GlitchJul 24, 2011
|
|
A $5.00 Milkshake In A Thimble
La Rotonde One More Time
| July 24, 2011 Shit happens. There is no getting around it. As we packed up this morning to head for our visit with Glen and Lynn (who have a reserved sign on our bedroom…nice, eh?), I asked Brenda if she had seen the car keys. To make a long story short, I had lost the keys to our rental car (that’s REALLY not a good thing!). I ran back up to Le Bouddoir Restaurant from the night before but the sign said “Closed Sundays”. Brenda quickly sent off an e-mail to Lynn and Glen about our possible delay. While we sorted things out and developed our recovery plan, we enjoyed breakfast in the lobby (very good coffee). A call to Europcar confirmed our fears; they would arrange to have our Toyota towed and try to locate us another car close by (“but it is Sunday, monsieur”). We were able to book another night in Hotel La Rotonde with our extremely helpful desk clerk, Vanessa. The tow truck guy arrived and broke into the car to retrieve our stuff we had left in overnight (GPS, extra wine, maps, etc.,) which was a lot of fun because the guy didn’t speak English. As we thanked him and began to walk away, he called me back to sign language me that I had forgotten the GPS windshield mount…whew! To kill time while we waited for Europcar to find us another ride, we took a walk back up into the old town in the very brisk wind. Brenda located a sidewalk restaurant slightly shielded from the wind where we enjoyed omelet du fromage and frittes. There were milkshakes on the menu for €3.50 ($5.00) and I hadn’t had one since Palm Springs so I jumped at it…turned out to be a large lukewarm thimble-sized tasteless glass of yuck. Back at the hotel, Vanessa informed us that Europcar had called and they had found us a car at the Aix TGV Station. One €40 euro cab ride later we arrived at the rental desk to find a counter guy who had no knowledge of any of this and who demonstrated a perfect nonverbal French version of “you’re such an idiot!”. The bottom line was, we now had a new car (a Dacia Duster 4X4) and new keys, so no big deal. Nothing $300 euros can't fix and I believe it kept us from a much worse fate. I was informed that I could not be trusted and heretofore, Brenda would be the keeper of the keys…how humiliating! Back in our room we took advantage of the extra downtime to catch up on the e-mails, journaling and a couple of glasses of the usual. We returned to the old town for dinner and, wouldn’t you know it, not only was Le Bouddoir open but our waiter, Jean had picked up our keys off the ground after we left…shit happens! With the irony hanging heavily over us, we dined at the Dalat Restaurant on Vietnamese food for dinner, which was not only delicious and a pleasant respite from our steady diet of Italian and French food. |
Advertisement 
|
