Day 13: More Driving

We got up and had our Ibis breakfast, then headed out. I will say that getting out of the parking lot was much easier than getting in. Mom walked behind the car and helped direct me.

So we got on the road, heading towards the airport.  I'm going to cut my writings a little short, and just say that eventually, we got to our hotel.  We've discovered that the French don't navigate by roads, they navigate by towns.  So when you're in a town, looking for a particular road, you need to know where that road goes.  For instance, if you're in Little Rock, and you want to go west to Russellville, you look for the road to Fort Smith.  You don't look for a big sign saying I-40 West.

Once we figured out how to navigate, things got easier.  We still ended up going around and around the town of Meaux, looking for a cafe and a bathroom.  Eventually we gave up and mom remembered a Lidl was nearby, so we drove there.  Lidl is like an Aldi.

Next door to the Lidl was a restaurant!  It's Leon de Bruxelles.  It was weird.  It's a Belgian chain of mussel restaurants.  Almost everything on the menu was mussel related.  We had the lunch special, which was the "starter buffet," a hot dish, and a dessert.  The starter buffet was small and interesting.  There was lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, shredded carrots, pasta salad with krab, couscous with salad dressing in it, pickles, boiled shrimp, salami or something like it, escargot, and some kind of salad that looked like mini pieces of corn.

For out main dish, I had the fish and chips, and mom had the bacon omelet.  Which, of course, came with fries.  Dessert was creme brulee for me and ice cream for mom.  And all that was 11 euros and 20 cents!  The bread was also delicious.  It was chewy on the outside, but not hard, and soft on the inside.

So we survived our driving and headed towards our hotel, which is at the airport.  The traffic got really bad at some points and was really stressing me out.  There were a couple of hairy roundabouts.  We finally made the hotel and dropped off our luggage.  Now the adventure was returning the rental car.

The agency had told us to head into the airport and follow the signs.  So we did.  And there were no signs.  We circled and finally I pulled out the paperwork.  It said Terminal 2D.  So we headed there.  I followed the signs and ended up circling through a bus terminal, then finally got the correct road.  Once we got near 2D, there were signs for the rental car.  We had to circle 2D though, to get to our road, because we couldn't access it from our side.  

So we finally get to the rental return.  It says park the car, and there was a hut with computers in it.  But no people.  It said it was open from 7am-9pm, but it was locked up tight.  The sign said go into the terminal, so we followed another guy returning his car and walked to the terminal.  We got there and handed in the key, and they were like, okay, bye.  So we left and took a taxi back to the hotel.

We napped a little before supper, which was when the hotel restaurant opened at 7pm.  Another expensive meal, but I kind of like the options.  They have a starter buffet, a hot dish, and a dessert.  You can choose any individually, or get 2 of them for a price, or all 3 for a price.  The hot dish was a buffet.  There were noodles, beef stroganoff, cod in butter sauce, and something we couldn't identify.  The starter buffet was a bunch of different salads.  The desserts were creme brulee, cheese cake, and a bunch of other stuff.  I had some kind of chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries.

Day 12: Ibis

We follow the Ibis sign and pull in front, in the 15 minute parking.  I go in to see if they have a room.  About 20 minutes later, we've got a room, breakfast in the morning, and parking.  Mom's knee and leg are acting up, so I get to roll a cart down to the car, load up the luggage, then roll it back up the ramp to the hotel.  Then I get to park the car.

Oh...my...god...I go around the block, and parking is under the hotel.  I ring a buzzer and they let me in.  Bear in mind, we're in a land where many of the roads are small.  It's not unusual for some roads to be little more than 1 lane.  With no marking or warnings or anything.  So when I see a sign saying "Be careful, the road is narrow" I start to panic.  I'm in an Opel Astra, which is not a large car.  But it is a bit long.  I'm turning through this one-lane, two-way, little, narrow underground parking garage, using my mirrors to make sure I don't hit the walls.  Then I get to a straight section, and I have to turn into a parking spot between 2 concrete pillars.

I get as far to the right as I can, then start to turn. I have to stop and back up and turn and go forward and then turn the other way and go through a ton of contortions to get the car between the 2 pillars. And that was with no cars on either side of me.  I'm really praying that when we leave tomorrow, there are still no cars next to me.  Because I'm not sure I can get back out of the parking spot.

The parking is 1 flight of spiral stairs down, so I go up, and get mom and roll the cart to the elevator.  All the elevators in France are small.  The last Ibis elevator held about 4 people.  This elevator sinks when you enter it.  I thought it was just the luggage, but no, even when it was just me, it sinks. 

