It had to happen

Every Summer we seem to have some car crisis. Today was that day. It all started so well with a planned brief visit to Ales to pick up some tiles from a reclaim yard. DS#1 & 2 loaded the car with the 130 terracotta tiles whilst I had a chat with Monsieur about wild mushrooms. Off we set and the noises were a bit odd straightway. "It'll settle down" was the cry but after a kilometre there was no settling down - indeed it had become unsustainable.
"Off-load half the tiles will sort it" was the cry. Wrong. Now of course it was 12:03 when all the garages in the South of France had shut for the weekend. Three hours on the mobile to a variety of people eventually got the pickup you can see to us and the car safely ensconced in the homme's yard. An hour then deciding if we were covered by insurance and what we would do next. Answers: "Probably" and "Start walking".
After a kilometre, enthusiasm for the next 119 had diminished. Out came the thumbs and surprisingly car #31 stopped to offer DS#1 & 2 and myself a lift to Lablachere - result.
Charlotte A kindly drove down to pick us up and after a brief Lidl detour we got back to the house eleven hours after we had left, having achieved nothing.
Happy days.