Not for the first time does the name of the motorway service station confuse us. Once before, we actually sailed straight past this one because it’s also called Aire de St. Hilaire Cottes on the BMW nav system.
Wise to it this time, we did stop and bar some driving the wrong way within the complex because of – inevitably – poor signage and building, we found the charger and tried to plug in.
Except. The screen showed a massive red knob (fnarr). No instructions but it suggested it was well and truly en panne.
Luckily we’re quite wise now and spotting an actual massive red knob (fnarr) just below and an arrow on it suggesting you can turn it, we did just that and a few moments later it accepted our Sodétrel card and we could charge.
Bit heart in the mouth for a short while as we had 10% charge left and 60 miles on the rEx.
Now we have 85% after half an hour and are back on the road with gulp one hour 50 minutes of driving before we can charge again. We’ll have to stop for petrol. The A26 is an utter desert for chargers in this part of France.
