I drove from la Rochelle towards Bordeaux and stopped in a town called Saintes.  I parked by the side of the road in what I thought was a quiet spot.  It turned out to be the main route through town and every time a car drove past at speed, my van rocked from side to side.  There was also a rave blasting out music until 1pm nearby (how times have changed, as few years ago, I would gave gone along) and unbeknown to me, I parked by an electric sub station and at 4pm, 2 guys turned up to carry out some work and parked behind me and chatted loudly for about 2 hours.

I woke up at about 8am and I decided to sit by the river alongside the road for 5 minutes.  I opened the van door, and closed it behind me.  I didn’t realise until I tried to get back into the van, that opening the side door doesn’t unlock the van . . the keys were inside, the doors were locked and it was a Sunday.

I had my phone with very little charge left and I turned to the obvious person in a time of crisis and called my Mum with details of the road I was in, my registration and the company I had breakdown cover with (that hadn’t emailed me details of my policy an who to call in a crisis).  I said I’d turn off my phone for 30 minutes to save battery and walked into town.   I was in shorts and a t-shirt with no money.  The worst thing was that I really needed a dump and couldn’t go into a cafe, have a coffee and drop off the kids at the pool, as I didn’t have any money.  I found the back of a factory and looked in a bin and found some nylon strip tape that is used to secure boxes.  I went back to the van and as the windows were a couple of inches open I pulled off the wind deflector on the passenger side, got my fingers through the gap and tried to use the strap to hook open the door handle.  I then noticed my puffa jacket on the back of the chairs and my van keys were in the pocket.  I got a stick and slowly lifted the jacket up and over the back of the seat towards the window.  Amazingly, I managed to get it to the window and take the key from my pocket.  Just when I had been resigned to having to smash the window, the drama was over and and huge feeling of relief descended.  I called my Mum and she was on the phone to the recovery people and I explained that everything was OK . . . I thanked the Lord and his saints

My locked van with the keys inside.