After a long day kyaking in the Ardèche Gorge (Rhone-Alpes, South-Central France), going down shutes and rapids and under the natural limestone arch, Dad decided to stop off at what he told us was “a candy store”.

To my surprise it was not really what I would call a candy store as it only made nougat. It was interesting to watch them making it and the machine that individually wrapped each piece but didn’t like the taste that much.

We had parked the campervan in the public carpark across the road.  When we walked around to open the door, the car parked next to us drove off very quickly.  I noticed straight away that the keyhole in the door had been broken with a screwdriver.  They had been trying to break in!

Luckily, we had disturbed them and they had not got in and so nothing was stolen.  It was very frightening.  Mum went to ask the shopkeeper how to contact the police (the gendarmerie). The helpful shopkeeper rang the police for her and we were told to come in by 6pm or the next day.

It was 5:45pm so we raced off to the police station.  When we got there there was another car that had had it’s window smashed and the people had lost all their luggage.  We weren’t there by 6pm so we had to come back the next morning to fill in a report.

The gendarme was very helpful and took all the details of what we could remember about the car that drove off and the men Mum and I saw jumping into the car very quickly.  It was a good reminder to be careful where and how you park and to never leave valuables in the campervan.