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Harvey10 - Europe-bound
  • Pip Greenwood
  • John Anslow

Harvey10 - Europe-bound

Ein 91-Tage Abenteuer von Pip & John Weiterlesen
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  • Beginn der Reise
    11. Dezember 2023
    Harvey10 - Europe-bound

    First stop Aldi

    11. Dezember 2023 in Wales ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The journey begins! Quick shop, then lunch in Aldi car park. Cross Hands Wales. We're more excited than we look!

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  • Harvey10 - Europe-bound
    2

    A night in the port

    12. Dezember 2023 in England ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    So a very wet, and as good as dark by 2pm, winter drive East to Newhaven. Fairly mild but we had a few bursts of the heating on.
    John read that if we arrived before five, then we could stay in a lovely spot on the beach for £10. A photo from June 2022 (SEE PICS) shows how nice it was last time. But today we rocked up to 2 very closed barriers. So next stop was the pub car park but when I asked, they said 2 were already booked and they needed to keep spaces free for locals. A trip to nearby Seaford beachfront was OK but only 12hrs allowed. Ended up opting to stay parked on the port by railway station along with a few other campers. At least there's (a short walk to) posh toilets.
    Photo looks like snow but it's just heavily floodlit. Lot's of activity going on.    Weiterlesen

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    Houston we have

    13. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    ... yes ... 'a problem'.
    It was a fairly noisy night, as you'd expect in a port and staying right next to the railway line but that was OK.

    The problem became clear this morning as John noticed the battery power was low, and it only just managed to raise the bed into the roof.
    By the time he realised the batteries hadn't been charging, we were in the queue for the ferry so had to rush the decision on whether to delay exit from UK and try to sort it there, or continue with the plan and try to sort it in France. We opted to get on the ferry. Quiet journey, santa was on the boat (spot santa), food was good, and a good price, plus most importantly, it was a calm crossing.
    Having discussed our predicament on route, i.e., there wasn't enough power to lower and raise the bed if we stayed on Aires as planned, we opted to find a campsite with electric hook-up. However we couldn't research this till reaching land due to expensive internet charges at sea.
    So sat in a lay by at 3.45pm, we struggled to find any campsites open, which all got very worrying as cold and dark set in.
    2 + hours drive later, we arrived at this quiet site with electric, a heated pool and friendly staff.
    It was all pretty tiring after an early start.
    Tomorrow is another day. We'll try and tackle the problem then.    Weiterlesen

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    Still here

    14. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    Had a first for us both today. We tried a 'raclette', which was a bit like a warmed ploughman's without the bread and pickles but potatoes instead. Wine included. They brought the food to the van together with a warming hotplate affair, and little paddles, which we melted the cheese on. Self cooking by the customer. Interesting to try as a novelty but at €20 each we'll not be making a habit of it.
    Went into Beauvais and found a battery place, where we bought a battery. Now an eye watering €165 worse off. Another place we tried would have cost €219! Trouble is, we could do with two. I haven't a clue about it and John's unfamiliar with the contemporary systems. He spent a good while tackling and tinkering.
    Still unsure of the cause and how to resolve it.
    Had a swim in the pool at 4.45pm so it was pretty cold and dark. Just fairy lights outside.    Weiterlesen

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    Near Reims - Aire

    15. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    There are quite a few upside down place-name signs in these parts. We've read that farmers are peed off with all the impossible directives the government are imposing. They use the phrase everything's upside down, hence the signs method of protest. Quite mild and gentle for the French.

    Had picnic lunch of baguette, cheese, citron flan and choc éclair, amongst puddles by a swollen river.

    Headed off for Reims (pronounced Reemz if you're British speaking but French pronounce it Raahns), where John had found a central Aire. Good for cathedral viewing and walking around, viewing twinkly Christmas lights we thought. On arrival, there was a barrier down. I went to ask for an entry code at a bureau as the sign instructed. Unfortunately, they informed me that it was full up, so no spaces available. Another campervaner asked us about it, and I tried to explain in pigeon French.

    In navigating our way out of the city, my phone flashed up something about the emissions zone, which I think we inadvertently entered. Whoops. There's a hefty €68 Euro fine (doubling within 45 days) if you don't have a sticker. We don't 🙁. You have to have them delivered to UK, and Brits can't buy them over here. Heck, we should have looked at that before leaving. Next year, they're introducing cameras, and fines are in huge hundreds of Euros numbers. Italy may also pose a problem. Hopefully, we won't inadvertently enter another zone. There are many! Hard work this holiday business!    Weiterlesen

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    Les Riceys - a tad chilly!

