Club Arnage

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7412852.stm

And what were DFH doing there?  ;D

Funny really,

What do we do in the UK?

Murmer a bit and say "fuel bloody expensive!" - typical.


By the way "have you seen the price of diesel?"  ;D

The price is irrelevant since I can't buy any. :(

Happily, the bus to LM stops outside my house so if all else fails....

I've heard a rumour on another forum, though, that the dispute has been settled but I don't know how true this is.

Can't buy any diesel?

Bloody hell. C'est combien huile du rape seed? I sincerely hope that gets sorted, as I can't bring quite enough to get there, about for a week, and back again in a single tank from the UK

Just think lack of diesel, whats going to happen to the Audi's

(http://cache.jalopnik.com/cars/assets/resources/2007/06/24-Hours-Of-Le-Mans-Audi-Crash.jpg)

I'm sure Herr Biela will have it at the top of his list of racing driver's excuses....

50% pump or red plus 50% veg oil (of any type). Works a treat.... did 10's of 000's of miles on it in my Jetta.... go over 50% and it smells too much. You can go up to 75% but risk damaging modern pump spindles if its cold and the oil thickens......
Drain the tractor and pop to Carrefour... sorted. ;D

Some of our old tesco trucks at work run on that bio shite and it is shite they are forever f**k*ng up!!!

Termie, what's the fuel situation like at the center of the universe? We still cannot (leagally) fill jerry cans in dept 17 (which is a total PITA as we are racing this weekend!) as Charente Maritime has passed local laws banning it. Prices rising 1 or 2 cents every day. Can you fill jerry cans there? (thinking about fuel for the genny etc.)

I don't know the answer as I only fill up once a month, but I will try to find out.  How do you mow your lawn then if you can't use a jerry can to buy fuel?

I use what's left in the mower .... my neighbour resorted to loading his mower into his trailer on Saturday and driving the lot to the garage and filling the mower directly !!!

My dads in france at the moment and I don’t think he knew about this until I told him the other day. Hope he can get diesel so he can pick my mum up from the airport next week!

As to what Neil said Diesel is a bloody joke – so is petrol tho. When I started driving 6 years ago it was about 78p per litre now it’s a fricking joke!



We should take a leaf out of the french’s book and take action IMO

this is thr road outside La Rochelle airport last night when I came back to the UK - has been burning for more than 6 days now !!!!

Still better than the English effort – scratch our arses and mumble rude words, there for doing sweet FA


then Health and safty would come along and close it down

When I started driving petrol was 5s 5d per gallon ( that's 25p in new money) and we were still looking for ways to save fuel  or money!
I found the best way was a jerrycan, syphon tube and a good selection of Army vehicles in our German workshops !!

I never got used to the taste, but had to grin and bare out of necessity.

I was a pump attendant in the evenings to help out financially in the 1960's. After filling up a person's car and they'd left I drained the contents of the hose into a can. At the end of my shift my Mini was nearly full!

he..he i find the fuel drained from our Aircraft fuel tanks runs great in my diesel with a touch of oil  ;D no wonder aircraft fares are on the up.

Just a brief update.  No sign of an end to the industrial action going on around France.  Yesterday there was "operation escargot" (I'll leave that to your imaginations) by some lorry drivers and young farmers blockaded Total garages.  So the advice remains the same - leave plenty of time for your trip and expect some disruption but - at the moment at least - chances are that you'll all get here.

Thanks Termie. We can probably all get there on a full tank of fuel, but will we get back? :-\

There is plenty of fuel available around here at the moment - although at a price.  When there were problems, the worst that happened here was a restriction on the amount per car (40€).

TBH getting stuck down there with a good excuse would be fantastic, as long as I can find a broadband connection I can work remotely  ;D

Hi Termie
thanks for the up to date intel, is operation escargot on all types of roads or just the main routes motorways and N roads?
I am planning the D road down from lisuiex (If I dont drive past it) through vimoutiers.

All Routes Nationales so far.

Hi Termie,

Thanks for the 'on the spot' info re fuel, fishermen, farmers, truckers ..... (oh hell, the whole of the French population! ) and their revolting ways.

Don't seem to get much detail on this side of the channel, so never sure what the effects are, your 'reports' are invaluable.

Seem to recall hearing somewhere that during the worst of the fuel crisis that filling Jerry cans at petrol stations was prohibited, what is the situation now? (we need petrol for the genny and it only has a little tank, so dragging it off to the petrol station every refill is not a realistic option!).

And before anyone suggests the following:
1) Siphoning some out of the car. It's a DIESEL Land Rover and we need PETROL (not that I'm going to rub this point in with one of OUR party who suggested it AND also just happens to own the LR! [it's OK MARTIN, I won't mention your name  >:D]  :-\)
2) Filling the Jerry in the UK. The ferry company (LD Lines) specifically ban cans of fuel (OK, we don't give a toss about their rules, but we will need to refill it during our stay regardless), AND none of us much fancy sharing the LR cab with a stinking 5 Gal tin of petrol for about 6 hours!


TC

Filling Jerry cans is fine in the Sarthe at the mo', although one or two departements have banned them - but they are further South than here.  When somebody asked at a petrol station which was enforcing this ban how they were supposed to fill their mowers, the reply was "wait until the place closes and use the 24 hour pump and your card!"  One other method people use apparently, is to pop their mowers on a trailer and fill them direct - great fuel saving exercise, non? ::)

Seriously, I think you'll be fine.  More and more stations now accept UK cards (all the Intermarches for instance seem to have converted now) so using 24 hour stations is much easier than it once was.  Certainly the motorway places all take UK non-French cards now.

Which means they wil prolly also take Dutch cards. ;D

Ooops. :-[

Update : Jerry can ban in Dept. 79 has been lifted, so hopefully all will be fine here also, as we didn't have a ban in the first place.

Thanks Termie  :-*

If you're passing our way on BSJ, there's ICE cold beer with your name on it  ;D

Isn't CA (and it's members!) an absolute gold mine of essential info.  :)

TC

I dont mind if I dont!!

F

Just returned from almost 3 weeks hols in LBF (ending up at Termies and PQ).  I did about 2400km, starting near Le Mont St Michel, then on to southern Brittany, then up to Saumur, and finally up to LM.  I had absolutely no trouble in obtaining diesel anywhere, although the price did rise by 10c a litre, but was beginning to fall again in the last day or so.  Yesterday, I paid 1.395 per litre at a Super U in a small town 70 miles north of LM, but had seen it at 1.56 in some roadside garages

Del

Just heard from B in Law (P&O Ferries) that they are concerned about port blockades next week!
Oh sh*t!

Anyone else with news/connections?

Nothing specific in the papers at the mo' but apparently the farmers are blockading Quimper station now so it's anybody's guess what will happen and when.  Predicting next week's antics is about as reliable as weather forecasting.  As said above, set off early and expect to be held up somewhere along the line.  If there's any fore-warning of strikes of this sort I'll update as and when.

I predict with absolute certainty that I will be blind drunk for a lot of next week, and will probably start the week with a huge row at the filling station at home when trying to fill up my Jerry cans for the genny .... (we still have a ban, perhaps I'll fill up nearer LM!)

No news about any discruptions in today's papers.  I'm just off to fill the jerry can for the mower (finally dry enough to do the lawn) so will see what gives on that front shortly.