Essential Summer Items, Travelling with your Dog, Grabbing Life and Converting a VW Campervan for an Escape!

It's a mixed bag today!

Bon Jour! Welcome to our Sunday meeting - hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

This week’s post is a little niche to say the least!

I have been promising a van tour on Instagram, but the truth of it is, we are either driving, or out doing stuff or just in it making a mess, so I haven’t had a chance to actually film all the little parts of it that I think you’ll want to see. It IS on my list of things to do - but in the meantime I thought I’d share a few photos here. And also a WHY - although just buggering off to France for a bit doesn’t need a why really. It has been a bucket list dream of Gav’s for YEARS. We got the all clear from his oncologist who doesn’t want to see him again for a year and some other tests that were weighing heavy for quite some time, came back clear, so we are GRABBING LIFE and going for it! We are lucky that we can both work from anywhere and we are also very lucky to have grown up kids (and their partners, it’s like Piccadilly Circus) at the homestead to be able to leave it all for a bit.

It’s also our 30th (THIRTY like WTAH) wedding anniversary in June so we will be RINSING it for all we are worth. Being given an incurable diagnosis brought in to sharp focus what is important in life (and what is absolutely NOT important) we grab EVERY opportunity to make memories - our shark is sleeping but it’s always there - so our life plan in general is to do the stuff!!!. Say yes - find the time, do the thing and bloody LIVE!

Anyway, I digress…

TAKING A DOG TO EUROPE - a quick note

Molls has an Animal Health Certificate - just a quick note on that - our vet gave her a rabies injection and we booked an appointment with PASS PETS for the certificate part. Your vet will be able to do it too - but Pass Pets charge WAY less because it’s all they do (I think it was £99 vs upward of £300 at our vet. Your vet might be different though) You need to bring your dog to the appointment (locations at Bristol, London, Havant) for the paperwork and then make another appointment 1-5 days before your return for a tapeworm tablet, administered by a vet in France, and recorded on your animal health certificate so you can then get your woofer safely back to the UK. It’s all quite easy - have a delve in the link and follow your nose if you are considering bringing your dawg to Europe. Our papers were checked at Folkstone as we left the UK.

Molly outside the Pet Reception at Folkstone

…and once you arrive in France you are good to go anywhere in Europe. As it stands at the moment the paper work is valid for 180 days. (Quite amusing as humans have to return by 90 days)

Back to the van

Soooo, this is a photo of exactly what we bought 2 years ago. An empty VW Crafter. The possibilities were endless, but it stayed very much like this for months while Gav planned what he wanted to do. And work out on earth how he was going to do it.

And this shows a very rough idea of what would eventually go where - the lower boxes indicate seating and the big cardboard boxes were giving an idea of an oven, fridge, a sink and cupboards. When Gav showed me this I was like ohhh okaaayyyyy - I am squinting …kind of seeing it…. ummmm

And here is the same view 2 years on. That’s the bed up there - its on hydraulics so goes up and down at the touch of a button. It is SO COOL! I get it now!

On the left is the table top that comes off and attaches to the ‘wall’ for travel - you can see the arm it attaches to on the left bit of the seating when we want yo use it

Just like that!

We had the cushions made by Foy & Co Interiors - There are also some lumbar support pillows (not in the pic) & to give you an idea of how much bespoke cushions for here cost - we paid £400. They are absolutely mm perfect and lovely deep foam.

The mattress is a bespoke size memory foam one made by SOUTHERN FOAM It comes in 3 parts so the bed can lift up and down (the van narrows as it goes up so each end of the bed is a separate piece) They are really good guys so we would def recommend them - and it is really comfortable! - nowt worse than an awful mattress (Gav said it was about £350) and once again - mm perfect.

We have a proper sink, an oven and grill, and a nifty fridge with a door that opens both ways - (the long shiny black panel on the right in the pic below - hard to photograph) I’d massively recommend placing it high like this - it is SO nice not to have to stoop about to get the wine out haha

The cupboards are painted in Farrow and Ball Selvedge which is a gorgeous blue and I love it with the red of the seating and the yellow stripe duvet. TBH that is the only input I had - Gav did all of it -he worked SO hard on it, any spare moment he was out there. Freezing his arse off some days, just keeping on at it until it was ready. He amazes me!!

the hook thingy mounted on the lower part is the winder for the awning.

The wall tiles are sheets of faux tiles that stick on - we were restricted to 3.5 tonnes so didn’t want to make anything heavier than it needed to be. FROM HERE

The van has solar panels and a deck on the roof - so we can sit up there too. We have hot and cold running water that runs off the electric or the diesel tank (GAME CHANGER) and I know you will all be asking, because it’s a question I would ask too…

What about a loo and shower?

Because we all know the utter misery of traipsing across a dewy field in the middle of the night to have a wee.

We made the decision to not have a shower - we’d have to carry so much water -we have 100 litre tank under the van so it would have been possible. But the drain off would need a grey water tank and we just didn’t have the room under there. Also, we needed storage for our stuff more than a fitted shower, so storage won that battle.

As far as the loo goes, there are LOADS of different types - Gav watched wall to wall You Tube videos to the point where he is now a camping loo expert. We (he) settled on a composting loo - zero chemicals. Check.

We bought from here and it’s housed a little cupboard all to itself.

It is for emergency use only and has only been half christened. ( I am far too English to be able to explain, but I am sure you can work it out) It is BRILLIANT ( I mean, as far as this sort of thing goes) A startling discovery about (some) French loos is that they do not supply loo roll as standard. Take heed dear reader, if you are embarking on a French holiday, as that discovery makes for a very sharp learning curve !

Enough of that - let’s get back to aesthetics - We happened across a lovely camp site with a view to die for CAMPING DE LA LIEZ

china cups OBVS

not a bad little view :)

So there we are - if you have any burning camper conversion questions, drop them in the comments for Gav and I’ll get him on them.

If you would like to know where the yellow bed linen is from, I can assist - It is linked here - also comes in pink and green.

CAMPING FASHION

As you know, I have been trying very hard to avoid moshing down to looking literally like a short, homeless man who needs a shave and could do with a wash. The link clicks on IG ran in to many thousands so I am thinking that a bit of fashion is proving quite popular -

Details for the above linked here Use SHARE15 for anything on the FitFlop site (and you don’t have to trade your email for the discount using that code)

Co-Ord etc Linked Here (and a gawj dress in the same fabric)

I have also collated a list of camping things (niche but here we are) that have been VERY handy indeed so far …

Pans With Detachable Handles arguably better than the ones we have at home tbh

Excellent Camping Washing Line and the pegs are ok actually!

A Mobile Wifi Thingy so we aren't roaming lots of ways you can do it ofc - we just did this though (sorry no pic!)

Collapsible Bucket for the grey water from the sink Literally EVERY van has one of these under the pipe - that I discovered is nicknamed the Hog pipe - which I find highly amusing for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Anyway - Vital to have if you have a Hog pipe.

A String Bag VERY handy for unexpected purchasements (in the market…) Never caught out with one of these up your sleeve.

And that pretty much rounds today’s meeting up

I will be back next week with more randomness for your perusal.

Keep an eye on IG for ‘French days out’ updates if you fancy - again I know it’s a bit niche. Thanks for sticking with me!

Wishing everyone a peaceful week

Love and bonne journee!

Sally xxx

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