harry:
So the three wheel dog express has run its course ,Spardo?
The 3 wheeler was never for the dogs Harry, but has run its course on the road long since and is now doing sterling service as a log store just outside the back door.
The dog express is still in full swing, with the Berlingo and the (re-chassised) Teardrop sleeper. It was with 2 big male Dobermanns that I was travelling that Saturday/Sunday mentioned above. I had collected 2 Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds) and 2 smaller dogs from Cestas services on the Friday lunchtime, overnighted at the only remaining routier in Chateau Gaillard, south of Paris, and delivered them to Douai in the Nord Departement Saturday midday. This is a regular run for me.
On Saturday afternoon I collected the 2 Dobies from nearby and Bethune and headed south with them. One Dobie was very frightened and nervous and made a lot of noise when the car stopped. After failing at Rouen I pulled up at the routier, now by-passed at St. Germain la Gatine, north of Chartres, fed them, walked them and prepared to settle down for the night. However Rocky, the nervous one, set up such a howling and barking that I thought it better to move on, the routier patron lives on site and there are neighbours. I finally pulled in behind a Spanish frigo south of Chartres on the N10. I reckoned I wouldn’t hear his frigo from there, and he wouldn’t hear my dog.
After Sunday lunch at Vivonne I was intending to overnight on the parking in the centre of Carcans which is halfway up the Medoc peninsula NW of Bordeaux. However, with Rocky being so noisy I thought the middle of town wasn’t a good idea and so continued the half hour further on into the wilds to the animal pension that was to be his new temporary home, intending to sleep there till my rdv at 8 on Monday. Good job I did because Eddy the boss was on site and took him in there and then. I then went across Bordeaux and down past Langon to park up with my other ‘mate’, Eliot. Again though, at this other pension the owners lived on site (I hadn’t realised that) and took him too! Result! So I was home Monday morning instead of afternoon.
Robert, I have remembered the Relais de la Beauce. It is the one just north of Ymonenville and has benefitted from the bit of new road running past it. The entrance is now from a side road and the lorry park is bigger, if anything, than I remember it. Long time since I ate there though, it was another good one I think.
At Bordeaux my favourite was always the Albatross, one of 5 restos almost under the Pont Aquitaine but only that (now renamed) and the Monte Cristo next door remain. I was looking to eat, but not stay there, on a recent Friday night but they were both closed so I went round to the Centre Routier round the corner where the food couldn’t be faulted. Especially not for about 14 and a half euros all in.
Thank you: you are spot on there, Relais de la Beauce is at Ymonenville! You mentioned the bypassed St Germaine la Gatine near Chartre. I used that one quite a lot and always got a good meal there. I can feel a carafe coming on already! Robert
robert1952:
Thank you: you are spot on there, Relais de la Beauce is at Ymonenville! You mentioned the bypassed St Germaine la Gatine near Chartre. I used that one quite a lot and always got a good meal there. I can feel a carafe coming on already! Robert
We always reckoned that St. Germain la Gatine was about half way home here from Calais and the first time I stopped my wife was with me. The old couple running it were about to retire and, after we got chatting after the meal were invited to share digestives with them. The next time there a young bloke had taken over and he was really keen to make it work, naturally, and would rush across the road each time another wagon pulled up to make sure it parked prettily! There wasn’t a lot of room and he wanted to make sure everyone could get in.
I was rushing to get there one night and got stopped by the ministry for a controle. I told the bloke I needed to go otherwise I would miss my meal. He checked everything but didn’t delay. I was too late for a meal but the patron made me some sandwiches and produced a bottle of red instead.
Are you still on the road with that black Stralis, Robert? I’ll keep an eye open for you if you are.
robert1952:
Thank you: you are spot on there, Relais de la Beauce is at Ymonenville! You mentioned the bypassed St Germaine la Gatine near Chartre. I used that one quite a lot and always got a good meal there. I can feel a carafe coming on already! Robert
We always reckoned that St. Germain la Gatine was about half way home here from Calais and the first time I stopped my wife was with me. The old couple running it were about to retire and, after we got chatting after the meal were invited to share digestives with them. The next time there a young bloke had taken over and he was really keen to make it work, naturally, and would rush across the road each time another wagon pulled up to make sure it parked prettily! There wasn’t a lot of room and he wanted to make sure everyone could get in.
I was rushing to get there one night and got stopped by the ministry for a controle. I told the bloke I needed to go otherwise I would miss my meal. He checked everything but didn’t delay. I was too late for a meal but the patron made me some sandwiches and produced a bottle of red instead.
