Pre-Trip France
A quick little weekend trip over to see Landy & Al on their honeymoon ...
Our first taster of travelling internationally with Duzi2. Landy & Alberto were spending part of their honeymoon following the Tour de France in it's early stages and we drove across to join them for a weekend. We camped on the banks of the River Meuse in Charleville-Mezieres, in the Ardennes area of France.
This also gave us the novelty of going across on Le Shuttle through the Channel Tunnel. It is all very convenient and quick. Very weird sitting in your own car on a train though.
Another thing we noticed during this quick trip was the need to block up the holes in the bodywork left from removing the Eberspacher heater and ducting. The hot air from the engine area heated the inside of the vehicle to uncomfortable levels, which meant a quick stop on the side of the road in some little village in France, to tape cardboard over the holes. Have now closed these off properly with aluminium.
Camping in a rooftop tent on a landy turned out to be a huge fascination for the general French public walking along the riverside past the campsite. We became accustomed to being stared at, which might have been a polite taster of what bush camping could be like in Africa, where you have to go about your daily camping routines while being the focus for entertainment of local villagers.