Wheelchair Worries *Puissalicon Edition - It's Quite Nice Here

I could get used to this. A lot of our time was spent here, where else could we go where we could bask in the sun, drink beer, eat chocolate... as I'm writing this I'm realising that these aren't unique activities to our villa and we could do this anywhere else. I loved being here though, I was completely independant. I certainly don't disllike being pushed around - I am very grateful. It is my reluctance to have an electric wheelchair afterall, that means I need to be pushed. I'm sure everybody would prefer if I changed.

Most days would start by having brekkie and sitting outside by the pool. There were two ways out here. One way had a step while the other took you through the back door, which was completely flat. Not having to ask if I can come outside and cooming and going as I please, is something that can't be under estimated. It was quite a musical house and upon spotting a vacant guitar I thought I'd remind everybody of my musical prowess. I treated them to some Pink Floyd. I wanted to see if I still had it. I nailed it.

A guy came to look at the pool. An English guy, so I took advantage of the common language and made small talk.
"Fantastic weather, is it always this nice?" I asked
"Hmmm, not really" He replied, noticeablly not matching my enthusiasm. "It can be very windy and it's rarely this hot. I couldn't help but look at the two excuses for white man legs poking out from his shorts. It looked like he'd coated his legs with varnish. I suspected he was being a typical brit and moaning. I looked at his toes poking out from his sandals, they were just as varnished. I was sure my suspicions were correct.
"Do you get Golden Eagle's here?" I enquired
"Yes, they're not common, but you certainly see them here. You tend to find them around mountains and warm weather"

"Oh right. Maybe it was then."

Definately what we saw

A few days earlier we were driving back from Pézenas and saw a large bird hovering in the sky.
"Eagle!" Dad exclaimed while pointing at the sky. I scrambled for my phone and attempted to flick it onto camera and take a picture all before the car drove past it. "F*** P*** A***. I didn't manage it, but fear not, I have found an accurate depiction of it online. He assured me what he saw was an eagle. He could have pointed at a sparrow and shouted "eagle!" and I wouldn't have known any better. But maybe he was telling the truth after all.

Pézenas was a lovely little town that was mentioned in the blue folder of 'places of interest' found at the villa. This had immediately become our favourite place to visit. We came here a few times during our stay. It looked exactly how I imagined the South of France would. All the buildings were a pale yellow/brown colour. They even leave disabled car park spaces for people who are disabled. Well, every parking space was taken when we were trying to park, it may have just been coincidence that this space had become free at this point. At home most disabled parking spaces are free, but we couldn't read the instructions, so to be safe Dad went to pay. A French gentleman told us it was free before he paid. However, since Brexit a UK blue badge isn't recognised in many EU countries, including France. Replacement talks were set up and ministers agreed to negotiate individual deals with EU countries to recognise British Blue Badges, but these have stalled over the past year with no decisions being made.

Pézenas was clearly quite a popular town but it didn't seem to be very touristy. Any time I heard people chatting they were speaking French. 

Rolling around the main town square was simple, everywhere was smooth asphalt, there were drop curbs everywhere. There were quite a few restaurants and shops in the back allies, but some of these were up steep inclines and cobbled streets. They aren't inaccessible as long as you are with somebody to push you around. 

We stopped at Le Pezanes for lunch on what turned out to be the hottest day of the holiday. When we got back to the car it was reading thirty six degrees! Once it moved out of the direct sun it dropped to thirty one. But still, thirty six! We sat outside - as did the rest of the customers. I went into the empty restaurant to go to the toilet and it looked like wheelchair heaven. Everything was on one level, the floors were smooth and the tables were nicely spaced out so you could easily fit the wheelchair through. The toilet even had those rarest of things, a toilet seat!

We came back a few evenings later and ate at a street restaurant called Royal Glacier. It was in the side streets off the main square, so it was a bit of a push getting the wheelchair there. It was by no means wheelchair friendly. There were a few tables and chairs outside and then two or three steps down to get into the restaurant. I could only see the entrance which opened directly into a bar area. I dn't know if there were more seats inside. The food was lovely. Instead of chips they had thin slices of potatoe that looked like they were sauteed.

We consulted the trusty blue folder again and saw that d'agde was a forty five minute drive and was right on the coast. We fancied a paddle in the meditarranean sea. We packed our bucket and spade, put on string vests and knotted handkerchiefs on our head and set off. Fans of

The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X might recognise this name. I didn't. Cap D'agde is often mentioned, as Dom Byrne went on holiday to D'agde as a child and claimed he didn't know it was home to a nudist colony. To be fair to ol' baldy, I didn't know either. It's not obvious just walking around the place. In fact as we drove in I was already thinking of leaving. To say it was unimpressive is an understatement, to say I thought we were in Baghdad would be more accurate. As we got closer to the beach it did change into a nice fresh and clean looking place. It felt like a tourists town. We parked in a car park by the beach. It was more than suitable for the wheelchair. Everywhere was smooth concrete and the path that ran alongside the beach was very wide. The path had the beach on the left and a large grey hotel or shopping mall on the right. There were several restaurants littered around, with outside sitting areas with people sitting under parasols shading from the sun. We looked at the menus and there was virtually nothing for the vegetarians and vegan. Or me the normo...

sorry meat eater. I'm not a big fan of sea food. We would eat back at the villa and take advantage of the outside sitting area.

The penny dropped when I started seeing life size cutouts of Dom and sandwich boards with his face on promoting Cap D'agne. I do believe him now when he says he didn't know this was the biggest nude resort in Europe, but he's certainly making sure everybody else knows.

Our final visit was to Gorges d'Heric. It was mentioned in the trusty blue folder. Words like 'breathtaking' and 'beautiful' caught our attention, but those words don't do it justice. It was another gorgeous day, there wasn't a cloud in the sky again - the car was reading twenty-four degrees. On the drive there my ears were popping again. Well, I couldn't hear as well until I swallowed and they would temporarily clear, but quickly block again. I've never understood why this is called popping.  

