We arrived late at the camper stop Aire in Planfoy in the Mont du Pilat area of the Rhone Alps. We could not get the van in as all the spots were taken. It was about 9 at night, and we were reversing the van back out when some friendly looking French beckoned to us that we could park on the casual car parking area alongside the main area for Campers. This was our first stop at a free French Aire, so pleased we were, that someone had indicated it is fine to squeeze on almost

By way of an intro to our year on the road, here is a run down of the process of getting our very own bijou, personal world on wheels. We opted for what we believed to be the best and cheapest route to creating the van we wanted. We purchased a new base van; a Peugeot Boxer L3, H2. This means it is a long wheel base and the 3rd longest in the range at 5700 mm, with a semi high top height of 1932 mm. One of the most exciting things was we got it in Ruby Red metallic paint, and