    16. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 2 °C

    Started the day with John on a lengthy phone session with Lloyd's AGAIN, still unresolved issues every time he tries to make an online or card payment. Fingers crossed.

    Foggy drive south through Champagne Country with intensive vine farming. Plus some arable plains with HUGE mounds of swedes, presumably for animal feed.

    Sunday tomorrow and everything closes, so we filled up with provisions and diesel from a Carrefour. €40 (£34.38) worth of food, pretty much on a par with UK Sainsburrys. Diesel was €1.74 (£1.50), also similar to UK. Currently on a quiet, cross-shaped (for 4 vans) Aire just north of Dijon. Slightly unfortunate that there are cockerels next to us.

    Keeping fingers crossed re batteries. A bit of afternoon sunshine on the solar panels helped.

    Heading for warmer climes but not achieved yet! Highs and lows around 9pm today:

    Here 2°/-1° (!)
    Nice 9°/6°
    Rome 9°/2°
    Narberth10°/9°
    Kirkby Lonsdale 11°/8°

    Hmmm, looks like we maybe should head for Spain instead of Italy (or maybe Kirkby Lonsdale even!). 😂

    I can't get over how surprisingly quiet the towns here have been. John reckons they don't do Christmas consumerism like the Brits.

    Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to exploring this beautiful ancient town called Les Riceys. I can imagine it's used for film sets, very unspoilt. Even the decorations blend in well    Weiterlesen

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    Cold night -1°

    17. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    C-c-cold kept me awake last night.
    Searching for anywhere within 3 hrs drive south and overnight temperature of above minus 2° didn't prove fruitful this morning. Eventually, we came here to a small Aire at the top of the street in Cousance between Dijon, Lyon and Geneva.
    Will be togging up under the covers as it still shows as 0°.
    Gentle Sunday drive, empty roads, champagne grapes, swollen rivers, mists rising from fields and even some warming sun.
    Lots of farmed large fields and upside down protest signs.    Weiterlesen

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    On the road again

    18. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    Trucking on down south day today. Mainly alongside the Rhone.
    Warmer under the covers with loads of extra nightwear on for me. Frosty, foggy, then some sun in the afternoon.
    Very busy and industrial around Lyons.
    The Rhone is huge and very full. Joined in these parts by the river Drome.
    On a campsite tonight. Poor John felt a bit poorly and had a freezing cold shower, which they've said they'll mend. Only one toilet and shower open on whole site.    Weiterlesen

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    Sur la Pont ...

    19. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    We drove past Avignon in spring 2022 and said at the time that we'd like to stop and look around some time, and here we are. We were actually warm this afternoon. It was 14° at one point. Took a detour to a picnic spot, which turned out to be a windy trek uphill to a windmill and posh houses en route. Very tall thin cypress trees are the local style. Passed a large dam over the Rhone with dramatically turbulent water. Also noticed when the college students came out, they nearly all had black or dark brown hair. Must be near the Mediterranean. Very noticeable to us Brits, not a blond amongst them.
    Had a stroll over the bridge and had a drink in a street cafe. There was a Christmas Market on and lots of lights. Bijou shops, rather like Bond St. Pretty quiet streets. It was early for most people, I guess it gets busy later on.
    Bagatelle (ACSI) campsite is pretty large but convenient and just a walk over the bridge from the town.
    * ,"(We think it used to be a strategic encampment during WW2. Must look into that.) " *
    * Apparently, it's only me that thought the above. I'm reliably informed that it's the planting of the plane trees that provides evidence of it being a former Napoleonic camp / staging area.
    Hey, above zero tonight! A low of 6°. The highest yet!    Weiterlesen

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    Windy ... the Mistral

    20. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    After encountering extremely strong gusts of wind and holding tight to hats, glasses and cameras as we crossed the large long bridge over the Rhone, we enjoyed pottering around Avignon and a sort of uninteresting craft fair with a 'bigged-up' by tourist-info, model of the region. It was Lilliput Lane type models with a crass display. E.g. blue plastic sheet to represent water. Both less than impressed. The same with an art gallery we went to. Paid €20 to see an exhibition on 3 floors, and it was pretty poor from our POV. Disappointing but good to do these things, if only to see what's out there and to help reinforce what you do and don't like. Not worth taking photos but John took one of the staircase, which we liked, and a tunnel maze exhibit involving chains and lots of masking tape.
    There a quite a few armed police trios roaming the streets, which is disconcerting. Always in threes, balaclavas, all clad with pistols, batons and one with a machine gun. The UK gov website states that France is on high alert since a terrorist event in October. So alertness required.

    We had some takeaway sandwich affairs and a humorous moment when I decided to rest my bum on a pillar type thing, whilst I ate said sandwich. Only to find the round post pillar type thing plus my bum slowly started sinking lower into the ground! I had to shout for John to rescue me! It's hard getting up again at my age!    Weiterlesen

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    And on towards Nice

    21. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    Another driving day, starting out in search of LPG (confusingly called GPL in France) and trying to navigate our way around a supermarket car park to find the entrance of the fuel station. Nearly ended up being taken down a subway with a height limit and some 'tricky manoeuvring' followed!!
    The filling station was ludicrously laid out, and I had to get out to make sure none of the high curbs and steel rails made contact with the van. They had clearly been scraped by many other vehicles previously. Couldn't get away from there quickly enough and found a much better place to get deisel a bit further on. A fill-up with LPG only cost €10.70, which is very cheap, considering we use it for both cooking and heating.
    Tonight, we're on a large free place amongst trees, low hills and a large dried up reservoir. Only 2 other vans here.
    Has a feel of somewhere with former glory. John discovered it used to have tons of carp and catfish and was very popular with fishing enthusiasts. The dam needed maintenance, so everything had to be drained. It's unclear what happened to all the fish.
    Tomorrow we head for our campsite.    Weiterlesen

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    Nous sommes arrivés!

    22.–23. Dez. 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    Yes, finally here. Staying in one place for a whole week. Did our food-for-Christmas shop at a Hyper-U on route.
    John was happy to secure himself some prawns. I'm fascinated to take photos of displays but can't bring myself to even THINK about eating any of those sea-insect creatures. 🥴
    The sat navigation took us high up over mountain bends and then the sea appeared.

    The roads become very busy and fast, with a roundabout every few minutes and motorbikes coming up at speed and undertaking, weaving in and out. We've clearly hit the French Riviera. St Tropez, Cannes etc.

    I must say it was nice to have to open windows when it reached 19° today. 🙂    Weiterlesen

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    222

    At base camp

    23. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Lazy day, (apart from my exercises, I'm missing the classes from home) showers, sauntered to supermarket, only for grapes of course. Just grapes. ... Came back with cakes, bread, croissant, petit fours etc. Yum. They certainly know how to do presentation and visually persuade us to buy.
    Wandered down to the sea and the marina. There's a fair bit of money in these parts! A lot of the craft seem obscenely ostentatious to us.
    Late afternoon light got us going with our cameras.
    John spotted some really nice coats going for €26. I tried 2 on. Unfortunately they were for the French physique and didn't fit me. Too small of course. Shame, the style was just right, lightweight, hoods but fairly smart looking.    Weiterlesen

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    A walk to the park

    24. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    The pool opened today! Was meant to be open all year, the website boasts the fact, which was one reason we chose here, but that's not quite true.

    It did however open this morning. By the time we'd got back from a walk, had a cuppa and got myself revved up for a swim, it had ## closed! No signs to tell you times.
    Harrumph! The site is completely full now so the pool will likely be busy too tomorrow.

    A walk around and about to the park gave us some exercise but the local architecture and busy roads are not too inspiring. The park had picnic benches and we had our packed lunch. It was more of an area of grass and woodland, really. No landscaping, artworks, or unusual plants.
    There was a street called Bridgitte Bardot Boulevard with a painting. My attempt at alluring pouting skills leave a lot to be desired.

    Found some scoobidoo, which I and sisters used to use about sixty years ago to make braid type things with plastic strips. A blast from the past.

