The short-term replacement steed of Burgundy Report – don’t ask me why Citroen provided a Peugeot 206 – but what a magnificent motor – just look at that paintwork! As a diesel, hardly run-in, with a mere 325,000km on the odometer…

My ‘working’ year – in terms of being out and about and as opposed to typing – started early on Monday. This was the small matter of 465km from Bern to Chablis via a quick stop in Beaune. 66 domaines are lined-up to visit in 3 weeks.

The first 445km of that seemed unremarkable; the usual lack of traffic on the Swiss A16, followed by the almost similarly quiet French A36 to Beaune. A parking space in Beaune’s Place Carnot was already waiting for me when I arrived – which tells you all you need to know about how busy Beaune was on the 3^rd of January!

Having watered some plants and bought a sandwich in Beaune, it was time for the A6 to Chablis. There was more traffic on this road and closer to lunchtime the services were packed with people – perhaps this was a late wave of people heading back to Paris and their first working week of 2022…

The day got a bit more exciting when I exited the autoroute at Nitry. Whilst at the peage, I noted an unusual sound coming from her-Subaru-ness – and it seemed to be becoming more insistent! I parked, stopped the motor and quickly checked under the hood and under that car – all seemed secure. I restarted and the noise was still plain. It’s another 20km to Chablis – largely on easy straight roads – I decided to take a chance – cruise control set to 80km/h – which is modest by my standards – as there are a few garages in Chablis and clearly none in Nitry!

So then came the garage story – of course, you knew that all the garages would be closed on Monday – didn’t you(?) So given the resounding lack of help from both Renault and Peugeot, as luck would have it, Citroen were open – you just had to find them – because Google Maps has them at completely the wrong end of Rue d’Auxerre – and that road is quite long! Having finally found them, and limped into their parking, I only had to wait another 20 minutes for them to come back from lunch (it’s France, deal with it…) It was now time for the diagnosis: Ta-da! It was the alternator that was grinding away! Typical that this should happen 2 weeks before my next service – did I mention(?), the 500,000km service. On the other hand, this could have easily still happened the week after my 500,000km service – and that would doubtless have made me much more pissed!

But what nice people at Citroen, Chablis – not sponsored – as I actually had to pay nearly €500 for a replacement part to be fitted. Not only that, they lent me a trusty steed to get to all my appointments – and I was only 30 minutes late for the first one. This afternoon, I reluctantly returned their magnificent carriage as the Scooby-do was again raring to go.

So far, 7 of 8 scheduled appointments made and only 1 covid-cancellation… Hopefully, that cancellation percentage improves over the coming days. Onwards…