It was a hot, but good night, although thinking about the fridge not working was playing on my mind.

I awoke with a plan though. When we had a similar malfunction about 18 months ago in Spain, I’d taken off the covers at the back of the fridge, poked about a bit and blew hard in case that might clear any debris. No one was more surprised than me when that seemed to do the trick back then and it had been fine ever since. This time I was better prepared as I’d purchased an aerosol can of compressed air.

So, armed with my new secret weapon, I wacked in some compressed air to hopefully clear any crud that can build up around the burner. I was initially delighted when the fridge lit straight away, but then somewhat concerned by the large explosion that occurred. I convinced Sophie there was nothing to be worried about, despite the big bang and the slightly strange smell. I then read the writing on the aerosol can, where I was reminded that it was flammable – whoops. Anyway, All now seemed fine so hopefully no harm done.

Knowing that we would, at some stage be in the Dijon area, I was keen to visit Chateau de Guédelon, as we’d seen the place on TV a couple of years back. It’s a long term project to build a chateau from scratch using only medieval methods. I realised, to my surprise that we were less than 30 minutes away, so that was to be our first objective of the day.

It was a considerable entrance fee of €14 each, certainly by our standards, but it was impressive to see what they’d achieved in 20 years, and the construction seems to be continuous and there was much activity when we were there. I had a good look for the presence of any sneaky power tools, but there was no cheating going on, other than seeing a worker using a walkie-talkie, which didn’t really match his simple medieval costume. He was also wearing glasses, but I suppose there is a limit to authenticity. Then thinking about, given the massive entry fee, why don’t they make everyone wear contact lenses who needs them. Just saying.

On returning to the van, I was wondering if my fridge repair might have now resulted in the motorhome beginning to melt due to my slight error. All was well though, but not quite, because that tease of a fridge was now refusing to light again.

Anyway, off we went, and before long found ourselves walking round the pretty, small town of Cravant. We did consider staying there, but the canal-side parking was too oversubscribed, so we continued on our way.

I’d seen an interesting Park4night stop further on in the Chablis region, which promised great views. We were not disappointed and it was an excellent stop for the night with uninterrupted views across the terraced vineyards, and to the lovely village on the other side of the valley. What’s more, I managed to get the fridge going again, but was not holding my breath. True to form, the fridge packed in before bedtime, which was really annoying.