Day 11: Travel and frustration

As we drove out of the parking lot of our B&B in Cormeray, the Hertz-supplied Garmin GPS stopped working, or should I say, the electrical tape holding the connections together on the back of the unit gave way. And this was the 3rd unit they had given us at the airport in Paris! So we went to the Hertz office in Blois. He had another unit (#4) but we couldn't get it to work either, so we had a choice of driving back to Paris or to Poitiers to try to get another unit. Fortunately Poitiers was on the way to Bordeaux, so we went there after the nice Hertz agent in Blois called to confirm they were holding a GPS unit for us.

The Hertz office was downtown across from the train station, and not in the nice part of town. They told us that they didn't have a unit for us, even though the Blois office had confirmed it. She changed her mind--either after my French ancestry showed up on my face or after I started to shift into "doctor mode." Anyway, she suddenly found a brand new unit (#5), and we were on our way.

The drive from Poitiers to Bordeaux was about 3 hours, or enough time to contemplate the trip so far. Here are some observations:
1. Outside of Paris, France is mostly farm land planted with corn, sunflowers, and grapes.

2. The light in France is different. Greens are greener, and yellows are more yellow. Not sure why, but perhaps this is why the famous French artists over the centuries were inspired to paint in the first place.

3. The French people we have met so far do not seem to be rude as we had heard. They are a more formal people, so they probably think anyone who walks down the street grinning, waving, and chirping "Have a nice day!" is demented. Normal greetings are "Bon jour, madame (or monsieur)" and when you leave a store or restaurant, "Au revoire, madame."

4. We have not had anyone refuse to speak English. In fact, all French people have 6 years of English in school. We think it's because they have a high respect for language--all languages--so they are reluctant to speak in a language in which they do not feel fluent. When we try to speak French to them, two things happen: (1) they correct our French (high regard for language) and then (2) they apparently feel so sorry for us with our terrible French that they will then converse with us in English!

5. And finally, if you ever wondered if they have trailer parks in France...they do! In fact, we have been surprised by the number of pop-up campers and camper trailers there are, all pulled with little Citroens or Renaults. Apparently they don't have pick-up trucks here. There are also a lot of Winnebago-type campers and many camping facilities. This one is a real trailer park, however. If you look closely, you can see laundry hanging on the side of the trailers!

After a long day of driving, we arrived at our B&B, Chez Tifen, in Pessac, France for a restful two nights.

Dinner was wine and cheese by the pool after a long day of driving.

And the perfect dessert--dark French chocolate and a bottle of red wine!

And all overseen by our Chez Tifen hostess, Cookie, who, like her French owners, is very polite. She is polite when she begs, but she is also persistent, so after she has perked up her ears and subtly moved closer 3 or 4 times, she finally gives up on her dumb American guests and heaves a big sigh and plants her chin on your thigh. Then she gets a cheese scrap!