…continuing from yesterday. Where were we… oh yeah, guts all over the motorway. It was gone 6 and in France you have to use the SOS phones to call the police and they organise their own recovery as recovery vans have to be authorised to go on the motorway so we couldn't call our own breakdown to come out to us. Ouch, here comes an expensive stuffing. Some guy appears that doesn't speak a word of English but just keeps sucking air through his teeth in that "ooh gonna cost ya" kind of way. He towed us back to his garage in Sainte Hermine and it took a couple of hours of translation and paperwork for him to tell us that the engine was completely knackered and he wouldn't/couldn't fix it, it needed a whole new engine which would cost 6000 euros (sniff sniff Andy smells billy bulls**t) and in his opinion (si c'est mon vie) he would get towed back to England as it would be cheaper than repairing it. Then proceeded to whack us with a bill for 208 euros. Grrr. $£*&@£".We then called our breakdown company, by now it was 8:30pm, and told them the story, they said they'd get someone out to us to have another look, 2nd opinion, and then we could decide what we wanted to do. We were really thinking that we might end up back in England at this point. By 11:30pm we were told that due to the bank holiday they couldn't get anyone out to us and we'd have to wait until morning, so we had the delight of camping out on an industrial estate, a bit like Foxhills in Scunny, right on the road. 12noon the next day another guy arrived, had a look under the bonnet and didn't seem to think it was such a big job - big relief - but the breakdown company said we couldn't be seen at a garage until the following week so we were towed to and dumped on a municipal campsite in St Hermine. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the cotton-pickin gypsies that were camped out on site, it was very strange, there were washing machines and tumble dryers under their awnings (so much for the 5amp rule!), full-timers we expect… Also, we never thought we'd arrive on a campsite on the back of a tow-truck without one person batting an eyelid! Let's just say the facilities were very limited on site, and after a couple of bike rides into town we'd seen absolutely everything there was to see. Monday morning came and a phonecall from the breakdown company told us that the earliest we could get seen at a Citroen garage would be September but the guy from the local garage that picked us up could have a look today to diagnose the problem and could fit us in for the work next week. We also spoke to the French recovery company who seemed very sympathetic to where we were staying and offered to try and negotiate getting us towed to a different site - hurray! But they didn't pull their fingers out quick enough so we ended up at the travellers' site for one more night. The recovery guy returned Tuesday and towed us to his garage in Lucon - took half an hour to diagnose the problem and showed Andy it in sign language and it turns out that the cam-shaft has snapped - he can fix it next week and it will only take one day - things are now looking up! He then towed us to another campsite in Lucon and that's where we are now. And it's so much a nicer place to spend a week! We're now able to do what we hoped we'd be doing - ie, drinking wine (80p a glass omg) and beer (Andy's discovered a local drink that's a mixture of orange liquor and beer mmmmm) and starting the day off with a Jacuzzi and sauna, campsite swimming pools ftw! It's right on a watersports lake so we might have a crack at some. And Lucon is only a 20min bike ride away and it's a really nice town - lovely cathedral that I (Ky) dragged Andy round yesterday, and a cyber-café which means we're able to catch up with you guys.So, we're still waiting for a price (eek) for the work on the van but we're told we'll be picked up and towed off next Tuesday for it to be done, so by this time next week we should be well back on the road again. We're still gonna try and make Italy for September.Met an English guy yesterday (a real old boy wot wot) and it's the first we've seen of the English which has really surprised us. The other thing that's surprised us is that hardly anyone speaks English - it's been quite nice in a way as it's given us a chance to properly practice our French, and the barman at the site where we are takes great pleasure in taking the p*ss out of my French-spoken accent and is giving me daily lessons on my pronunciation. (Just give me a god-damn beer). The other thing that I (Ky) was surprised and touched at was that people stopped to offer help when we were broken down the first time. One young lad stopped who was a mechanic in the next town and offered help even though he didn't speak English. Another girl stopped with her mum (but I think she just wanted to practise her English cos she spoke it quite well). Ooh, one more story from me - our supplies in the van had got well depleted since we've not been able to stop at any supermarkets (they're supermarkets are ace) and we decided to do a supermarket run on the bikes yesterday. It's about a 4/5mile ride to the nearest Intermarche and when we got there we bought a basket for the bike (I've always wanted one anyway). We stocked up with as much as we thought we could carry and couldn't leave without the obligatory 26-pack of Kronenboug (7 euros!!!). I'm the only one with a bike-rack so the beer had to balance there with the help of bungee cords, and Andy (he's such a gent) couldn't bear to see me with the basket full of shopping as well as the back full of beer, so he fixed the lovely basket onto his big posh off-roader of a mountain bike. And he had a rucksack on his back. Well, loaded up like that 4/5 miles in the blistering heat feels much more like 20 I can tell you!! We wobbled all the way back to camp and Andy looked very French with his basket as he had a baguette sticking out of the bag on his back and a bunch of onions in the basket on the front. LOL. (No pictures I'm afraid as he wouldn't let me.) And I just looked like the typical English alcy with a crate of beer on the back. He he he, it was funny, it's making me laugh now. But maybe you had to be there.While we're on, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to RUTHY, and JONNY, and CHARLIE for tomorrow, and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Linz and Dave for last week, and we hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.