Are you still on the road with that black Stralis, Robert? I’ll keep an eye open for you if you are.
No mate, I last drove the Stralis in early 2006 for CSB, when I returned to teaching. I have done the odd month here and there since though. I’m in Cairo.
That Iveco Stralis was probably the most comfortable lorry I have ever driven. I did long-haul work with it and it was brilliant. If it had had a 9-speed Fuller in it instead of that Eurotronic nonsense, it would have been perfect!
When I took the photo below at Londra Camp truck stop in Istanbul (by then confined only to what used to be the ‘hazardous’ parking), I was at least driving an Iveco with a Twin-splitter in it, thank God. Now I wonder what happened to that plaque in the photo! Robert
Hi Spardo
Thanks for coming back with that info. I watched your videos, brought back a few memories, although the Cerdon looks a lot wider and faster than I remember in the early '70’s. Must try to use the ‘old’ roads when I go next year.
Best wishes
Ken
Them video of your Spardo certainly bring back happy memories, but I think the monument could do with a clean up most unusual for the French to let a memorial get in that state, Ken take a bucket and brush with you when you go out next year and see if you can give them a helping hand and give it a scrub up.
Grubers Ludwigshafen was a good place to stop good food and plenty of it. Surprised it has not been mentioned on here before it was Norman Lewis’s second home.
For those of you who enjoyed my little trip down memory lane you might like to see this modern video from a Belgian driver I discovered yesterday. At some point in the journey, not sure where, he is climbing the ‘ski jump’ to the Blanc. he pans the camera round to watch the wagons descending the old road down the cliff side.
For us who travelled that road before the ski jump was built it must send a few shivers down our spines when we remember that that hairy descent was 2 way.
OssieD:
Them video of your Spardo certainly bring back happy memories, but I think the monument could do with a clean up most unusual for the French to let a memorial get in that state, Ken take a bucket and brush with you when you go out next year and see if you can give them a helping hand and give it a scrub up.
Ossie
Great idea of yours Ossie, I’m thinking of going down to Turin and look for the restaurant in the square near the central dogana where we all used to go for a meal. Had the best steak tartare ever there! I don’t suppose its there anymore even if I could find it. Ken
harry:
Easy one - just look for the SCA Maggie road train parked outside,Ken
PS. Are you taking a wobbly box down or hoteling it?
Hi Harry
Definitely no wobby box, at my age its comfort or nothing. Anyway how you keeping, still living in the UK or Thailand maybe?
btw I remember SCA having a road-train but thought it was a Fiat!
National 1, topside of Madrid KM60 (pictured below) - it was in a hollow at the top of a hill: a very good ‘hostel’ truck stop. I remember taking this picture with a slight hangover. Dave Clarke had his son with him and we all parked up with Nick (who drove for Manno) and had a marvellous evening. My Iveco is seen sagging with loss of air in the hind legs. Robert
harry:
Easy one - just look for the SCA Maggie road train parked outside,Ken
PS. Are you taking a wobbly box down or hoteling it?
Hi Harry
Definitely no wobby box, at my age its comfort or nothing. Anyway how you keeping, still living in the UK or Thailand maybe?
btw I remember SCA having a road-train but thought it was a Fiat!
The FIAT was later ,I had the last knockings of the Maggie- it was a fight to the death and I won …as I did with all the tinpot Maggies
SCA
Ray Phillips
Roger
All died under me.Hated the bl#ody things
harry:
Easy one - just look for the SCA Maggie road train parked outside,Ken
PS. Are you taking a wobbly box down or hoteling it?
Hi Harry
Definitely no wobby box, at my age its comfort or nothing. Anyway how you keeping, still living in the UK or Thailand maybe?
btw I remember SCA having a road-train but thought it was a Fiat!
The FIAT was later ,I had the last knockings of the Maggie- it was a fight to the death and I won …as I did with all the tinpot Maggies
SCA
Ray Phillips
Roger
All died under me.Hated the bl#ody things
Yeah, I remember they were always breaking down, although a lot of UK companies didn’t even have sleeper cabs so even a Maggie-Deutz was better than some of the trucks back then. At least you had a nice sleeper cab and a night heater! btw I remember Ray Phillips didn’t he used to take his wife along? lent him a £1 once near Paris worth 10 Fr.francs then and he sent it back to me with a thank you letter,happy days then.
Hey! Harry didn’t know you had that photo. Who was the guy standing by the side, was his name Max by any chance? I’ve seen another photo (one of yours) with me standing in front of a F88 road-train looks like it was taken at Stratford LIFT maybe! also while were down memory lane what was the name of the hotel in Turin that the SCA drivers used?
