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Hope this is the right place to post this.

We've just returned from a weeks camping in France minus our car & camping gear.  Hopefully, my embarrassment at my stupidity will save someone else suffering the same.

Brief details - Out for the day (with 4 month old baby), 1/2 way through holiday, 40 miles from the campsite, go to supermarket, buy stuff for tea, come out 30mins later, car gone.

Inform supermarket security, they inform police .  Ring our insurance company and breakdown cover - told no replacement car in policy.  If we'd broken down or been in a road accident, we could have a replacement, but not because it was stolen.

End result - Hire car from Epernay to Calais, on Ferry as foot passengers, friend picked took us home from Dover.  Had to leave anything we couldn't carry - tent, cooker, airbed, sleeping bags etc etc.  2 Day car hire was 279 Euro; supplement for taking it on ferry would have been additional 480 Euro plus car hire in U.K.

Friends are going down to the campsite before Xmas and will pick our gear up for us, otherwise we would have had to dump it all their. 

Hope this painful story to type will help prevent someone else getting caught out.

How awful for you. Sometimes I we are guilty of thinking it won't happen when we are on holiday & in a different country. This just reminds us that it can. Thanks for posting this as it will make ME think next time we are away.

Also WELCOME to UKCS.

That`s a sad story. Glad you got back OK.

Just to add something...make sure that even if your insurance company will provide a replacement car due to theft or any other reason that they confirm that they will provide  one with a towball if you have a caravan, TT or trailer. Some pals of mine had terrible troubles a couple of years back getting their insurance company to provide them with a seven-seater car capable of pulling their TT. It all hinged on the definition of "replacement", my friends beliving that replacement meant that the substitute would be capable of everything that their own car could do on holiday. The insurance company did not agree. My friends even offered to get a towball fitted at their own expense! No. They had to cancel their holiday as their own car couldn`t be repaired in time.(It had some sort of breakdown on the way to the ferry)

MGgirl  - Welcome to the UKCS.  Sorry to hear of your holiday woes but thanks for letting us  know - a salutary lesson to all of us to make sure we check our policies.

Hazel and Carr

Just popped back in to say thanks for all your kind thoughts. 

We were told, after  it was nicked, that the VW Golf is the most stolen car in France.  Shame they didn't tell us before as it was only 2 years old.

Better get back to wading through all the insurance policies.

Thanks Again

MGgirl

Where exactly was your car stolen from? It might be helpful so that if any of us are in that area we might want to take extra care.

David

Hi David

It was Carrefour at Chateau-Thierry in the Champagne region.

HTH someone.

Denise

Denise

Thanks for that info. We often use Carrefour. I have to say that you don't just think about the car being stolen, wrong side steering and all that! I have known cars to be broken into. I shall certainly take more care in future. Have you had any news about the car being found?

David

Unfortunately whether the car is left or right hand drive won't matter to these scumbags.  The car was probably stolen for its parts.  Once it is stripped it will be nigh on impossible to find.

Carr

Agree with you on the stripping down to parts - probably in a zillion other VW's by now. 

Not too worried about the car - yes it was inconvinient, but kicking myself because my 4 month old's medical book was in the changing bag in the boot.  He struggled to put weight on when he was born and now we have no record of that.  Also the sections where you put down their milestones - 1st smile, when he rolled over etc.  Gutted.  Didn't they spot the Baby on Board sticker ????

The other thing I'll do in the future is keep the memory card separate from the camera.  At least that way I'd have the 1st holiday abroad photos for Kaden, esp him trying to grab by champagne glass in the cellars at Moet.

Denise

What a sad story.  It's always tragic to lose the irreplacable memories that are worthless to others and priceless to us.

Welcome to UKCS and thanks for sharing your experience as it'll help a lot of us to ensure that we have the right type of insurance.