We were transported into a western again. Surrounded by brownish, orange mountains. I could just imagine a Golden Eagle hovering above one of the peaks, but strangely now I was looking, there were non about. We arrived and started the long climb up. Once again I was regretting not having an electric wheelchair, or in this case a powered wheelchair. This was steep! Fortunately I was with three people who were willing to take it in turns pushing my carcass up. You do not want to miss the views of this place though so you could hire a powered wheelchair from Limitless Travel. 

The difference between a powered or electric wheelchair is generally what you're going to use it for. An electric tends to be for general use. You use it get around, but may not have the strength or stamina to self propel. They require regular charging because the battery needs to be able go for many hours. This sort of terrain would probably require a powered chair. Something with off-road tyres that has a short term battery that's only purpose is to get you up and down the gorges. A powered wheelchair often falls under the umbrella of electric wheelchair, but that's just semantics. Just be clear what you'll use it for when renting it.

Limitless Travel have got a fantastic website. It should be your company of choice when looking at booking a fully/partially accessible holiday, a coach holiday, cruise holiday, beach holiday etc. They even provide a carer should you need it, so you don't have to rely on family or friends who may be unavailable when you wish to travel. You can just use them to hire a wheelchair to use on holiday. You will need to phone them and be ready for questions like measurements from one hip to

the other and your body weight and height, as well as the terrain you'll be encountering. It's handy if you aren't going to need the chair all of the time. Most people will, but you may be able to have a manual chair to get around in and a powered one for trips like this. Then you could rent one specifically for this.

Anyway back to the hike. Gorges d'Heric is huge. it's about four kilometres from the car park to the town of Heric which is at the top. Fortunately the old rail bed had been converted to a road. The gorge is surrounded by high cliffs and peaks with spectacular views around each bend. The road was littered with people going up or coming down, most with hiking gear on and/or hiking sticks, hats, hiking boots and sunglasses. And here was us, without any hiking paraphernalia and pushing a wheelchair. I wonder if they could tell we were tourists?

We probably went about one third of the way before relenting and coming back down. What we had seen was spectacular though, and reading the reviews on-line it leads to a largely old ruined abandoned town. The nice cold beer I had when I got back back down to the car park, meant I wasn't sorry to not go any further.

Wheelchair Worries *Puissalicon Edition - Bienvenue dans le Sud de la France, bon séjour

photo courtesy of
southfrancevillas.com

We arrived at about 17:00, and parked on the opposite side of the road next to a field. Dad went across the road to locate the key. There seemed to be an issue getting the key box to open. Unfortunately the property was surrounded by 6ft walls and an iron gate, I think it would successfully thwart any attempts to get in, so I waited for Dad to open it. Fortunately he did and we moved the cars into the driveway. I stayed in the car as my wheelchair was under a pile of other things. I've always found a good way to get out of the unloading, is to be in a wheelchair, it seems to do the trick every time 👍.

As you can see it's a shabby little place, they've tried there best to make it as nice as possible, but you can only work with what's put in front of you. <-- I'm hoping you can detect my sarcasm.

We entered through the back door of the property directly into the kitchen. Waiting for me was a handy chair to use in the bathroom when I had a shower. It was a kemode. Not quite a shower chair, but they get a 'B+' for effort. A kemode looks like a shower chair, but it's made of metal rather than plastic, has the lack of a hole in the seat so you sit in a pool of water as it can't drain anywhere. Oh and there's a bucket so you can... erm... you know, ah, you get the point.

Let me show you around. Not all of it, if you want to see everything go to South France Villas

In the garden is a heated swimming pool. Surrounded by tall greenery, trees and you can only get to the garden through the large driveway gate. There are no other houses or buildings over looking you. There is a bungalow next door, but whoeveer owned it was out all day meaning their dogs were left out to greet us whenever we came back. 

Inside, the kitchen, living room and dining area are open plan.

As you can see space was not an issue, I had to try really hard to bump into anything. There isn't a carpet in sight, the whole downstairs has a ceramic tiled floor. There are a few rugs around the place, but they are quite thin and don't cause an obstruction to wheel over. Behind the camera is a large kitchen that spans most of the width. There is a large island in the middle of the kitchen. Most importantly - and I wouldn't be surprised if this was a stipulation Dad gave when speaking to Caroline at South France Holiday Villas. THERE MUST BE A CLEAR ROUTE TO THE FRIDGE SO TOM CAN GET CHOCOLATE. I would imagine this was mentioned before the requirement of wheelchair access. 

I have a bit of a chocolate addiction. If I had to go from one side of the room to the other I would stop by the fridge for some chocolate to nibbble on the way over.

There was a TV with Netflix on it. A TV, a comfy sofa and a free run to the fridge.I might have binge watched an Angel Di Maria documentary, during my holiday... oh, and a few bars of chocolate.

Follow me upstairs and I'll show you the Pièce de résistance.

There is a lovely little sun terrace up here, well I say little, but it's actually huge. The villa is called the Moroccan Paradise, which I'd imagine is because of this area. It's not heavily influenced by Morrocan decor, but it's certainly more prevelant up here. It's a perfect little sun trap. Unfortunately it's kind of pointless unless you're in a medittaranean climate... Oh right, my bad. Well, it's pointless if you're surrounded by loads of noisy neighbours... Oh right, my bad.

photo courtesy of
southfrancevillas.com

Onto my room. I was excited to see this, it was after all adapted to make it possible for us wheelchair folk to holiday here as well. 

