And introducing….

(Drum roll please)

Boris the Bimobil – here it is. Our latest home away from home.

Boris

We finally picked up the new vehicle on Friday July 26, only a week later than we’d hoped. There were a few technical hitches, but we got there in the end, albeit a bit rushed.

Bed and Dining Area

Kitchen, Bathroom and Wardrobe

It was 37 degrees the day we took possession and despite best laid plans of being organised, everything was running late and we were sweltering. So basically we threw all our stuff in and headed for a camping spot for the night.

Ignoring the chaos, we sat and quaffed a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate and sat back to admire our new home. This was quickly followed by a bottle of Gruner Veltliner and more admiration. Judging by my head the next morning, maybe we had a little something to finish. We spent the weekend trying to get organised and trying to keep cool. We were largely unsuccessful on both counts.

As part of our ‘getting to know our way around our new toy’ initiations, we put up our awning in anticipation of a thunderstorm and relief from the heat. What we got was a gust of wind from nowhere that made short work of our BRAND NEW awning. So, back to Bimobil factory on the Monday to get a new one fitted – oh dear. Not a great start.

Anyway, 2 weeks later we are feeling at home, and have found places for most of our stuff. I was panicking on day 1 thinking we’d a made huge error of judgement as to how much one little Bimobil could hold, but, as I am the ‘Master of Packing’, everything now fits.

We spent 5 days in Alsace, exploring pretty, pretty towns, vineyards and of course, the wine. The sweltering weather continued, and we were just too darn hot to do much. I know, I know, some people are never happy, but really it’s been one extreme to the bloody other.

Alsace - geraniums are compulsory

Currently we are in Dijon and have had a marvellous time driving around famous town and vineyards, and riding along the Canal de Bourgogne. Finally the weather has cooled down, but we are getting thunderstorms.

Beautiful Burgundy

My friend Steve, wine guru, Professor, Master of Wine etc, has moved to Dijon (from Champagne) and we’ve been able to catch up for dinner (he’s also a very good cook). We took him a bottle of wine that he hadn’t tried before from the Portuguese region of Colares – I think this is a first! Apparently he did teach me about this wine in class, but I’d completely forgotten. The student redeemed herself by supplying 2 bottles of it!

From here we head south to finish off the Rhone Valley. Someone's got to do it.