The Toy part 3

Well, as they say, you have to go backwards before you can go forward ( not sure who they are).

The garage had to take the dashboard out to fix the airconditioning and what a mess we can see. Obviously other problems were found, as all garages discover.

The car will be ready next week and as near perfect as it can be got for a 15 year old car!

Unfortunately we are off to the UK for a month so I will not get it back until we return. Cannot wait.

Mr L 21/06/2012

Golf Partners

Three mornings a week I have a game of golf with my mates. Sometimes we are a twosome but more usually a threesome, however this week we were joined by my friend's son Andrew who is a basketball player and was staying with his dad before going to Camp Monroe, a summer camp in New york State, as head of Basketball.

On the left is Andrew ( at least 6' 6" ) followed by me, standing on the cart to look bigger!, and the Chris and Mark a PGA Pro.

We, as usual had a great game at St Maxime but of course the highlight was the coffee time before we played and the soft drinks after!

Mark's other son, Lewis, is a PGA Golf Pro up in Paris and we also sometimes have his company.

The fun is to see the competition between Mark and his sons!

Mr.L. 15/06/2012

Visitors

Just had a visit from my daughter and her friend Ruth,with two of my grandchildren and her friends two kids.

My daughter is more of a permenant fixture down here as she visits 3 or 4 times per year and stays in our guest house which is about 5 minutes from our home. My Grandchildren call it " our French house"!!

It is such a pleasure to see the kids playing in the pool, which takes much upkeep all year, but seeing them makes it all totally worthwhile!

It has been great to see them progress, over the years, from fear of the water to all swimming like fishes. This, of course includes my other two Grandchildren who are a little older.


Mr.L. 14/6/2012 

Carcassonne

Before going on our trip on the Canal Du Midi we spent a night in the medievil town of Carccassone. The Hotel, The Hotel du Cite, was actually inside the walls and one had to leave the car outside the wall and the hotel looked after it and transported you in with their own small transport. The hotel had grounds with a view of the renovated turrets and was beautiful.

The small town itself was a maze of small allies and squares with loads of restaurants and gift shops.
The speciality of the area appeared to be Cassolette de Canard and Canard confit, so I had to try one!

I selected the Cassolette de Canard which was a plate of white beans in a sauce spiced with bacon and with lots of very tender duck inside and topped by grilled cheese. Delicious but impossible to eat it all. Gaynor, my wife, had grilled prawns which were also delicious.

We toured the castle which must indeed have been amazing in its day and from its ramparts the new town was in full view.

This is a must place to visit.

Mr.L. 08/06/2012

 Last month we had booked a trip to rent a boat on the Canal du Midi that runs from the Mediterranean northwards.Before joining the boat we had a night in Carcassonne which is a city with a medieval castle, completely renovated, looking down on it. I will tell you about that in another Blog.
We arrived at the boat base to find we had rented a very big boat with all mod cons, even satellite TV!

As one who does not quite get why boats do not do things like cars this was fairly scary! We got past the initiation with the boat staff and set off in the direction with no locks ( I know how to protect my dignity!). The canal meandered for miles through the beautiful countryside with beautiful plane trees on either side. The experience is great and so relaxing, except for the wind! Ever tried getting a 40 ft boat onto a mooring or off the canal side with the wind blowing you in??

Every so often one would come to a little village with a nice restaurant or Cave to buy the local wine from the Languedoc and at night, just pull into the bank to moor up for the night. Of course every so often we came to a bridge. These bridges are so small that you have just a foot or so on each side and then just as you are going under you realise that actually your head is higher than the bridge!! Duck!!!

All in all a great holiday. The dog fell in once and disappeared under the boat ( we were stationary at time) and my poor wife fell flat on her face onto concrete and bruised ribs and twisted knee whilst trying to stave us off! Dangerous stuff!

There were many walkers and cyclists along the canal side and everybody was extremely friendly, even the fishermen, if you slowed down!

The boat got back without damage, which was a miracle!

It was sad to leave our temporary home but also a release from the stress!

Mr.L.  07/06/2012

The Toy part 2

Well the story continues. After leaving the car in a local garage whilst I was on holiday I returned with my job list mainly marked as " take to Mercedes garage"!!

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw this as the car had a miriad of apparently small electronic problems, however bolstered by sheer bravado I booked it in for a few weeks later. In the meanwhile I got down to doing something about the old Mercedes cassette radio matched with the great Bose sound system. Off I went to the local version of Halfords and found a great radio for a few hundred euros, but then my eye wandered to a radio with a sceen that came up from radio and would have GPS. Wow I thought, until the salesman said that really with such a good sound system I needed the better Alpine system that had GPS/Bluetooth/Automatic phone connection and wireless connection to I Pod/I Phone. I was hooked  and the next thing I realised was that I had to buy modules to make the Bluetooth and GPS work. In all went in for a decent radio and finished with the deluxe at the price of a couple of sets of tyres on a normal car. Still I am delighted.

Back to the Mercedes story then, the day finally came for my appointment and I booked it in with a very nice gentleman in his private office who went through the list of things I needed to do to make the car perfect. After 4 days he came back to me with a Devis ( estimate) that told me that with the radio that I had already bought I had just doubled the price of the car!!!!

Well in for a penny in for a pound. It is me that wants the car restoring to original condition with everything working so I agreed. The garage will have it for the next few weeks whilst awaiting parts but then my new toy will be as near perfect as it is possible to get it. Will let you know!!!

Mr. L   07/06/2012

My Toy

It has been some time since I put anything on my Blog but I am about to catch up!

The Spring has been unusually busy with visitors, mainly my daughter. My wife, Gaynor, has been away with her mum to Portugal to see an elderly cousin and I have been busy playing golf.

Last week I flew back to UK for business and to bring back a new, to me, car that I bought to play with.

I had the car, a Mercedes SL500 LHD delivered to my daughter's in Hertfordshire and drove back to the South of France with my fingers crossed as the car was imported from Japan, I had never seen it properly and I was about to drive this 15 year old car down the Autoroute for 1000 miles!

Before I left the garage got me an MOT and after changed the headlights to LHD, however they obviously did not fit the indicator lights in properly, as by the time I arrived in Troyes I had lost one from the front and the next day the other one fell off!! Not a good start.

On the way to Troyes I met, by chance, our very good friend David and Ann who were also stopping over in Troyes. This town centre is very picturesque with building that looked like Tudor buildings but where brown and cream. We ate out in a typical French Brasserie where they are more professional than friendly and enjoyed Rognon ( kidneys) de veau in a mushroom sauce. Delicious cooked rose as requested.

En route I discovered several small electrical problems which will be dealt with when I go on holiday next week on a boat up the Canal du Midi.

Today the indicator replacements arrive so I can drive it on the road and take the hard top off and change to convertible to feel the sun and fresh air!!

Mr.L.  03/05/2012