I did a bit of research this time. I had learnt from the mistakes I made last time. South France Villas are the brokers who were renting this villa and they only specialised in this one area (South of France). They allowed the user to search properties 'suitable for reduced mobility', which isn't a website feature that's unique to them. However villas only appeared on this site if they are approved by South France Villas. In my experience sites like booking.com allow accomodation owners to choose this option even if their property isn't suitable. Most property's on southfrancevillas.com have a personal reccommendation by one of the South France Villas employees. I was sceptical as to the authenticity of this though, it's easy to say you've been somewhere, when you haven't. However I happened to view Belle Villa de Ginestas which was personally recommended by Caroline (the broker who was working on our behalf.) It has a long detailed description of the layout, along with rooms that are not suitable for any form of mobility device. Not only had they marked villas as 'suitable for reduced mobility' but they had told you specific rooms that weren't suitable for wheelchairs. The photographs of the property looked fantastic, I had a good feeling about South France Villas now and I trusted them.

The room I would be staying in was lovely. It was another sitting room, but one of the sofas was a sofa- bed and it was very comfortable. The en-suite bathroom did suffer from many of the same issues as Brit Hotel Privilège, however this property is only listed as 'suitable for reduced mobility'. I realise this might sound a tad hypocritical as Brit Hotel Privilège also claimed the same. But, they had gone to the effort of showing a PMR graphic, which I think could land them in hot water if somebody has an accident in a PMR room, especially if that ice rink of a floor is involved.

Anyway, the owners son came to see us one morning and asked how I was managing at the accomodation, as I was the first user since the downstairs room was repurposed. That was greatly appreciated and is a large influence on my opinion of this accomodation. He even pointed out that they may need to look at the gravel drive way, as it's an unneccasery difficulty for a wheelchair to navigate. This wasn't pointed out to him, as it was merely an inconvenience, he pointed it out. This propery is listed as suitable for reduced mobility,- not suitable for zero mobility.

The shower wasn't behind a screen or shower curtain, so the whole bathroom became wet when I used it and I had to dry the floor after each shower. The shower head was completely out of reach. There wasn't anything to hold so I could transfer onto the toilet. I was able to hold onto the nearby towel rail, but I'm sure that's not what they intended. The floor was slippy - not quite as slippy as Brit Hotel Privilège - as the tiles offered some friction. Some bath matts would be useful. The bathroom mirror was to high to use

Wheelchair Worries *Puissalicon Edition - Another seven hours in the car

 

photo courtesy of
Brit Hotel privilège

After one of the most comfortable night's sleep I've had - the beds are extremely comfortable. And a pleasant breakfast, it was time to get back on the road again. It was just after 09:00am, we knew it was going to be a long drive, but we were un-aware at this point just how long it would take. Although it wasn't lost on me that the DS could just stop working at any moment, it has form for that.

Pretty soon we reached the first péage (pronounced pay-arge). Certain motorways in France are toll roads. Thinking about it this is probably why the roads are so empty, not because "France is big" as I idiotically said in a previous post.

The first thing I noticed was how big France was. I know that's quite an obvious comment. And how could I notice that just staring out of the window of a car? Well, it was 15:30 and the motorway was fairly empty. As the journey went on there were times when we couldn't see another car

Source: https://www.wheelchairworries.com/2024/10/wheelchair-worries-puissalicon-edition_20.html

The ticket machine was on the driver's side, but as we were in a British right hand drive car, it was up to me to reach out and grab the ticket. Something that we would get quite used to whilst driving to and from the villa. As this was the first occasion Dad lined up the car so that he was closer to the machine, which meant I was further away. And as weren't in a left hand drive car, it was upto the passenger - me. I took my seatbelt off, Dad pushed me towards the window and - fully expecting my dodgy grip to drop the ticket - I did it!

First stop, the toilets. I already knew there wasn't going to be a toilet seat in this tatty looking public bathroom - which I was quite glad about - providing there was a grab rail.

There was a disabled signpost pointing at the loos, so I was hopeful. Success! I got in and there was indeed a grab rail by the toilet. The room was quite large and in the far corner stood a solitary toilet. The room was in fairly good order. I still wouldn't like to touch anything, but I wouldn't have to rush to a Hospital to get a tetanus shot if I did. Maybe they've got a point with this no toilet seat idea...The grab rail was on the right side. My tremors are far worse on the right side and if I hold anything in my right hand I probably will shake. I gripped the grab rail very tight and my hand was trying desperately to waggle itself free. I wouldn't let go so my arm and my body started to shake. I looked across to the empty wall on the opposite side. There was a five metre space between the opposite wall and the front of this toilet bowl. Couldn't another toilet be put here? The grab rail would be on the left then, so somebody with issues on one side could use the other toilet?

I got back in the car, introduced Dad to the world of podcasting by putting on the The Rest Is Entertainment podcast and settled in for a long journey. Did you know that France has the tallest bridge in the world? Me neither! We didn't seem to be too high up, so I've double checked on Wikipedia.

As of October 2023, it is the tallest bridge in the world, having a structural height of 343 metres

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_Viaduct

I glimpsed in the wing mirror to the pair of hangers on who'd latched onto us at Le Shuttle and I saw just a pair of feet on the dashboard. French drivers might have been alarmed to see the feet of the driver...

As we got over the bridge the view changed immediately. We seemed to have been transported into a western. The world was suddenly brownish, orange mountains. I was expecting to see bandits in between the rocks pointing rifles at us with questionable moustaches.

Along with the change of scenery, we now had the sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. The journey stayed like this for the remainder of the journey, gone were the motorways. It was single carriage roads all the way, but barely another car shared the roads with us. We got a phone call from the hangers on in the car behind.
"Are your ears popping?"
"I think so", I replied "I keep going deaf, and then I swallow and I can hear again".

Dad checked our elevation on a handy little app on the DS dashboard - this is probably the only time we'll need it, but DS have clearly got their priorities right. The car doesn't always start! But it gets the important things right. We were 3000km high, and it would continue rising to 3400km. It dropped quite significantly after that. After about another hour and a half we arrived.

