Well I wouldn't want to be seen to be a V300-rarity-trafficking-mule.

Day 3 - Saturday 10th September 2011 (now completed)

Day 3 started with a little work to do. I was mainly on a wiper mission. Driving the car down from Calais the other night nearly result in loss of the driver's side wiper. There are two different lengths of wiper fitted to the car, the one on the driver's side being longer than the passenger side and the end had broken off, so the insert was sliding out of the frame.

Crap wipers:



I hadn't brought many tools with me (mostly electrical), so I needed to venture out to find a French Hellfrauds. Well the nearest equivalent is Norauto. Here's my quick comparison: Think of your average Halfords, then take some bicycles out of the equation, add a dozen twist 'n' go mopeds and have about a quarter of the tool range. Couldn't find a simple breaker bar (needed to take the towball off to replace the electrical socket mounting plate). Maybe the French don't really do car DIY

Stuck with trying to compare unlike with unlike I tried giving Mr Cardwell a bell, but he was on answerphone. Tried and got Mr McHudd on the line from Belfast as "phone a friend" for the €6.40 question. Q: "How long are the wiper blades again?", A: "18"". Sorted and cheers Mark.

Got outside, but couldn't get them fitted. There wasn't any box of alternate fittings and these needed a nonsense pin fitting. Grrr! There doesn't seem to be a way of removing the ends of the arms, so I might need to rustle up a pair of arms with the more common fittings whilst I'm at it. Also these Valeo ones don't even have a hole to use the old pins! Double Grrr! Instead I went for the alternative plan of swapping them side-to-side and flipping the dud one so the broken end was at the inside of the sweep. Hope it doesn't rain too much...

After all that messing around and with it getting late in the day, I took a wander 100km further south to Pithiviers to see serial DAF collector Dominique and see some of his collection...

Here's the 46 van (currently awaiting an engine transplant):


Here's some of the rest of the collection (click images for larger pics):











Also hiding in the collection of DAFs and Volvos were a Willam Sulky:

Even as microcars go, it's a bit bonkers: YouTube clip of Dom's Willam Sulky in action

and a ultra-rare Škoda 1000 MBG Deluxe (a twin-carb variant of the regular MB):





Back to Volvo content and a couple of snaps outside "The Loft":



and a few more nearby:




along with Dom's daily, a Renault Megane CC Floride a luxurious limited edition celebrating the original Renault Floride (probably better known as the Caravelle over here)


Then we head back towards Paris stopping at Étampes - I needed a MuckD's and the car need some petrol - it's tough work finding E5, so in went some more 'orrible E10. Then we went to some Renault offices to check out the car park...

....and found yet ANOTHER DAF.





So we took it out for a wee spin. This car was also a star in a recent TV advert by the French Rugby Federation.

Then went back to see Dom's very first car, a Lancia (from memory it's a Y 1.2 16V Elefantino Rosso - 86hp)



And finally take a snap of old/new Volvos before saying au revoir:


It wasn't too bad finding my way back. After coming off la Périphérique, a failure of Eyeball Mk1 sent me round the block a few time before finding my way back to the house. In my defence, all I had in the car were a couple of printouts from Google Maps done in a rush before leaving Dublin. It was only when I was heading down the A26 that I bothered to buy a European road map.

There are a few video clips to sort out taken that day (and others), but I'll just have to stick them in later.

Back at base, the Raclette grill came out and some cheesy-topped grub was enjoyed along with the wine. Later, Marc brought out the bottle of Dalwhinnie I bought him for a couple of large ones. As it was still quite pleasant outside, I did a quick soldering job on a radio I brought over with the intention of fitting in the car at some point (the car having speakers and aerial, but no head unit). Also made the mistake of running out of smokes, as they aren't a trip to the 24h garage away, so I just had to do without until the morning. (actually, that was Friday night's error )

Sorry bud, was having a phone related issue... no signals anywhere!

Depending on where you are going next, might be worth talking to Aymat (Duvel) he'll know where to pick them up!

(Update will be updated later.)

No worries Chris. Next stops: Mon - Nevers, Tue - Brussels

Can probably help you, otherwise you may want to try Brezan car parts in Belgium.

Thanks RJ.

Sorry about the lack of updates, I feel that I should give you something in the meantime:

***An Intermission ***



A Dacia Logan that overtook me

(I really wanted to grab a shot of a Sandero, but on both occasions I spotted one, the camera wasn't handy)

MacP, can I ask you a really dull question? You live in Ireland (Republic I presume seeing as you set out from Dublin), and have bought a UK registered car. Is that right? How have you managed to arrange insurance under those circumstances? I've tried to insure non-UK, EU-country registered cars (French) from a UK address and failed. Couldn't find a single provider prepared to do it.

How have you manged this, if I've read your situation right?

Irish insurance companies are quite accommodating in that respect, you just insure the car on its chassis number. The downside is that Irish insurance is (well used to be) horrendously expensive. When I moved over in 1997 my 360 went from £190 fully comp over here to £770 TPFT and road tax from £150 to £330.

Sorry about the delay folks. Trouble finding some WiFi here in Eindhoven - well until I actually managed to find McDonalds.

I've never had a problem getting an Irish insurer to insure a foreign registered car and it is insured under it's UK registration mark - AAU 783T. The rub is recently to stop VRT evasion, the insurance company is obliged after six weeks to grass you up to the Revenue.

Must dash, battery flaggin' here.

Interesting, thanks. I wonder why the UK insurance industry is so cussed about not insuring foreign plated cars?

I bought a French registered car once (the car was in France and I had to drive it home), I eventually found one company prepared to insure it by the chassis number (through Adrian Flux I think), but whilst I was at Stansted awaiting my flight to go and collect the car, the broker called me and told me they couldn't do it after all and withdrew the insurance. I was spitting mad, as you can imagine.

Fortunately, I'd bought the car from a dealer who was able to provide me with French insurance cover to get me back to Calais, but I then had to trailer the car back home from Dover as I couldn't drive without insurance. I couldn't get it insured until it had been UK MOt'd and UK registered. There are whole sub-stories in achieving that also, which I won't bore you with now, but it was a hellish (and expensive) palaver and I'll never do it again.

I see. As an aside any policy that states 30 odd days Euro cover, means 30 days at same level as the rest of the policy. It still has to apply to pan-Euro legal minimums for the full 365, although they don't like to talk about it.

Anyway, back OT, the intermission is lasting a bit longer as I've a exhaust section to swap.

It was nice meeting you, hopefully you have a good rest of the trip!

Ditto, hope you got the ferry ok! Thanks for your work on the mts radio

Thanks guys. Back from a visit to Mac's Cave.

These updates will have to wait until I get back to a proper desk, keyboard and chair - but they will be done. Last day tomorrow.