{"id":13700,"date":"2024-08-04T17:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/?p=13700"},"modified":"2024-07-31T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T11:46:08","slug":"un-debut-de-vacances-dete-quelque-peu-entrave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/un-debut-de-vacances-dete-quelque-peu-entrave\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"A somewhat thwarted start to the summer holidays…"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
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\nAfter taking VivaLaVida out of its winter quarters by carrying out a major service, replacing the steering ball joints and some other maintenance work, Emile and I set off again on board for a three-week holiday heading to Galicia, which we hadn’t discovered last year. But after barely a few hundred miles, a big BAM stop us dead in our way!
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\n1. One of the rear tires decided to suddenly give out on us.
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\n2. It takes me an hour under a blazing sun to change the wheel before getting back on the road.
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\n3. We find a cool spot to sleep, on the edge of a beautiful forest.
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\nNo question of continuing the journey without a spare wheel. I decide to change the 4 tires that have more than 70,000 miles and are soon worn out. Going toward Saint-Etienne, the nearest town, to find 4 new socks to VivaLaVida. But it’s not an easy task: we go to three tire specialists who cannot order the required size not common in Europe. Finally, one gives us the contact details of an American vehicle seller, Presticar Automobiles in Grand-Croix, which imports Dodge pick-ups we find him late Monday morning.
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\nAfter two hours of searching and multiple phone calls, he finally finds 4 tires in the right size and I confirm the order. But the delivery won’t take place until Thursday at best. So we decide to pass the time by discovering the surroundings, starting with the Pilat, a local summit which overlooks the Loire to the Northwest, the Ard\u00e8che to the South and the Lyonnais to the Northeast.
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\n4. View of the Lyonnais from the Pilat summit.
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\n5. We find a nice boondocking spot at almost 4,300 feet elevation where we spend 3 nights.
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\n6. There is a stream that runs right next to our camp and Emile likes to play in it.
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\n7. We buid a dam.
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\n8. We also visit the surrounding area, in particular this \u00ab\u00a0giant fir tree\u00a0\u00bb which reaches 150 ft in height!
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\nSo it’s only on Thursday mid-afternoon that VivaLaVida, wearing her new shoes, resumed her route towards the West. Three hours later, we find a nice boondocking place on the banks of Lake Naussac while a storm threatened.
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\n9. After the first thunderstorm. Three more will follow during the night which will still be restful.
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\n10. The next day we cross the gorgeous Aubrac plateau. Our spot for lunch!
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\nAfter a night in a camping between Montauban and Auch , we will reach the Spanish Basque Country the next day. To be continued soon.
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\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    After taking VivaLaVida out of its winter quarters by carrying out a major service, replacing the steering ball joints and some other maintenance work, Emile and I set off again on board for a three-week holiday heading to Galicia, which we hadn’t discovered last year. But after barelyRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1139],"tags":[1730,1135,710,1716,1725,1726,1727,1728,1729],"class_list":["post-13700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france-en","tag-aubrac","tag-france-en","tag-lake","tag-loire-en","tag-naussac-en","tag-pilat-en","tag-pneu-en","tag-st-etienne-en","tag-tire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13700"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13708,"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13700\/revisions\/13708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instants-choisis.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}