Wheelchair Worries *Puissalicon Edition - The Brit Hotel Privilege Paris Rosny-Sous-Bois

photo courtesy of
brit hotel privilège

We pulled into the car park but were blocked by a barrier. We waited for a little while and it didn't move. There was an intercom by the barrier that I thought we would need to press and confirm we were guests, but the arm eventually raised and we went through and parked right in front of the hotel. The hotel was lovely. We went through some double doors into a small foyer and then through a large opening in a glass frontage into the reception. The reception is a large room with a grand piano, some chairs a table and some extremely comfortable looking deep sofas. The reception desk was in front of us underneath a skylight/glass canopy thing that must have been about thirty feet above. Cleaning the windows must have been a nightmare.

We went upto the disabled room. I was excited to see it. 

First of all we had to go through a fairly heavy door to get to the room. The door was on a hinge, which meant the door would start closing the moment you let go of it. My room was behind a similar style of door and there was a slightly raised threshold separating the room from the corridor. It was difficult for my Dad to get me in and stop the door from closing. I don't think I could have managed on my own.

photo courtesy of
brit hotel privilège

The room was lovely. There was a large comfy looking double bed in front of me beside a sofa. However I immediately experienced their preference for aesthetics over practicality.There was barely enough room for the wheelchair between the bed and sofa. 

An air con unit to control the temperature was on the wall opposite the bed. It was underneath a wall mounted flat screen television. The air con actually worked! Not a guarantee in most hotel rooms. I set it to make the room a bit cooler - I wasn't particularly warm, but I like to press things. I squeezed through the gap between the arm of the sofa and a cabinet and made my way over to the bathroom. This took me two attempts as the wheelchair had to be dead straight, there wasn't even enough room to put my hands on the wheels. I had to drag myself with my feet as my hands were stopping me from squeezing through. Fortunately the carpet was quite thin and didn't make it difficult.

I knew from the difficulty I was having moving around, that this room wasn't designed as a disabled room, it had been called a disabled room as an afterthought.

The bathroom was a nice and large marble effect bathroom with a grab rail by the shower and another by the toilet.

"This is better" Dad said, referring to the 'non disable friendly' accommodation we'd experienced in Sorrento.
"A shower you can actually fit in", he continued.
"Yea, I can't use it though. There isn't anywhere for me to sit..." I said, pointing at the shower.

I need a high backed shower chair, with arms to stop me from toppling. This is a very specific requirement that I wouldn't expect them to cater for, but I have been in hotel rooms' before that have a retractable seat on the wall next to the shower. 

I started to look at the practicality of this bathroom for a disabled person. The bathroom looked great. It was lovely marble effect, but they seemed to be more interested in the look rather than its functionality.

This shower had two shower heads. A large shower head that I imagine would cover you in a satisfying deluge of water and a smaller shower head to rinse yourself. This was out of the reach of a wheelchair user however. I didn't get close enough to the shower to see where the controls were, but as you can see from the video, the shower unit is barely reachable if you're in a wheelchair.

The shower screen had been removed, making this one large wet room. Any part of the room could get wet when the shower is on, especially the floor, which I suspected was slippy when dry, I can only imagine what it would be like wet. I had rubber soled shoes on at the moment, so I couldn't test my theory. The floor should be a non shiny surface and rough so you can get some grip. 

I should mention, there were advantages as well.

The sink was low enough to easily reach at my height. The underside was empty so I could get my legs underneath. The tap was easily accessible and was operated by lever rather than turning the top. The hair dryer is a bit of a stretch to reach and unhook from its holder, but it is above the near side of the table/ledge, so I wasn't straining over the sink to reach it.

I took advantage of this toilet having a toilet seat. I had learnt from my trip to Sorrento to check whether the toilets have seats. Something I had always assumed, but I had recent experience of that not always being a guarantee. A quick Google search revealed that France along with Italy and Greece have squat toilets in most public bathrooms. People tend to stand on them rather than sitting on them, meaning they get broken, They are a breeding ground for germs, it's easier to clean etc. It's not something I disagree with, although it is a lot harder for disabled people. At time of writing it appears to be just these three countries (France, Italy and Greece) that don't have toilet seats, but I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes more common in European countries. Disabled tourists should check what the protocol is in the country they are travelling too. 

This brings me on to my next issue. The toilet flush is a button on the wall just above the toilet. This meant I was accidentally pressing the flush when I raised myself up to take my trousers down. This isn't a problem that a lot of disabled users are going to experience, so it's a bit of a selfish gripe. However, isn't this gripe because it's a non-disabled bathroom like the other rooms in the hotel? I believe disabled toilets should have paddle-type flush handles and should be on the open side of the cistern, not on the wall side. A disabled user might not have the dexterity to push a button and the flush should be accessible using a hand, elbow, or other part of the body.

There is no panic cord in case of emergency. This is a legal requirement in the UK. I'm not sure about France. But, in this case it should be. What happens if a disabled person needs to call for help? It should reach almost all of the way to the floor, in case the disabled person has fallen. As the shower is on the opposite side of this large room, a similar panic cord system should be on the opposite wall as well.

This bathroom has clearly not been designed as a disabled bathroom.

It was about 21:45 so we went across the road to a bar called Aubureau, that said it served food. We located the ramp to get the wheelchair out of the car park, went across the street and into the bar, passing several people chatting outside whilst having a cigarette. The music was so loud I had to shout as loud as I could to be heard. We signalled there were four of us and as the waiter went to locate a table, I turned and shouted to Dad "I think we should try somewhere else" just as the waiter returned to show us to a table. Okay, quick service I thought, but I'm still not sure about the noise. Well, I think I thought that, but it was too loud to hear my own thoughts. 

We sat down, were given menu's and I immediately saw my much missed old friend, Hoegaarden. I hadn't seen it served in a pub for many a year, although that's probably because I don't get out much. I ordered a large, and large in France seems to mean 'the size of a laundry basket'. I needed two hands to lift the thing. 

Okay, quick service I thought, and they serve Hoegaarden in a laundry basket. But I'm still not sure about the noise. I had a flam du pays, which is like a very thin base square pizza with ham and mozzarella. It was divine. Okay, quick service I thought, they serve Hoegaarden in a laundry basket and the food is divine. But I'm still not sure about the noise. The place started to empty and we were pretty much the only people left in the place. It was still too loud to talk though.