We get to the room, and are very happy!  We got a triple: a double bed and a twin bed.  I had asked for 2 beds, and I think they were out of twins, because she took a while finding us a room.  So we're happy having extra room.  In the twin room, the beds are right next to each other, because they fit in the space where a regular bed goes, which is between 2 built-in night stands.

So now I get to roll the cart back down.  As I'm leaving, mom says, "Get some ice too."  So I go into the bar to get some ice.  The bar is not a bar.  It's a big fancy looking bar/restaurant, decorated in brass and mirrors, and I immediately feel a little underdressed  After the long day and stress of parking, I almost bailed on getting the ice.  But I managed to  walk past a bunch of people and get to the bar and get some ice.  The lady gave me 2 ice cream glasses full of ice.  She carried them to the restaurant door, because I hadn't realized I needed a hand to get out the door.  I got upstairs and mom started laughing at the glasses, and we both had to take photos.  So you'll see them later.

So we're finally ensconced in our hotel room, watching NCIS in German.  I'm by the window, which overlooks the front of the hotel, on a roundabout.  Not bad.

Day 12: Driving Montargis

So we come into town.  The road starts to split, and I don't know which way to go.  Mom is driving and we just sort of take one of the roads.  I finally see on the map, that we need road XYZ to get into town.  I tell mom, and the road splits in two.  We head toward XYZ, but the other road says it actually goes into town!  This has happened all the time in France.  You're on road D111, which on the map goes through Town1 and then connects to D222.  But then before you get to Town1 the D222 road pops up out of nowhere and you don't go through Town1 at all.  If you do, you've missed the road and have to turn around and go back. It's like the maps are just a suggestion in France.

So we miss our road and keep driving.  Our road went right, so we figure a left turn will take us toward the other road.  And it does.  So we're in the town.  Looking for a hotel.  Thus begins our odyssey.

We had seen a sign for the Best Western on the big highway, so we knew there was one somewhere.  We were hoping for that, or an Ibis, our Paris hotel.  We're on this roundabout somewhere and all of a sudden a Best Western sign shows up!  Huzzah!  It shows 2 roundabouts and a right turn.  We follow the directions.  We end up heading towards the center of town.  And near a Domino's, there's a Best Western sign with a right arrow.  We miss it.  So we have to drive down, turn around through a parking lot, get back here, and get the road.  The road is a little tiny 2 way road through a bunch of houses.  No hotel.  We drive.  And drive.  Then we give up and eventually wind our way back to a roundabout, and back to the Dominos.  I took a photo of the sign.  It does exist.  We drive down the road again.  No hotel.  We see a kid walking by and ask directions.  He doesn't know the Best Western, but he knows Ibis!  He says go back where we were and keep going right.

We wind around and get back to where we were.  Again.  We go right.  More center of town stuff.  It's a big place, and we're enjoying the sights.  We go past a huge cemetery and church on a hill.  Then we see a Best Western sign!  So we follow it.  It says go right.  We do.  No more signs.  We keep going, and keep going, and nothing.  So we go back.  On the way back, I see another Best Western sign, pointing left.  But we miss it, so we have to continue on, then turn around by our previous Best Western sign.  We head back to where I saw the new sign.  You can't see it from our direction, which is why we missed the turn.  It looks like the sign for our side is covered up by some random banners.

So we make our turn.  Now we're going through some tall apartments, and everyone on the street is Arab or black.  And more kebab restaurants.  We keep driving and looking.  And the streets get smaller and have more apartments.  So we turn and try to find a way back.  Again.  By this point we were both laughing hysterically.  I was making jokes about how the Best Western signs were a ruse for criminals looking to rob tourists.

We get back, and head back into town, passing the cemetary and church on the hill.  This time we ignore everything Best Western and just continue on into the center of town.  And there it is!  An Ibis!  After only an hour!

Day 12: Driving France part deux

Overall it was a pretty good day. We left Sarlat about 10 am and headed north towards Hautefort.  We had decided to take a different way back. We made it to Limoges, the porcelain place, then headed north on the autoroute, until we hit one heading east.  We headed towards Montlucon. 

It was about 1 pm by then, so we decided to stop for lunch in the first little town, which was La Souterraine.  We drove all over and could not find a cafe or bathroom!  So we got back on the interstate and continued heading east.  

We were passing a few "rest stop" areas, so we decided to pull over at the next one.  Don't ask me how, but we managed to pick the worst one.  I am not kidding!  It was full of graffiti.  There were 2 Arab toilets and a lidless toilet in the women's room.  The sink didn't work.  Outside the bathroom was another sink, which did work.  The walls didn't meet the ceiling, which meant the weather got in.

