement. I turned to recheck the caravan and had one of those “will the ground please open and swallow me up” moments. In my haste I’d connected our mains cable to the campsite supply but the other end lay on the ground beneath our battery box; I’d distracted myself and forgotten to connect it to our van. Unbelievable!
I apologized profusely for my stupidity in my very best French to the conscientious campsite management who responded by insisting, in their very best French, that it was not a problem. What must they think?
It’s overcast and cool. Maybe the cold froze my few remaining neurones. 🙁
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