We went back to the hotel for some kip

I went to the bathroom before going to bed. On my way back from the bathroom after brushing my teeth, I shut the curtains. I tend to plan what else I can do on each journey as I'm lazy and don't want to do each trip more than once. The left curtain was simple as there was plenty of room on this side of the bed to move the wheelchair next to the curtain. The right curtain wasn't so simple. The gap between the bed and sofa I mentioned before, meant getting close was impossible. A bedside table stopped me from getting close to the curtain and I was blocked by the sofa on my right side, so I had to reach and grab a piece of the curtain to pull it closer.

The consequences of drinking a bucket of Hoegaarden, meant another visit to the bathroom before bed was necessary. I didn't have room to turn around or move the wheels on my chair. I pushed myself backwards with my feet, lined up the chair to get through the gap between the arm of the sofa and the cabinet and made my way over to the bathroom. I realised I wasn't wearing my trainers, and I couldn't be bothered to go back over by the bed and get them. Through laziness I would test my 'slippy floor when dry' theory. I transferred to the toilet and tried to push up with my bare feet to remove my trousers, it was indeed too slippy. My feet just skated along the floor.

Their own website - https://paris-rosny-sous-bois.brithotel.fr/ - proudly displays that they have PMR rooms (People with Reduced Mobility). My Dad phoned them directly to check they did have a disabled room, as he had booked it through booking.com, and as we learnt when booking the accommodation for Sorrento - booking.com don't seem to have any means of verifying that you are telling the truth. The hotel assured Dad they did have a disabled room.

The bed was luxury though and they did put on a nice spread for breakfast.

For my purposes the Brit Hotel was very nice, but the disabled needs of somebody in a wheelchair are different from somebody who is unsteady on their feet. I think they should remove the PMR sticker from their website.

Wheelchair Worries *Puissalicon Edition - Roooooad Trip

I want to be completely transparent. This video was recorded at 23:23 on Thursday 12th September 2024, not 06:30 on Friday. I even wore the t-shirt I would be wearing the next day. I'm sorry, feel free to leave now if you are too disgusted with me to carry on.

Still here? I'll continue then.

Dad picked me up at 08:00 and we started the long journey down to Folkstone. The weather had been miserable for the past few days but today was quite sunny. It was early in the morning but the temperature was already fifteen degrees. It would be sods law if the weather in England was going to be nice for the next week and not nice in France.

We set off and the sat nav was saying our arrival time was going to be a lot sooner than we expected. Our calculations were a bit off, Folkstone wasn't as far away as we thought. No harm no foul, I don't like rushing, it stresses me out. Hence why I got up an hour and a half before we left. 

The roads were fairly empty and we had a fairly leisurely and relaxed drive, as there was no danger of being late for the train.

Even though the motorways were quite empty, everybody chose to drive in the right hand lane. I thought we were in France already but then remembered, it's a British tradition to drive in the right hand lane on the motorway.

We arrived at Le Shuttle with over an hour to wait for our train. Fortunately my Uncle and his partner Kaz arrived a few minutes after us. What are the chances they would be going to France on the same day, getting the same train and would be staying in the same villa.

Our train came up on the screen 'now boarding' and we took that as a subtle hint and headed for our cars. Within a few minutes we were in a small line of cars, presented our passports to a gentleman in a booth, had our car searched and headed for the train...via a mahoooosive traffic jam. It looked like the abandoned freeway in season 2 or 3 of The Walking Dead'. Most of these cars did have people in though. Those that didn't were standing around in the warm sun.

Sod's law was a worrying possibility.

An announcement came over the Tannoy, boarding was about to start. Car engines started switching on, people standing outside started walking briskly to their auto mobiles. The cars in front moved forward and it was our turn to keep the traffic moving. There was one small problem with that. We were in a DS. It's not the 1st time this car has acted like a toddler throwing a tantrum and refused to move, or just turned off mid drive leaving us stranded until the early hours of the morning.

"Do you want some jump leads?" A helpful woman calls over.

"No thank you, it's the computer refusing to start the car. It sometimes does this." Dad replies.

After a few minutes the car's stuck behind us breathe a sigh of relief as the temper tantrum subsides and we start moving.

We're ushered onto the bottom floor of the carriage, sit in our car for half an hour and hey presto we're in France.

The first thing I noticed was how big France was. I know that's quite an obvious comment. And how could I notice that just staring out of the window of a car? Well, it was 15:30 and the motorway was fairly empty. As the journey went on there were times when we couldn't see another car. Some things don't change though, everybody still drives on the right! 

Sod's law had come to fruition, as the relatively nice weather we'd left behind hadn't followed us across the channel. It was dry at least, but there were clouds in the sky. I hadn't signed up for clouds.

As the night drew in and we got closer to Paris the traffic became more and more congested. The sat nav was giving us simple instructions like "turn right" but there would be no right turns, just several roads forking to the right taking you to different parts of Paris. Fortunately, Dad somehow took us in the right direction and managed to stay in convoy with the two hangers on we met at Le Shuttle. We had reached our stop for the night - Brit Hotel Privilege Paris Rosny-sous-Bois.

I Writed A Book...

Back in 2007 I had a brain tumour, it was a Hemangioblastoma. It's a rare non cancerous tumour that occurs in about 2 to 3 people per million per year. It was supposed to be a fairly simple operation. Hemangioblastoma's are slow growing, and the tumour was 'away from all the major clockwork'.

Unfortunately MRI scans had failed to portray how “entangled” the tumour had become in hundreds of blood vessels.

Any of the blood vessels could be an essential supply to the brain stem. Each one the surgeon cut was likely to starve a part of the brain of oxygen, so he knew he was going to cause damage, but it was near-impossible to predict to what extent. I’m now forty one, I was twenty four when I had my brain tumour removed. I'm in a wheelchair, have Ataxia and have double vision and speech problems.

I've written a book; Brain Tumours, John Bonham and Fat Pigeons. It’s a cautionary tale, but also one of hope. I feel very fortunate to be able to share my story, and who knows it may help somebody going through similar times. It may help somebody identify the problem instead of making the same mistakes I did.

Plus, you want to know why fat pigeons are mentioned, don't you...

I did an interview on Vibe Radio breakfast show with Stu Haycock you can listen to it by clicking here

There is an article on the Brain Tumour Research Website - braintumourresearch.org

And an article in The Sentinel

Wheelchair Worries *Sorrento Edition - Tuesday 27th June 2023

Going Home

Our flight wasn't until 20:30 so we did some mooching around and then headed back to where we'd parked the car at Polio supermarket. It was going to take over an hour to drive to Ecovia so I thought I'd have one last Sorrento pee, ya know just for the memories. Dad checked out the public toilets and said the gents was going to be difficult and had no toilet seat, but the ladies looked do-able and it had a toilet seat. I jumped at the chance... an Italian women's toilet! I know how to make the most of my holiday...

The toilet was at the end of a two metre long very narrow stall. I transferred to the loo and Dad took the chair and waited outside. He shut the door. Click.

"I think that's just locked itself" Dad announced.

"Really?"

He tried the door and it wouldn't open.

"Nope it's locked. Is there a panic chord in there?" Dad asked

"Nope and I can't reach the door."

Great, I thought. They don't have toilet seats. Most toilets aren't disabled. Some are down stairs and they lock you in. I'm getting the feeling I'm not welcome here...

The stall was so narrow I could stand up and keep my self upright by pushing against the walls either side. Like Spiderman I crab walked down the stall and unlocked the door.

All that was left was to return the car to Ecovia, we were expecting them to make this as difficult as our arrival. We arrived three and a half hours before our flight took off so we wouldn't miss our flight if they were as difficult as they were on our arrival.

Here's the rest of Dad's review

On our return, the same person was much more welcoming and helpful, saying that she'd hold the shuttle for us. Unfortunately, the driver had other ideas and left. On his return, after about 30 minutes, he wanted to put my son and his chair in the luggage area, unsecured and among other unsecured luggage. We argued that this was unsafe and I helped him into a normal seat. I'm astonished that this company remains in business, and can only assume that they survive thanks to Easyjet, who should be more selective about whom they recommend.

You read that correctly, they didn't have any facilities for disabled passengers, so they were going to stick me in the boot like luggage.

I'll explain exactly how this went. I was invited onto the bus, I am in a wheelchair. A couple of inches off the floor is a rusty step into the bus. I asked if their was another way to get on and pointed at the wheelchair. He didn't speak a word of English, he said something in Italian gave a signal that I thought meant roll on and went inside the shabby looking port a cabin. He came out with another member of staff who was fluent in English.

"You want to get on the bus?" He asked

"Yes please"

They then got either side and were preparing to lift me.

"Whoa whoa whoa, are you going to put me in with the luggage? You can't put me in there".

The non-English speaking driver just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know what I said, but it was pretty clear I was refusing to go in the boot. This is a perfect metaphor for my experience of Italy. Wheelchair users are as insignificant as luggage and they care so little they just shrug.

I proceeded to wheel round to the side of the van with Dad trying to point out "it's not safe." Dad helped me step up onto the rusty step which moved under my weight as if it was going to collapse. I sat in the front left seat directly behind the driver. It was a boiling hot day, there were lots of us in the bus and we were barely moving. I felt the occasional cold air from the drivers air con. It must have been misery for the other passengers.

I checked their website to see what it says about disabled customers.

I didn't realise the first link on the Google results page was a sponsored link for a different company.

Ecovia have got a lovely website, I thought. It's like a travel website. You enter your pickup destination, your arrival date and departure date, then you are taken to a page where it checks all of it's suppliers and then comes back with pictures of all the cars they offer, their prices and customer reviews.

This website wasn't in keeping with how Ecovia present themselves. To get to the premises, you drive through the back streets of Naples until you get to a portacabin in a public car park behind an Esso garage. This website says they have a rating of 4.48/5 from 234,117 customers. It also says 'Compare car rentals and save up to 50%'.

The penny drops.

This is a car rental comparison site and Ecovia barely feature in the results. When they do you can see that they have a poor rating.

This site is economybookings.com and shame on them for not even mentioning how disabled customers are catered for. There should at least be a notice before you purchase "economybookings.com is a price comparison website, please check the providers website for their disability access." Not all wheelchair travellers can get out of their chair. A wheelchair bound passenger who can not get out of their chair might have flown for hours, reached their destination and then find they can't get in to the car. The car rental sites MUST notify you before you rent the car how far it is from the airport. How you will get there (a shuttle bus at their expense or public transport) and if it is via shuttle bus, whether it has wheelchair access or not.

So, I'll give Ecovia benefit of the doubt and make sure I'm checking there website.

They have a very nice website, there's a booking form and then it brings up a list of cars matching your search criteria and informs you of a few features like number of doors and seats and whether it's auto or manual. I followed the buying process all the way through to providing payment details and there is no mention of disability access. So I went to their FAQ section to see if disabled access is mentioned for the shuttle to pick up the car. It wasn't.

So I had a quick look at some other car rental websites and did a search in their FAQs:

Europcar - no

Hertz - yes

Hertz have a search box that I entered 'disabled' into. There was one answer and it just directed you to the contact us page and it was about adapting the car. They do at least acknowledge disabled customers exist which puts them ahead of Ecovia and there might be nothing about transport to pick up the car because they are on site.

Avis - yes

Avis have a search box that I entered 'disabled' into. There was one answer and it was about adapting the car.

Enterprise - yes

They actually have a link on the main page - Customer Service > Disabled Customers. They have a section of the website dedicated to it. There are three sections - Adjustments, Surrogate Drivers and Permanently Adapted Vehicles and a link to contact them if they haven't answered your question.

