Those of you who have read my blog posts from the last time I was campervanning around France will remember that I broke down several times in the last hired camper (here, here and here). That time was a battery/starter motor issue and could be fixed well enough for a while, usually by giving it a whack with a hammer. This time the problem was much more serious. Honestly, I would like to drive around France without my car breaking down just once!
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll start the story from the beginning... I noticed a noise when I was driving through the mountains from Le Barroux to Flassan and Sault. There wasn't anything really accompanying the noise in terms of wheel wobble or anything, but it was definitely coming from the driver's side wheel. When I got out to take a photo of Mont Ventoux, I did a quick check - the wheel was on, the wheelnuts were tight, there were no sticks or anything rubbing up inside the wheel, nothing that would explain it. I got back in the car and just kept an ear on it. I was driving up and over a mountain and on the other side, the speed was 130km/h. I drove up to this speed but I started feeling some feedback in the steering wheel as well as the noise increasing, so backed it off and pulled over when it was safe. I checked again, trying to see if there was any give in the wheel or anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. So I kept going.
I made it to Sault, and by this time it was making quite a hideous noise. For some reason my phone didn't get any signal in Sault (I worked out a lot later that I need to restart it several times to pick up the service). So I went to the always-helpful Office de Tourisme and asked to use their wifi to call the AA. They said a tow truck would come out in about an hour so I looked around the town for a bit, got some lunch and sat down near the road to where I had parked to wait.
About an hour and a half later, still no one had turned up so I went back to the Office de Tourisme and called the AA again. Apparently the mechanic had already been and gone, having not been able to find me or the car. I don't know how, unless he came in through a back road but anyway, he came out again and I ran after him as soon as I saw him. He couldn't speak any English so got me to drive the camper onto the tow truck (he couldn't work out the automatic gearbox and the foot-operated "hand" brake!) and I rode with the car to the mechanics. The AA must have called him out too because it was a Sunday and the French don't generally work on a Sunday. He proceeded to take the wheel off and had a look - "kaput!" he told me. Exactly what was kaput, I had to try to work out with my very limited car knowledge but it seemed that the drive shaft had packed it in, according to the AA who were translating over the phone. They told me they would organise a taxi to take me to a hotel in Sault for the night.
I stood on the side of the road waiting for the taxi for a good 45 minutes. Nothing! The mechanic had evidently spotted me as he was leaving and he was a kind man and gave me a lift to the town. I checked into my hotel and proceeded to find a restaurant where I could go and have a giant glass of wine. What a nightmare. But at least the hotel had a good view!
I went to bed early, worrying about silly things like the gnocchi that was in the fridge in the camper and how long it would take for it to go bad... What a day!