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That France in an SLK


Barry Cade

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Been planning this trip for some time as I've missed driving on the wrong side. The SLK was prepped as if it was going to the moon.. full service for both engine and transmission,  all fluids done including weird SLK fluids, 4 new tyres, brakes and suspension all settled and everything tip top and Bristol fashion. .

Set off and headed towards that England. About an hour in I  needed a pee... annoyed me this as I usually have at least a 300 mile bladder.. stopped at the side of the road, walked behind some bushes and simultaneously fell in a river,through barbed wire in some nettles...

Wet foot, ripped jeans and nipping arms we continued happily South to overnight in Towcester in a Travelodge.  Up next morning and kept south towards Newhaven.  Got into the Brighton and decided to put the roof down. 

Nowt.  Window.. nope. Stopped at Sainsbury's for some stuff and no central locking either.

FFS.

Off the ferry after having to hand documents through the door, down to Rouen in the dark and into an F1 for the night. They're great if you breathe in and walk sideways..

Up today and nipped into a Carrefour and bought a torx driver, opened the roof control module and found this...

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FFS..

Onward and into Paris. A mile away from the Eiffel Tower as I stopped at a crossing, there was a thud. In my mirror was a chap on the ground beside a hired electric scooter.. he got up, gave the thumbs up and disappeared into the crowd. I now have a helmet sized and shaped dent on the boot lid.. 

FFS..

Onward to Ligny en Barrrios, to a cracking AirBnB, we stopped at the services for some coffee. I opened the door and the alarm went off... the central locking and remote have packed in so it wont switch off.. I found and pulled the fuse to shut it up, but now I have to wait 5 mins every time I open the door for the hazards to go off.

FFS.

2 black boxes in both my cars to go down in the space of 2 weeks. Is it the Chinese? Solar flares. The law of sod?

FFS...

Anyone overnight courier a 1708200926 to Alsace in the next 5 days?

P.s.. the Eiffel Tower needs agood prodding with the Corrosion Assessment Tool...

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7 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

Set off and headed towards that England. About an hour in I  needed a pee... annoyed me this as I usually have at least a 300 mile bladder.. stopped at the side of the road, walked behind some bushes and simultaneously fell in a river,through barbed wire in some nettles...

🤣😂

Sorry.

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Excellent write up. Shall be a trip to remember for sure.  Got back from France Sunday night. Left my bike south of Paris after ftp here.F9616345-2060-4F18-9B79-D9A500942554.thumb.jpeg.90d0f11ee9a0937d32925ee4a3cebb78.jpeg

7 bikes, one big crash, 3 punctures and a burnt out clutch ( all fixed) broken gearbox on bm, not so much. Turns out I don’t have euro cover so back with the van a week Sunday to pick it up. Must check the cover situation on the van…

Do love France.

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11 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

Up next morning and kept south towards Newhaven.

You probably drove right past my office window if you drove into town through the A259! Shame we didn't cross paths as I have an SLK here that could have lent you a roof module.

Trip looks like good fun, hopefully you've got all the bad luck out of the way early and should be smooth sailing from hereon!

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1 hour ago, Saabnut said:

Anyone in 72 (Sarthe) who needs assistance I have tools and a workshop available half way between Lemans and Tours. For those that don't need assistance, I also have cold beers and tea! Here for a couple of weeks.

Saabnut heads to local marie to collect wad of attestation d’accueil

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Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaa🙃😋

Normal service is resumed. Found a module on German Ebay, in Freiburg, haggled a bit and nipped over the border to pick it up 

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Everything back to normal 😀😀

 

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Thing is, now it's too hot to go roofless!

 

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Now in our wee hut, beers in the fridge and I can relax.. 1300 miles in so far..

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Did you get a weird fuzzy feeling fixing your German car with parts from Germany in France? 
 

I went to a Dutch car show in my Opel manta, it rained hard on the Saturday night into Sunday morning that my tailgate leaked water in due to rust around the glass seal. My Dutch friend at the show said “hey, I have a mint tail gate you can have for a schmoke and a pancake” (€15) 

so I followed him 50km back to his apartment and changed it in the communal car park and left my red tailgate in Holland. Still have the Dutch licence plate number etched in the glass to this day! Felt proud as punch swapping that bad boy out in the car park lol. 

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