Sixt - no

Now I only had a very quick search in the FAQs. In the case of some sites (Hertz for example) there are dozens of links that could hide information on what I'm looking for.

when I was looking at the Ecovia website, I noticed a link to 'Become an Affiliate'. I don't know if Ecovia do any due diligence, because I would say that either Ecovia don't know who's representing them at Naples airport or they do and aren't concerned that it's affiliates are representing them this way.

In Conclusion

Sorrento was an adventure and a place I would like to return to, but I would do it completely differently.

First of all I would stay in an accessible hotel. I didn't enjoy staying where I did, I don't like that the accommodation lied that there were 'disabled facilities'. I felt like an afterthought and expected to just manage. The person who rented us the accommodation could have ruined my holiday because of her desire to make a quick buck. Fortunately I'm a swell guy who managed to soldier on...<-sarcasm

However, I wouldn't do Sorrento again unless I could rent an electric wheelchair. I wouldn't go to Italy unless I was with people who could help me get to the loo. 

I would put up with the cobbled streets and the lack of drop curbs because I don't see it ever changing. I don't see how the cobbled streets could change and I don't think it should. I think the look of Sorrento is to perfect to modify.

I wouldn't go to Pompeii. Again there's an awful lot they can't make accessible but there's an awful lot they can and have, I did this completely wrong. I would say if you're disabled you should go on a disable friendly tour, check out https://disabledaccessibletravel.com/accessible-pompeii/

If you are disabled I would highly recommend viewing the website Sage Travelling

Wheelchair Worries *Sorrento Edition - Monday 26th June 2023

General exploring

It was Monday and we'd be flying back tomorrow evening, we were going to have dinner tonight at Da Gigino so we had a look around town. We went down some of the alleys and side streets. Again it was exactly how I had imagined Italy. It was generally the rear of shops, but the doors would be open, so I could see in. You would hear people chatting in Italian, mopeds were parked up that employees of the various shops had ridden to work. A side street would suddenly open into the outside seating area of a restaurant. We would walk down side streets with restaurants on one side and then an outside restaurant on the opposite side. Whenever you were near an outside restaurant (which seemed to be every few metres) there would be music playing. When there was a shop that wasn't a restaurant it would generally be a gelato shop.

The streets are particularly unforgiving in these side streets. Think of the classic Hovis ad where the lad has got the bread in the basket of the bike and he's riding on a cobbled street.

There's a lift down to the coast so that one and all can get down to it. I think it costs €1.10. I say 'think' because we never had to pay it as I'm in a wheelchair and they always let me go through free.

I didn't think the view from down here was as good as the views from up above, the views are better when u can look down at the boats from above or across at Vesuvius. Although the view down here wasn't too bad I s'pose (I'm currently looking out the window at a wet drive and some wheelie bins).

Now came my loooooooooooooong quest to find a toilet. We rode the lift down to the coast and I announced my need for the loo. It wasn't urgent as I'd learnt now that I had to find a suitable toilet, which in Sorrento ain't easy, so I gave notice long before it was needed.

We saw a sign for toilets, followed the direction into a little courtyard but couldn't see any toilets. After an investigation of all the shop fronts we noticed that one was open. It had a sign above the door saying ATM inside. We went in and saw a small queue of people waiting to go into a room and a bathroom attendant handing out single sheets of toilet paper. I didn't like the look of this, I had the distinct impression it was going to be the nastiest of public toilets. It wasn't! There idea of not having a toilet seat means that men have got a larger target to aim for so the toilet and toilet floor isn't as it would be in an English toilet, if this was England you'd have had to burn your trainers after walking on that floor. Not surprisingly it didn't have any grab rails though so I wasn't able to use it. Dad said no good to the attendant and he signalled to us to follow him and he unlocked a door and revealed a toilet with grab rails either side of the toilet. I couldn't believe my eyes and pushed down on the bar to see if it would hold any weight. It did but the grab rail had a single metal pole that connected the grab rail to the floor, like a walking crutch does. With a crutch though your weight is directly over the foot of the crutch, so the crutch foot can't move. That's not the case when you're holding these rails so these grab rails moved all over the place as soon as I put weight on. I shook my head, said thank you and continued our quest.

We stayed down by the coast and were walking up and down wondering if we could just wander into a hotel reception and ask if we could use the toilet as non customers. This wasn't going to be an easy conversation to have in different languages. We kept this idea as a last resort and kept searching.

We found a bar and Dad went in to see if the toilet was suitable, it looked like a nice bar so we'd stay and have a drink, I didn't want to do a 'piss and run'. The toilet was up a flight of stairs, it did have a bannister but was to narrow to walk side by side. The manager knew where we could try but her English wasn't very good so the owner came over to translate. The manager suggested we try just next door, but the owner pointed out some issues with that idea. The owner told us to go back up via the lift again and there's a public toilet there although she can't remember if it's disabled or not.

We went back above and found a public toilets. Now my memory is we found it by following a sign which showed disabled toilets, but this toilet wasn't disabled. I don't think I've mis-remembered this as it was in a massive stall which would suggest it is what they consider a disabled toilet. There were no grab rails and no toilet seat though, it was what I consider NOT a disabled toilet. This was a big room with a seatless toilet in. I could at least have the wheelchair in front of me so I could hold onto the chair for balance. It didn't do the trick though as I started to tip to my right, I was heading towards the concrete public toilet floor but luckily my leg pressed against the toilet bowl allowing me to put more pressure on the chair to hold myself up.

We had our final meal at Da Gigino, a restaurant Adam and Ruth had stopped on there way back from Mount Vesuvius yesterday.

They raved about the food here, but warned me that wheelchair access is non existent and the toilet is down some steps again. Although nowhere near the amount at Fauno Bar. This place even had a toilet seat!

