Renovation Project - The trusty Volvo's final trip

Renovation Project - The trusty Volvo's final trip

The ferry crossing to the UK was non eventful (which is the best thing that you can ever say about a ferry crossing) we arrive in Plymouth that evening and book into a hotel. The next morning we are heading to our family, I know I was only there a couple of weeks ago but I miss them so much, it has been over 3 years now and I don't think this feeling will ever go.

We spend 2 of the most glorious weeks in the UK we see so much of the family and now every time we go to my daughters I can hear my little grandaughter shout excitedly that it is meme and granddad John at the door (I still freak she will forgot me when we leave, but it is getting less and less likely)

We buy lots of bedding and kitchen bits in the sales, I do not normally do this as I would prefer too buy from France, but sometimes you just cannot ignore the bargains.

We also have a Juicer, blender and slow cooker ready for all my home made meals when we return, we are going to be the king and queen of homemade organic healthy foods.

Whilst we are there John works more on the car, there is a loud knocking sound when ever we go over a bump John assumes this is the wishbone as it has virtually perished, so he gets the parts and spends an afternoon changing one, unfortunately instead of fixing the problem it has become even more noticeable, He can only assume now it is the shock absorbers or the suspension and we have to have a serious think about where to draw the line, the car has been amazing and we have traveled many miles in it, but we now seem to be constantly fixing it and spending money on it, we had really hoped it would live to finish our next project but this is not the case.

We search the internet (this is the royal we as I really do not care what we have as long as it works) and find the same car in a different colour.

We had to have the discussion about whether or not it would be more cost effective buying a second hand car in France due to the cost of re registering but the price difference of a second hand car meant it was cheaper to buy in the UK and register in France.

We go to collect the new one and realise just how badly our trusty Volvo had been running.

The day before we leave is the day to say goodbye, we take it to a scrap yard and John removes our new battery and drives it to the machine that will crush it, it is really quite emotional. But we take a final photo with our new car and say our goodbyes.

The trusty Volvo has finally died, with over 200,000 miles on the clock and very little work required before the last few months it really was the best car.

RIP trusty Volvo and hello new trusty Volvo!

The time has arrived to say our good byes and set off on our new adventure. Our last night is spent with my daughter for her birthday, we have a wonderful evening with nice food, once we finally find an open restaurant that does take away food. It seems it is not only rural France that closes on a Monday in winter but parts of Cheshire do as well!

It is so hard to say good bye, this feeling never gets any easier and it is hard to describe the total heart wrench of leaving kids and babies behind, even though we are not really that far and to make it more difficult we are even leaving the trusty volvo.


This is like a whole new start, but on the bright side this is like a whole new start, good bye everyone see you back in France