The Crittenden Automotive Library

Blue And White Van Man - The Road To Fenioux

Topics: Renault Master

Blue And White Van Man - The Road To Fenioux

Stan Potter
DriveWrite
October 31, 2013

How to achieve your dream using an old van and some self-reliance. Stan Potter writes:

My name is Stan and I drive a 1998 Renault Master 3.5t Van; but it does not live the usual life of a white van.

My wife and I decided to move to France and we purchased a house in Fenioux, a little village 80 miles south of the Loire and 50 miles from the Vendée coast. It is 531 miles from our house in Essex. The reasoning behind the van is that the French house is fairly remote (10km to the nearest town and 40km to the nearest DIY store). We buy most of what we need in the UK and take it with us in the Van. In England the Van sits in the front garden pretending it is a shed. When it has a fair load it trundles off down the roads of France. Some things we have to buy in France, mainly electrical and plumbing items. Everything else we buy in the UK to secure the best price and to have it to hand when we need it.

When we first started on this adventure we were just like any other British tourists. We looked at the map and then took the motorways to our destination. The roads are wonderful, often with very little traffic and plenty rest stops and service areas. The price of fuel and distance to the next area and what facilities are offered are also well signposted. Unfortunately there is a price to pay for this convenience. Toll Roads! We found that we were charged as a commercial vehicle and the tolls for the complete trip added up to £60 each way and, as always, the fuel on the motorway was more expensive than in the towns.

As our experience grew we fine-tuned our journey and found the optimum route including best stopping places. After travelling this route several times we decided to try something different. Routes National. These are the French main roads that connect the major towns and are often to motorway standard. Two great advantages, no tolls and fuel purchased at the edge of town supermarkets can be 20% cheaper than on the motorways.

Our trips have not been trouble free. When we first started looking for a house we booked into a Gite. Second trip we took our touring caravan over behind our Mondeo and left it on a campsite as a base. Then once we purchased the house we made one more trip in the car. As part of THE PLAN we searched round and bought the Van. On an early trip at 2am in pouring rain on the A28 motorway the exhaust on our Mondeo fell off. Fortunately we had insurance. They took over. I phoned their number, they organised a tow to take us off the motorway and to a garage. A taxi took us to a hotel. Next morning a taxi took us to a hire car office, we picked up a hire car and drove to where our car was and loaded all our goods into the hire car. Then we drove to our house (about 300 miles). The next day the garage phoned and said to replace the exhaust would be €765.00 for a 10 year old Mondeo. I said the car was not worth that much. How much to repair it? A price of €103.00 was agreed. Next day we returned the hire car and a taxi took us to retrieve our own car which subsequently passed two MOT tests with the tester commenting “the welding on the silencer is far better than the original”.

Since then we have always used the Van but not without its own problems. On a subsequent trip within 100metres of the Mondeo incident and about the same time of night, the silencer fell off the Van. This time I recovered it, put it in the back and drove to the house, relying on a very light right foot to get us there. A neighbour welded a temporary repair to get us back to England at the end of our stay. On another trip we had just left the Eurotunnel terminal at Calais when the offside rear wheel bearing started to growl. We carried on to the house, the wheel bearing becoming more and more vocal as we proceeded. The next day I phoned a company I found on Ebay and arranged for them to send a bearing to my French address. It arrived two days later.

As I do many things in France I have more or less duplicated the tools I have in England and can do most things over there and so I removed the wheel, brake drum and replaced the worn unit on the Van.

The Van has been modified for its unusual life. It has been wired to incorporate an inverter to produce 240v AC to run a domestic fridge freezer which is installed in the back. This is so I can take frozen food with us for ourselves and our friends. Our friends in France order on line from Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s or Asda and have it delivered to our UK address; we load it into theVan and deliver it to their door next day. There are three extra cigarette sockets to run sat-nav, English and French phone chargers and a 12v immersion heater to make coffee en route. Four years ago I fitted beam benders so the headlights dip to the right, four MOT tests later they are still fitted, I explained to the tester that the van spends more miles in France than in England and he was very understanding.

Next week Stan butts up against French motoring bureaucracy…