French Experience 2013

Day 9 

Woke with a bang from outside, looked out the window to find that the leg of our Fiamma canopy had collapsed. Throw some clothes on and go outside to find out the damage. During the night we had a heavy rainstorm with lightning and thunder.  Despite the canopy being tilted it had built up excessive water and collapsed the left leg. No damage to the leg because the clamp had popped open. When I ducked out from under the canopy I found that the long front pole was no longer straight but more like a banana. Decided to leave everything to dry out and look at it later. So had breakfast and headed out to Gaillion to have a look at the chateau. Arrived, parked, walked up the multitude of steps to reach the top of the hill and we'd forgotten the time. Heading towards lunch so we made our way back down a lot of stairs and wandered around the town. As we had two hours to kill before the chateau re-opened we went back to the car and headed of into the countryside. Found a viewpoint where we parked over looking the valley and the Seine and had another picnic. Headed back into Gaillon, parked, walked up all the steps to find that there was only guided tours and we'd just missed it. The next one was an hour and a half later! Turns out that they only do 5 a day and there is no entry except on a guided tour. So basically they turn people away! We gave up, walked back down the multitude of stairs and returned back to the caravan.

Time to examine our banana canopy. Got out my tools and removed the leg/arm units from each end, took out the screws holding the canvas and slid the pole off. By resting the pole on the tailgate of my Discovery and with judicious use of my body weight, I slowly "adjusted" the curve back to almost straight. I should add that whilst this sounds easy this pole is about 4.2metres long so takes some handling. Once we'd checked that the leg units would slide in and out of the tube we re-assembled it into a canopy. Note to self: always check first that you've got the right leg unit at the right end. It saves having to dismantle it again! We'd not long finished erecting the canopy again, with a much steeper rain slope this time, when another storm hit. At first it was just a bit of rain and thunder. Then hail started and got harder and bigger and faster until we couldn't hear each other speak. We quickly shut windows and secured the roof vents and sat and watched the hailstones bouncing across the floor. To my delight the canopy was holding up to the bombardment and water and ice was cascading of the lower end with no visible sag in the canvas. Slowly the level of the ice increased outside until we had about 2-3inches. It was turning into a winter wonderland. It took about ten minutes to pass and once we could venture outside we couldn't believe the size of the ice balls, many where over an inch across. It was also so warm outside that immediately the ice started to form a fog that added to the eerie effect. Had a look round the caravan and couldn't find any immediate signs of damage or problems. Tenters were busily clearing the piles of ice that had built up around them but everybody had seem to have come through it relatively unscathed.