Hope at last!

Well it has been a long silence and numbers of you have contacted me to find out why, so here goes (this is the shortened and expurgated version): At the end of September I was returning from Belgium, after a delightful ten days in the hilly French and Belgian bit of the Ardennes, and cheerfully working my way round Paris on the little roads when the engine on my camping blew up, or rather seized, which left me by the side of the road with a buggered CC, two dogs, a duck and a snake - not ideal for hitchhiking.
It was towed in of course and then out again. Because there was not hire vehicle available to get the menagerie and bits from, roughly, Marne-la-Vallée village to the Vendée. So we had to sleep on board but not inside the garage perimeter as it was patrolled by dogs at night who pulled huge blokes around with them.
Not a good night, not just because I was having fits about the costs but also because it was the kind of area where stuff gets nicked. You don't believe me? Well, ten yards from me in the filthy car park was a Brit plates CC who had gone shopping a hundred yards away and come back half an hour later to find that all his back lights had been pinched.
So, I cuddled the iron bar and kept my legs closed round my jewels and man bag with all the papers and cards in it, and kept the dogs a bit hungry. Funny how many vehicles came and went, strange night creatures. In the end I read the History of Sicily until dawn.
This was coupled with a very nasty bout of family in-fighting which led to the the alienation of one daughter.
And the last chance for the love-of-my- life and I to patch things up!
As a result lots of anger, depression, and bottles of wine.

Being positive I popped along to the company who had sold the vehicle which was perhaps still under guarantee. The director was most concerned, helped get an independent expert, at his cost, looked at all the possibilities, which took about six weeks. Then crunch time; he and his company were not responsible in any way but he would make a token payment of €600 towards a bill of nearly five figures. He was very keen for me to get the repairs underway.
The eureka came as he was shaking my hand; the bastard was trying to screw me.
That night I went on a French CC forum and one guy said immediately that I should use my household policy legal protection and get the lawyers involved. So I stopped the repairs and did just that. Relief.
So far there have been three site visits to find and agree the cause, and later this month there will be a fourth, with a neutral expert and present will also be anybody who had anything to do with the CC at all, which seems to include uncle Tom Cobbley's horse. And my expert seems to be something of a legal thug as well as knowing his engines, which is a relief.
Just maybe the CC might be on the road by the middle of Feb. Which had better bloody happen as I am going absolutely nuts, having nearly had a nervous breakdown worrying about the costs. Now, I might get some money back at least.
So, I shall no longer be a nice guy when it comes to dealing with companies; I know my rights now and will go at then with a nastiness they have not even dreamed of in their worst nightmares, and like all good and sensible French people, I shall get experts and huissiers and go at it like a rottweiler on speed because they are out there trying to screw me.
And, dear readers, is the story so far.
However, I have decided to start blogging again, beginning with a few chapters from a book about the Vendée War and some nice little bits I have tucked away. UNTIL I CAN GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN!