Bessie part four

All I could think to say over and over was what are we going to do? when a man from one of the cars at the other side of the tunnel came over to us, he was French but spoke good English, how high are you, I'm thinking too high, Brians saying three point two. Have you a tape measure and we will measure it? well our big tape is in the tool draw at the side of the van which we could not open for the mountain at the side of us, so I come out of the van with the only tape I can find one a metre long.

The man climbed the ladder on the back of the van and lay on the top, "I will hold the tape at the top you measure it down"

So up goes Brian to catch this metre tape and try to measure the van (we know it is three point two as you have to put the hight on the booking form for the boat). while he is balacing on the ladder holding the tape bottom with one hand and trying not to fall of the ladder and get the right mark to put the tape to measure the next metre, what happens next? the button decided to come off his shorts and down they slip to his ankles, having ho spare hand to stop them.

All I could think was how could you do this to me , when I could hear clapping and cheering coming from the car behind us, there was a woman in the car really enjoying this. The man then asked if anyone had a propper tape measure and all the cars had one so we ended up with about five. After getting all the tape measures the man say oh come on we will go for it, we will get you through, more panic from me how on earth are they going to do that.

The man went in front of the van other side of the tunnel and one was behind the van or so I thought and Brian got into the driving seat, I could only think well if it knocks anything off the van it will only be the top box that hits the top of the tunnel let it go into the gorge I don't care just don't let the van be damaged. It was like something off the golden shot, left a bit, right a bit, slow, over to the left while inching our way through, it will only be the box won't it that will be damaged? I kept saying to Brian, well afer what seemed ages we came out the other side to the sound of everyone cheering, they reckoned the hight three metres being at the outside of the tunnel and going slightly higher in the middle we were able to get the box to the middle bit by keeping to the left we only had six inches on each side of us in the tunnel we had to fold the mirrors into the van to do it, so we were counting on the men telling us if we were ok as we could not see down the van, when we were through I heard a sound on top of the van and went to see what it was, the man who I thought was walking behind the van had been lying on top of the van beside the box and was telling the man in front where to go.

I nearly had a fit when I found this out, here's me saying we can only lose the box and we could of lost someones head, all sorts of thoughts were going through my mind. There are some kind people in this world and we me met two of them that day, when they left us the one who had come the way we were going said "you will be alright now the road gets narrower but the tunnels are higher" in all it took about half an hour to get to the other side of the tunnel and the sat nav lived to take us wrong another day.

When we could stop and go on top to look at the van the straps round the box were all frayed where they had dragged along the top of the tunnel, that is how much room we had to get through.

At last we were on our way downwards again although the roads were very narrow in parts.

Some of the mountain villages were like medi evil buildings left over from annother age.

We stayed in this village for the night, it was bastile day so there were many celabrations, fireworks, bands and dancing in the streets.

The next day it was off to Monaco and down to sea level again. Monaco is a beautiful place but boy is it expensive. this is the first view you get as you approch Monaco from coming down the mountains.

This is the famous Monte Carlo cassino, we had a drink at the Cafe de Paris belonging to the cassino one small beer and one orange juice cost fifteen euros (about twelve pounds fifty).the photos that follow are the palace and marina and different parts of Monaco.

This is the changing of the guards, at the Monaco Palace a bit different to Buckingham Palace.

After Monaco we went to Nice for four days, on one of the days we took the train into Cannes, in Cannes we saw where they hold the film festival and the famous red carpet that the stars walk up when they are possing for the cameras.

When we were in the camp site at Nice in the next caravan to us was a French couple and their dog, we thought Tina and Dave had come to visit us when we seen their dog.

One of these two bedroom appartments was for sale at the going price of seven point five million euros.Well at last we were on our way home, as we had spent more time than we ment to in the South of France we decided to get home as soon as posible, we set off early the next morning and managed to get into Spain where we stopped for the night. Brian went up to the reception while I made a drink and he came back with our neighbours here in Spain Ursula and Steve, I was very suprised as we had drove as far as we could before picking one of the many camps to stay in, they had done the same on their way back. from the UK.

The next day we were home after enjoying a wonderful trip seeing new places and meeting my dear friend Tina's sister Leeta.

We will be going places here in Spain in the van but are looking forward to planning next years big trip.

Jeanette Spain