    Saw an unusual tree on the way home. Took a screenshot of our route to date.    Weiterlesen

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    The Big Day

    25. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We had breakfast, I checked to see the pool was empty ... it was! Stepped into action and got all togged up, ready for my Christmas dip. Paah! Closed again! Grrr.
    So we stepped out of our shady spot for a walk along the prom. It was warm and sunny, to me anyway. Locals wore furs and hats, and John felt slightly chilly, having forgotten his USB pocket handwarmer.
    There were a few people out and about promenading, skateboarding, on bikes, on rollarskates, doing wheelies, on scooters, in families on pedal-wagons and just generally taking in the air. Two adults and one child were swimming in the sea. Well, tolerating a dip more than swimming.
    Some were dining in lovely restaurants, like boxes set on stilts on the beach with one side open to the sea, looked like a lovely spot for a coffee but they were eating fine dining style I think, so we wouldn't fit in anyway.
    I went in one of those tardis toilet things. Convenient, but I'm never quite confident that they'll let me out again. Especially with foreign language signage. I simply turned the lever, so all was fine.
    We saw a store selling different types of lawns, in plastic grass. They even had 'scorchio' amongst the range. Going for realism. We liked the fish artworks, which echoed the palm trees.
    Once home, I set up our two Christmas cards on a ledge and a piece of driftwood to represent our tree (ok, I'm a saddo), and we had lunch, which was thoroughly enjoyed. Still stuffed.    Weiterlesen

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    A riverside walk upstream

    26. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    Swimming pool was STILL closed this a.m., but when I asked why, it turns out it is open after all. Just we should have known that there's a button to press to open up the garage door type rollers. There were many others who also came and thought it was closed too.
    By the time I found out, I had just showered and didn't want to swim by then.
    Did laundry, lunched, and went out in warm sunshine to walk up alongside the river on a woodland path up to the old village of Villeneuve Loubet. Saw a place that John could have envisaged himself in as a summer or permanent residence. Not for me though. A little too ramshackled and hard maintenance for my liking. It was a 5.5 mile 'there and back' walk, over rivers and under railways or roads, returning in time before it got dark with a quiet bar stop for a coffee and a hot chocolate. For some reason, John's body is telling him it's not mad keen on tea at the moment. This is a new one for me.

    I thought the English were meant to be THE nation of dog lovers. There were tons of dogs on our walk, so France seems to be the same, if not more so.

    We saw a flamingo surrounded by ducks, swans, gulls etc and a bloke clad in a yellow jacket, trying to get up close with them, wading in amongst them all.

    This area was apparently a big growing area a while back. Carrots, garlic, artichokes, perfume plants, tobacco, potatoes, grapes, figs and more that I can't recall. A lot of signs told us all about it, in French. We understood enough to discover that there was a major weather event and floods in 1822.

    Today, whilst outside, John announced that he's warm! Think that's a first this holiday!    Weiterlesen

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    A bit of culture - Nice

    27. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Armed with a map and instructions for buses etc, we stepped out for a trip to Nice. The bus part was fine, you speak to and pay the driver. Second lap of the journey involved a tram ride. Once on, we realised we couldn't get a ticket at the machine on the tram, so we asked someone who said in French that we needed to buy it before boarding. So we got off and bought from a machine, what we thought was OK but on asking a few others, two lovely kind chaps told us how to do it and got off the tram with us and showed us, then we all got on the next tram again. One spoke very good English as he works in the University Business School, so has English speaking students and was proud to tell us they had links with Imperial College, London. A friendly interlude, and we couldn't have found more eager people to help us.

    The crowded Nice streets hit us with a bit of a shock. People everywhere! Pleasant place though, with a large long strip of garden area leading up to Musee of Modern and Contemporary Art. MAMAC. Set on 4 floors and a rooftop area, it was an amazing building. Very peaceful and spacious with beautiful rooftop vistas. I even managed to walk around rooftop route without wobbly legs.
    Some good exhibits, my favourite being textiles by Marcel Alocco where he removed the weft from fabric but left some areas to make a shape and drew or stitched on the shapes (see picture of woman).

    Had a tasty panini type sandwich thing from a tiny food place, cooked by a happy business owner who told us he was from Albania. Negotiated our way around streets, some of which are being dug up and have red carpets along the footway. Sat munching in the park then had a look around the seafront and by 4pm it was cooling down as sun began to set by 5pm.

    We struggled a bit to find the station again for our return. That took a while. Lost for a while but AOK and back at base now.    Weiterlesen

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    Swim chill

    28. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    I finally got my swim! It was a pretty cold experience. Hung around the site today. Apart from a walk to get provisions. Sunny and warm, but not so much so in the shade. And we're in the shade. My morning exercises warmed me up a bit. It's great because we have a private little area.
    A bit of research into next destination brought us to the decision of heading west towards Spain, not east to Italy. One reason being that in the North they're quite strict about where you can park overnight and some southern Italian 'sostas' like 'aires' have people come and tell you that they'll look after your van for you if you pay them. Apparently, advice is to move on or pay. Don't stay and not pay. That all sounded a bit Mafia-like and outside our comfort zone. It's difficult to tell if there are campsites open and if they are, they are quite costly. Staying every night on a site would blow our budget.    Weiterlesen

