Thursday 19 May 2016

French Letter (8)

A Road Less Travelled
'A French Letter'

Paimpol.

19th of May 2016

It was early evening when we arrived at Rue Pierre Loti which runs alongside the port area. The 'Aires' was full to capacity (45 spaces) and we had an uneventful evening parked up in a lay-by outside the 'Aires'. Paimpol is an old fishing port which like the English canals is undergoing a transformation from commercial fishing into a significant leisure provision. There are many yachts in the basin above the lock. Some are privately owned and some are hire craft. However, in the old fish port a number of boats are being scrapped with just the odd one undergoing extensive refurbishment. 

 

I was thinking about grandpa again. Often he goes on about what he calls the 'good old days.' Usually its about how you could always leave your back doors open in the good old days. Maybe that's why it was not a good idea for him to join the Senior Service as a submariner.

The next morning we went for a walk around the town and port area. However, once more the weather was not conducive to staying on longer though the area is quite attractive. So once more we hit the road, this time changing from travelling west to a more southerly direction. The sat-nav was programmed for Rennes. As we were moving along we noticed that the roadside fuel prices were missing on the motorway signs for Gaz-Oil (Diesel). I said to the Memsahib 'at a typical €0.20 per litre, maybe the vendors were finding it difficult to attract motorists in.' Oh how wrong can you be. 

 

Later as our fuel level got down to the ¼ tank trigger point for filling up again. We set the sat-nav to find the nearest Supermarket selling fuel. When we arrived we assumed that they were expecting a delivery as everything in the fuel station was cordoned off. (The French sometimes close the fuel station when a delivery is imminent) So we set the sat-nav for another supermarket fuel stop. On arrival, that was also cordoned off. So we headed for a third supermarket. We then found out that due to a ruptured pipe in an oil processing plant, diesel was unobtainable locally. Now we were getting critically low on fuel. It was time that we searched for an 'Aires'. The nearest one with mains power available was at 'Saint Aubin'. It proved to be a fortuitous choice

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