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The return of the birthday boy

10/22/2015

6 Comments

 
Hello All
Now some of you may already know but we recently invested in an electric car and I do mean completely electric. Now said vehicle was situated in a town called Bar Le Duc which is approximately 780km from home in the north of France close to the Belgian border infact. After consultation with the salesman he was not willing to transport the vehicle for free and suggested to Gavin that seeing as he was a farmer he would be able to make a plan. So Gavin decides he will go and fetch the car. How complicated could it be...
The train to get there worked out fine and the overnight hotel was also good, the learn to drive your new electric car lesson was also good.
However the reaon why our car was considerably cheaper than any other electric car in France was that the Bar Le Duc garage did not have a charging point that worked so that meant leaving  without a full charge. Aha...light bulb moment...
Renault have a policy that if you run out of power they have a breakdown service that will come out and fetch you and take you to the nearest charging point for free... No Gavin did not end up constantly returning to the same point. He made it as far as Troyes and then learnt that when your electric car has 10km left in the battery that is exactly what it means. So 2km from Troyes he had to phone the breakdown service to tow him in and then had to find somewhere to sleep for the night. 
Lesson learnt the following day he was a little more cautious. So after 82 hours,14 charges (not all of them full charges) 8 at Renault, 4 at multi storey car parks, 1 at a Town Hall car park and 1 at a Leclerc supermarket. He returned home. Car park tickets 2.90 euros. Cost of refuelling ZERO.
The charging takes between 6 and 11 hours depending on the speed of the charging station.
Gavin said that the people en route were great the car was fantastic to drive (I can second that now). The scenery along the Loire was beautiful even though the weather north of the river was not up to much. The worst thing about the trip was that french public toilet facilities leave a lot to be desired, so he ended up spending more on food than anticipated just to have access to a clean loo.
Picture
We have started on the rather arduous job of replacing the plastic sheeting on our sheep tunnel before winter starts. I know it looks like Patrick is the only one doing some work but he is making up for down time after rather spectacularly leaving the quad whilst racing Abbey (the dog) back from the bottom of the field. Abbey won. He now requires a stool to reach his pride. With any luck he will be more cautious in the future, though I have my doubts. He is having fun with machinery this week as he ran out of battery power in our John Deere garden mower at the bottom of the farm and had to walk back home twice to find something to jump start it with. I think he is looking forward to going back to the uk next week where the equipment works and he can't fall off it.
A friend of ours Karen,is starting a new business selling store cupboard groceries from the uk she intends to have a stall at Riberac market soon and will be availble to customers on Saturday morning when Gavin is at The Butchery.
See you all soon
​Helen
6 Comments
Carole
10/22/2015 10:03:48 pm

Sounds like the fun we have with our hybrid electric car but at least we have a little bit of fuel to fall back on, although we did manage to get to a service station the last time we came to France with 1/2 litre of fuel and 10 minutes of battery left was quite tense !

Reply
Helen
10/27/2015 06:04:02 pm

It certainly makes the whole driving experience very differnet to what we have become used to.It is good to practice a new way of driving where distance travelled far out ways the need for speed. I don't think that currently these cars are for impatient people who do not plan ahead and leave with plenty of time to spare.However for we who spend an awful lot of time doodling about on country roads travelling for a maximum of about 30 to 40 mins in one direction it is perfect. Week 2 and still loving it.

Reply
Vee
10/22/2015 10:55:20 pm

My amazing friends!!!!

Reply
Helen
10/27/2015 06:04:34 pm

Or mad? xx

Reply
Rebecca
10/23/2015 10:54:37 am

I am not worthy!

Reply
Helen
10/27/2015 05:57:24 pm

Yeah, y'are. It was a good brain stretch for me and makes writing more challenging and interesting.x

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    Helen Franklin

    I am farming sheep and goats on the Dordogne/Gironde border with my husband and our 3 children. We have an on farm butchery and sell our meat direct to the public via the markets and delivery points in our local area

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