We continued on, and the next "rest stop" was a BP gas station.  Gas, food, coffee, clean restrooms, play ground, picnic grounds, etc.  I tried to take a picture of it.  It was amazing!  Especially compared to the last one.  

We continued on.  Gueret was a neat city.  Most of the places we passed were.  Many of them had old churches and stuff.  We got off the autoroute at Montlucon.  That only cost us 7.40 euros!  After Montlucon we headed north towards Bourges.  We took a regular road, instead of the autoroute. 

There were a lot of trees on the side of the road.  By trees, I mean, like, orchards or something.  The trees were close together and tied to stakes, like a really big vineyard.  And there was a sort of netting that could be spread over them.  We think they may have been fruit trees.  We saw something red on a few trees, but couldn't make it out.  Hopefully my picture came out.

We made it past Bourges and took another small road towards Montargis.  Somewhere around Henrichemont we had to stop for a few minutes.  The police were stopping everyone, and then they let us pass.  Then an ambulance flew by us, heading that way.  We're guessing there was a bad accident down one of the roads.

We made it to Gien around 4:30, and went through.  It's on the river.  There was a huge old building up on a hill, so we decided to go back and find it.  We drove around and finally got up to the hill.  It was the Church of Joan of Arc and some kind of Chateau.  They also had a toilet!  It was a square building outside the church.  You go in and push a button to say it's in use.  You use the toilet, then there's a sink area.  You hold your hands out and it squirts soap.  Then you move over 6 inches and it turns on the water for you.  Another foot and there's an air dryer.  When you leave, it flushes and disinfects everything.  I'd heard of these, but this is the first I've seen.  And yes, I took pictures.  Do you really have to ask, at this point?

We had driven along the river before finding the church, so we drove back and looked for food.  It was only 5 pm, and most places don't open until 6.  We passed a kebab place with an open door, so we parked by the river and went in.  It's run by a Turkish guy.  Most of the kebab places we saw everywhere were Turkish.  We got a kebab plate, which was basically a shwarma without bread. We had meat, lettuce and tomato in tzaziki sauce, and fries.  With a side of bread slices.  Not bad.

After Gien, we continued on to Montargis, hoping to stop there for the night.

Day 4: Driving France

So we finally made it out of Paris.  I cannot tell you the joy we felt at that moment.  Paris did not seem to want to let us leave.  Now we're on the A10, heading to Orleans.  We figure we'll stop there for lunch, because it's getting on to that time.  Then we pass through a toll booth.  This is the first one, where you get a ticket, which is when we realize this is a toll road.  Luckily, Orleans is one of the first towns on the road. 

We're driving along, all happy, and get to Orleans.  We exit.  There's the toll booth, and I insert our ticket.  And I'm not sure about the price.  I put on my hazard lights so nobody pulls up behind us, and then I finally find a speaker phone.  I call the people and ask if they speak English.  She said yes, but didn't understand me when I asked the price, so I ask again in French.  Ten euros and 70 cents!  Mom and I are freaking out.  We insert some bills and coins and pay the toll, then bitch about it all the way into town. 

Orleans is pretty.  It's on a river, and we headed into the center of town to find some food.  We found a cafe and tabac shop, but the parking lot was full because it was next to a flea market.  So I turned around and decided to drive up the one-way side street by the cafe.  There's a parking spot!  So I got to parallel park, on the left.  Thank goodness for automatics!

We had the plate lunch, which was a stewed/roasted chicken, with English peas, and yummy bread. It was really good.  And I had the creme caramel for dessert.  The bathroom was interesting.  You walk in, and on the left, against the front wall, is a sink, and hand dryer.  Facing it were 2 doors: a hamam (Arab toilet) and a toilet with no seat.  Straight ahead, there were urinals against the wall of the toilets, with a small tile half-wall covering the urinal area.  So you could stand and pee, and if you leaned in close, the person coming in the door wouldn't see your junk.  There was a guy washing his hands when I went in, and one washing his hands when I went out.  I guess I should be happy about that!

Then it was off again.  This time we took a small road to the next big town, so we could see more.  And it was worth it!  We went through picturesque town after picturesque town, until we got to Vierzon.  I had fallen asleep by then, and we got on the interstate again to make up some time.

There was no toll at this point, but another ticket booth showed up later, and mom and I both grimaced.  We kept going, and hit Limoges.  We had to exit the toll area here but luckily it was only 2 euoros.  Then we took the road south to Souilac, and headed west to Sarlat.  This road was beautiful!  Small and windy through hills and small mountains.  And foie gras stores everywhere!