The Travels & Adventures of Flog-It Removals.

It was decided that the best time to leave home this time would be as early as possible on the Tuesday morning because we had to get from Girona up the Motorway to Avignon then across country to Roussillon to deliver those blasted chairs which if you have been keeping up with us you will know have been in store here since before they learned how to slice bread. Then we had to cross from the east side of France to the western middle around the Vichy / Moulins area to deliver the main part of the upward load hopefully before it got dark as the client was to be away back to Holland the following morning plus we had no idea where the delivery was other than on a private unmarked road in the middle of nowhere. And we were hoping for a sleepover of course followed by an early Wednesday start for the run up to the port of Dieppe.
So that was it, at the crack of 1pm we left Spain, crossing at La Jonquera into France and headed for the first toll booths at Le Boulou… Where we were immediately pulled over by customs to be searched!! Nicky must have been pretending to be asleep again as we cruised through the border area, she always looks suspicious when pretending to be asleep!! So that was us off to a good start as usual, somebody somewhere does not smile on us too often. Anyway they were happy and friendly chappies and were very careful not to put their bovver boots where they would break anything. Instead they used a certain few chairs as stepping stones to make their way around the truck, which is something I would not be telling the client when (or if) we ever get as far as Roussillon today. Clearing customs we headed north towards Avignon and then cross country towards delivery number 1. For a change I cannot fault Gertrude, since we traded her in for an upgrade last time we were in England this younger model has done us proud and took us right up the dirt track, past the wild dogs, horses and locals with knives in one hand and tomatoes in the other, straight to the hotel at the end… Luckily not called the Hotel California. The hotel car park served as a somewhat tight turning area and then we stopped to unload the four chairs at last and were we glad to see the back of them. Ever since we put them in store they have travelled with us here, there and everywhere except to where they were supposed to go and have been nothing but bad luck. They are gone, good riddance, hopefully the person that must have died whilst sitting on one of them will now haunt someone else for a while. Actually the house was next door to the hotel but did not have an address of its own, the whole row just used the same address as the hotel – Which was in fact very nice, out in the countryside with chairs out in the garden etc. I wouldn’t have minded staying there for the night but those chairs were still just too close for comfort so we headed off towards Lyon, then Clermont Ferrand and then out into the wilderness and up into the hills along narrow winding roads with deer jumping around and rabbits turning tail and racing away in front of us like being chased by greyhounds at a night out at the dogs.
Arrival at the old mill was actually quite uneventful, Gertrude knew exactly where to send us, along a private track owned by the local electric company to the only house on the road, by the side of the river. It was even a tarmac road, admittedly it was narrower than the track of the truck and our wheels were in the dirt on either side, but what the hell, we made it. This old Lynx truck has had a sheltered life until now, it has seen nothing yet. On arrival at around 1am, yes we missed our E.T.A. somewhat, as we do, our Dutch friends were sitting out by the river around an open fire, chilling the beers and wine in the river and generally enjoying the simple life.
As it turns out, they could not get into the house due to a cock-up so that is why they were all outside and why we could not unload and why we all sat around drinking until 3am before finally retiring to…… The barn!! One light bulb which we could not turn off, a door we could not close, an airbed with no covers and spiders hanging from the ceiling in cobwebs the size of fishing nets. I think tonight my mouth will stay tightly closed while I sleep. Up there in the Massif the days are warm at the moment, but mid summer or not that was one freezing cold night in that barn, and it lasted a damned long time. I can’t wait to see the house properly tomorrow and the plans are to turn it into a B&B and it is perfectly situated to be an overnight stop for us on future runs. But for now I am glad that for some reason I packed a fleece for this trip and that we always keep a couple of thin blankets in the cab just in case we need to spend a night high in the mountains in winter with snow all around us, which we do on most trips actually, but not for much longer if this B&B gets up and running.