I said "not a problem" but secretly thought "bit of a problem!" and enjoyed another amazing pizza. This one had cheese on (I point this out because pizza in Italy doesn't have cheese unless stated), Aubergine and several chunks of freshly cooked sausage sprinkled all over. Not discs of some sort of meat as you would get in England, but chunks of actual sausage. I needed to go to the loo before dessert, so Adam wheeled me as far as he could (people were moving their chairs to let us through) we were packed in like sardines. We get as close to the stairs as we could and then walked to the top of the stairs. Then holding on to the bannister I descended the steps to a toilet I could actually sit on.

Adam joked with a lady I was drunk, a joke that normally destroys in England but he had to assure her he was just joking.

This toilet trip was relatively simple compared to others I'd experienced in Sorrento.

Once again we returned to the table for dessert. Dessert is the best course of any meal. You're just plain wrong if you disagree with me. The first thing I do is look at the desserts, if they're not on a separate dessert menu. I've been known to refuse to go to places based on their dessert menu.

Wheelchair Worries *Sorrento Edition - Sunday 25th June

 

Vasame Part II

Dad and I went back to Vasame for dinner as it seemed like a nice place to eat outside, the disabled loo wasn't a deciding factor. Honest... We ate outside, it was early in the evening, the temperature had dropped to about twenty six degrees and there were hills in the distance. It was hell <- more sarcasm. My Italian experience was mainly about the food. Italian cuisine is my favourite, so I wanted to try Italian pizza ✔ I wanted to try Italian pasta, which I could now ✔ off my list and I wanted to try an Italian Tiramisu ✔

Wheelchair Worries *Sorrento Edition - Saturday 24th June 2023

Pompeii

We were going to get the train with Adam and Ruth but they rang us the night before to say they'd met some locals who recommended we shouldn't risk taking the train. There is a gap from the platform to the train, the aisles are too narrow to fit a wheelchair and finally apparently there are two stops the train can stop at. If the driver is instructed, they will re-route the train at Pompeii Scavi and you will depart at a wheelchair friendly stop. If the train isn't re-routed visitors coming from Sorrento will have to go down and up many stairs. 

We arrived there and one of the employees asked us if we were going into Pompeii, we said we were and he said there were steps. We said we'd pre-booked the tickets and we were assured Pompeii was wheelchair accessible. He volunteered to take me and Adam on a considerable walk to get to a lift that would take us to meet Dad and Ruth. It would miss out some of Pompeii as there wasn't wheelchair access to some parts. Seeing Pompeii was the reason Adam and Ruth had wanted to get Dad out here, he'd always wanted to see it. 

Adam and I got into the lift and after a short lift ride, we met up with Dad and Ruth. I have done some research before writing this bit, because my opinion of Pompeii is very negative and I didn't want to write my negative views and then have people commenting telling me I'm a moron because I didn't take the disabled route. 

We had been informed from a few sources that Pompeii was accessible, so maybe my lack of research meant I took the wrong route?

Reading the blog How Accessible is the Ancient Roman City Pompeii for Wheelchair Users? It would appear we didn't take the disabled accessible route. There is a route called 'Pompeii For All'. Although when we booked the tickets we made it clear we had a wheelchair user. So I don't know why we weren't told of this route. I don't know if the employee at the start thought it better to take me past the inaccessible entrance rather than having to send me away to a different area. He really did go out of his way to help when he could just given us directions rather than show us. We kept thanking him profusely and he kept saying he's happy to help and helping tourists like us coming from all over the world is what he enjoys.

I believe our journey began at the Basilica which looking at the map of Pompeii is quite far to the west, missing out a vast part of Pompeii.

It's clear that me reviewing Pompeii would be like reviewing a fridge that I thought was a freezer. So I will just make these points;

Wheelchair access throughout the streets is atrocious. I saw videos on YouTube of a person in an electric wheelchair going over a large impassable rock and there were two ramps either side of it that were at the exact same height of the impassable rock. I can only assume they filmed this when the ramps were first installed and they hadn't had thousands of wheelchairs going over them and the rock hasn't suffered from erosion and been chipped and battered. This YouTube video is a very idealistic view, like when you bake bread so there's a nice smell when your house is viewed. I think if you're going to show this video to get disabled custom you must keep the disabled access to this standard.

The signage in Pompeii is very poor. Pompeii is vast, but there are virtually no signs when you're not in a main street. When you are they are still very few and far between. There seemed to be hundreds of tours going on, lines of tourists following people holding flags of the language they were conducting the tour in, many people seemed to be on these tours and would be able to ask the guide if they wanted to get somewhere. The people that weren't had to rely on the odd sign. For example there would be a sign that says disabled toilets <-, so you would follow it, but after walking in this direction (for a long time). the next sign you come across points you back in the opposite direction, or doesn't mention disabled toilets at all.

There are only four disabled toilets at Pompeii, one at the Porta Marina Superiore, at the Porta Marina Inferiore, the Villa Imperiale and one at the other entry point, the Piazza Anfiteatro. The Villa Imperiale is the only toilet located within the site. The other three are located at the entrances. The remains of Pompeii's city walls are 2 miles in circumference.

Pompeii is a site to behold and if you get the chance and are able bodied I would go and see it. If you are wheelchair bound, I don't think you get the full experience and I would strongly advise you go on a wheelchair tour. I would say this is unavoidable though as this is an ancient Roman city and it might ruin the authenticity if there are grab rails and lifts attached to it. That said I think they have done the bare minimum in most cases or not at all in examples like the train. My experience was dampened by my uneducated expectations and also my woefully inadequate wheelchair. I have a manual self propelling wheelchair. It has big wheels at the back and small trolley wheels at the front. It has small anti-tip wheels attached to metal bars at the back to stop the wheelchair tipping backwards. Both Dad and Adam's legs were gushing blood where their legs had been hit while lifting the wheelchair up one of the streets high curbs. My manual wheelchair did allow me to see areas an electric wouldn't, but I was bothered I was damaging the ancient streets.