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    Perfume - then back to Brignoles

    29. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Left our campsite, which was a bit overpriced we thought, with on arrival only 3 (mixed) showers for 39 pitches, a cold pool, which again on arrival we were told wasn't open till Christmas Day, poor signage and VERY tight maneuvering to drive in and out and to use the emptying facilities. €220 for 7 nights. But it's the only one in the whole area open all year, and was full. Also it was convenient to get a bus to Nice and to the sea, shops, cafes etc. The staff were friendly enough till on paying, they asked me if everything was alright, my answer was that we were disappointed that the pool wasn't open all the time as we'd chosen the site due to the pool. I had actually mentioned it to two staff members and was told it would be open on 25th. Today I got a defensive response from them, saying it had opened on 23rd and a denial that they'd said 25th. They dismissed my suggestion that there should be signage showing open and closing times and how to raise theshuttered door. Told me there was a sign just inside the door. I said I couldn't see it as the door was locked!
    They huffed and puffed. I decided not to comment further on other potential improvements. They clearly didn't want to hear a customer's viewpoint.

    So, we left for Grasse to visit the International Museum of Perfume. Grasse was THE perfume centre of the world. The translations left a bit to be desired, and at first I didn't learn much, but further on, the displays and videos told us a lot of social aspects of perfume and make-up. I discovered that in the middle ages (?) it was believed that washing in water was a way for disease to get into the body through pores in the skin. Dry washing was the thing, with phials of perfume secreted in corsets or boots. It was Marie Antoinette who was a forerunner of bathing in actual water. Also that make-up wasn't just for cosmetic effect but was used to protect facial orifices from evil and to protect the soul. E.g. dark lines around the eyes were for protection.
    Lots of gorgeous bottles on display, plus Marie Antoinette's 'escape' case and lots of other interesting stuff.
    A nice traffic warden had reassured us that we had 3 hours free parking so we grabbed a sandwich to consume back at the van and stopped for a coffee on route to this free spot again by the dried up lake.    Weiterlesen

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    Cold night, warm day

    30. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    What a difference a day makes! (12 little hours)! I was shaking with cold in the night and had to get up to put a jumper and socks on. It said '5° and feels like 2°'. Felt more like minus 2° to me! John was fine but he always is at night time, when under a duvet.
    Woke to someone with a speaker and a loud base coming from their vehicle. Managed to survive it for about 1.5 hours though, as I didn't want to get up and brave the cold.

    Once on the road towards Marseille, as the day went on, I was roasting and had to put shorts and a t shirt on. It was showing as 14° but I was behind glass taking in the amplified sunshine. Almost felt summery but cooled again now.

    The route around Marseille was very industrial for a long stretch towards the Camargue.
    We got to our planned destination of an Aire for €12 but it was packed. Three of us were queuing to get entry. I talked to someone who'd just tried to get in. She told me in rapid French that it was full. There were a lot of words, but I asked questions like 'gendarmes'? Anyway, I got the gist that parking in winter is ok and they won't bother. In summer it's different. Finding places around the south of France is a problem. Most places have height barriers, and campervans are clearly not welcome. We drove 20 mins or so north and found a much nicer and free spot here in a side road.

    We're finding that getting a campsite open is rare, but there are quite a lot of campervans and motorhomes around, and Aires are generally pretty full. It's getting a bit frustrating.

    Just road trip shots today.    Weiterlesen

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    Away from the Med

    31. Dezember 2023 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    Came up here to a municipal site. Cheap at only €15.88 a night. Tried to join in on monthly Greenwood Zoom chat, I lasted about 30 seconds, then WiFi (or Whiffy as they call it) let me down. New Year's Eve, so I got a treat for John, and of course, I had to join in too. Delicious! They know how to do cakes here!

    We stopped for lunch in what we thought was a layby, then John realised it was actually a slip road for people to turn left. There had been a camper, which was clearly disposing of their grey waste water. We tut-tutted and noticed that they disappeared pretty sharpish after we arrived.
    We moved on ourselves, too, to a safer designated parking stop.
    Inland feels so different from the area around the Med. Much more French. We keep reiterating that we don't like the Med area but keep on ending up there. Think we're in denial.

    Had our first rain today. All five drops of it.    Weiterlesen

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