Steven Broomfield Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 World at One and the newspaper websites are reporting that the strikes are spreading into other areas of the economy. 'The English Disease', eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithfazzani Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 from Eurotunnels web site. "The media is reporting fuel shortages in certain locations in France. The motorway service stations have fuel supplies as well as the Total station on the exit from our French terminal." The motorway services we passed from Vimy to Calais didn't have any diesel on Sunday - must have arrived from somewhere one supposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 World at One and the newspaper websites are reporting that the strikes are spreading into other areas of the economy. 'The English Disease', eh? They say that workers at 16 out of 19 nuclear power sites have voted a one day stoppage. If they do go on strike for one day, I presume this means shutting down the reacotrs. In which case it will be more than one day as it takes quite a time to bring a reactor on line again. Now they are trying to block motorways and bridges. Anyone know a long term hotel somewhere south of Dijon? If we get that far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imaginatian Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 I wonder if the locals will start driving slower i.e. more efficiently? Nothing like a French lorry filling your rear-view mirror while you drive at the speed limit. If I do 70mph on the motorway I get about 500 miles from a tank. If I do 60mph I get nearly 600 miles. Guess what I do? I'm usually in no hurry! I'm off to Italy in July. If this is still going on I guess I'll be spending less time - and less money - in France. Regards, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 I've just booked our next crossings so we can avoid France almost entirely until we cross into Alsace. I feel I've taken control and can cancel without penalty if the situation improves. Last summer was blighted by anxieties about ports being blockaded, farmers closing autoroutes and spraying cars with manure and protestors burning tyres to blockade roads. I think we all felt for those poor truckers who were stuck in the heat for days on end unable to cross, as well as all the businesses affected and the leisure travellers whose trips were ruined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Lees Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 No fuel at all in Bapaume this evening. Only one garage in Albert with fuel (not sure if petrol or diesel) The road between Villers Bretonneux and Amiens was blocked this morning by protesters and burning tyres, then this afternoon the same outside the railway station in Amiens. Be prepared for disruption. It's definitely getting worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17107BM Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 I've given up on Battlefield touring for the last Twelve months or so. If it's not one thing it's another. The ports full of Camps and Crime, Strikes and so on. Great shame. Regards all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Posted 26 May , 2016 Share Posted 26 May , 2016 Hi, many (but not all) petrols stations have been refueled today, it seems to me that things are getting better... No problem to get fuel at AMIENS, I went to the Esso station this morning near the McDonalds (on the road to Albert) and there was nobody ! refueled there in 5 minutes Petrol at Leclerc (Rivery), at Intermarché (road to Corbie), Simply Market at Villers Bretonneux, Total at Peronne, etc... Sly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Lees Posted 27 May , 2016 Share Posted 27 May , 2016 Thank Sly. I'll be heading out to fill up the minibus this morning. There is a phone app that allows you to search which fuel stations currently have stocks: http://www.connexionfrance.com/france-map-real-time-fuel-garages-service-stations-interactive-18092-view-article.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 27 May , 2016 Share Posted 27 May , 2016 I've just booked our next crossings so we can avoid France almost entirely until we cross into Alsace. I feel I've taken control and can cancel without penalty if the situation improves. Last summer was blighted by anxieties about ports being blockaded, farmers closing autoroutes and spraying cars with manure and protestors burning tyres to blockade roads. I think we all felt for those poor truckers who were stuck in the heat for days on end unable to cross, as well as all the businesses affected and the leisure travellers whose trips were ruined. I wouldn't be too sure about sympathy for truckers. They have a habit of blocking every road and city in sight to blackmail the government into doing what they want. Do unto others...................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 27 May , 2016 Share Posted 27 May , 2016 I see what you mean. I wasn't really thinking of French truckers. Speaking entirely self-centredly, a holiday is meant to be something to look forward to, an investment of quite a lot of money often partially paid in advance for, not something you worry about for weeks ahead wondering whether some third party is suddenly going to decide to close your port, blockade your route or spray you with cow effluent. You can be philosophical about sea routes being closed by bad weather or roads made impassable by snow (as happened to us in April). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frajohn Posted 27 May , 2016 Share Posted 27 May , 2016 All three stations in Bapaume open this morning with fuel. Regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 27 May , 2016 Share Posted 27 May , 2016 According to TF1 news fuel is now getting through to at least some service stations. No detail yet about how many or where. Perhaps, just perhaps, the government has, for the first time ever, faced the strikers down. After all, another month and it will be holiday time without bonuses if they don't work for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Trim Posted 27 May , 2016 Share Posted 27 May , 2016 Garages near St. Omer have fuel with no limit today. Len Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 29 May , 2016 Share Posted 29 May , 2016 I have just arrived quite safely in the south of France having traversed the entire country. I was able to fill up with diesel without problem at my normal station in Tournus, but they had no petrol at all, nor did the filling station across the road (who did have diesel). All the way down the motorway it seemed to be a case of either petrol or diesel but not both. The government 'requisitioned' i.e. sort of made them subject to military discipline!, an awful lot of fuel delivery drivers, who worked through the night Friday, Saturday, and presumably today. Interstingly, an article in Le Figaro yesterday said that one of the problems was that while petrol is almost all refined in France, and goes straight from the refineries to the filling stations, most diesel is refined in other countries and imported. This meant that they could use their strategic stocks of petrol and bypass the pickets at the refineries - and the 'workers', but the diesel had to get past those stopping tankers getting into the ports. The article didn't add, but I presume it to be true, that they do have strategic stocks of diesel, but much less than petrol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 I wonder how often 'strategic stocks' of modern unleaded have to be turned around. The stuff is almost entirely useless after a few months in an unused vehicle's petrol tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 I wonder how often 'strategic stocks' of modern unleaded have to be turned around. The stuff is almost entirely useless after a few months in an unused vehicle's petrol tank. What usually happens with these things is that the fuel or vehicles (as in the American 'pre-positioned stocks', and I wonder how many people in Britain realise that corned beef is or was always revolved through strategic stocks before getting to the shops) actually revolve all the time. So, the petrol will be refined and sent to the strategic stock, and then petrol in that stock already will be sent to the filling stations. I doubt that any spends more than a month, and probably less actually in storage. Corned beef was over 6 months in store before being revolved. Think, the next war, and what would you eat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithfazzani Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 A warning for petrol lawnmower owners, drain down at the end of the season after using up any in a jerrycan, as Toby says after a few months the stuff is useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 A warning for petrol lawnmower owners, drain down at the end of the season after using up any in a jerrycan, as Toby says after a few months the stuff is useless. Or anything else petrol driven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Davies Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 I last filled the petrol can I use to fill my mower/strimmer was in September 2015. It's working fine. Maybe they make a better grade of petrol in Wiltshire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigjohn Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 If you add fuel stabiliser To the fuel it keeps for a good six months. Machine Mart sell it, and I believe Screwfix are starting to supply it as well. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Lees Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 I last filled the petrol can I use to fill my mower/strimmer was in September 2015. It's working fine. Maybe they make a better grade of petrol in Wiltshire. Seems like nonsense to me, too. I have a motorcycle with fuel over a year old, one with petrol that is over 2 years old and my lawnmower runs perfectly every spring from the previous year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 I do not think you will notice any deterioration in performance for stored petrol with run of the mill petrol engines,using unleaded fuel.Manufacturers always add the caution of draining down petrol driven appliances when non use is anticipated.....have not used my petrol driven strimmer for two seasons but yesterday gave it a service with half a tank of old fuel....thought I had an ignition problem and anticipated using the scythe for the bottom garden but resolved the problem.....it was a sluggish ignition interlock.....then the beauty burst into life....ran a programme of strimming on this old fuel of starting it up hot and cold and shutting it down using the emergency ignition cut out.Now she's ready for work using a new made up 50-1 petrol 2 stoke oil mixture. As regards the storage of large amounts of petrol,gas oil,fuel oils of varying viscosity,its essential to ensure that entrained water is drawn off.However there is no facility for this on the fuel tanks of cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 30 May , 2016 Share Posted 30 May , 2016 As a matter of principle we avoid France except for the stretch from Calais to the Belgian border, and heave a sigh of relief. This is not prejudice, it is mature judgement based on 50+ years of experience. Lovely country, pity about the people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIRKY Posted 31 May , 2016 Share Posted 31 May , 2016 As a matter of principle we avoid France except for the stretch from Calais to the Belgian border, and heave a sigh of relief. This is not prejudice, it is mature judgement based on 50+ years of experience. Lovely country, pity about the people. Never had a single problem with the French in the 40 plus years have been going there, always made most welcome and find most will go the extra mile for us! Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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