More Drama, Lost and Found

Have you ever lost your wallet?  Now think of losing your wallet in France.  My brother Pat and his wife, Leanne arrived Tuesday afternoon September 15 in plenty of time for dinner reservations in Saumur at 7:00 pm.  After a nice meal, drawn out by a not so much in a hurry waiter the bill arrived.  Usually we split the bill when we dine out but Pat grabbed the ticket and insisted on paying the entire amount in exchange for our hospitality.  This was very generous of him and I put my wallet back in my pocket. The next day we headed to the very large supermarket in Saumur and hit the change machine again and did a small shopping. Joan used some of the credit we had left over from the initial money changing. They wouldn't take the new large credit we had because we didn't spend enough.

That evening we had a planned gourmet meal at the chateau presented by our very gracious hosts, Bruce and Steve. Fantastic meal by the way!!  Certainly an extra charge for this treat but very much worth it.

The next morning I got up and made an early run to the Boulangerie (bakery) for some delicious French croissants.   I used some of the still massive loose change I had and all was well.  Well all was well after I slathered butter and jam onto the croissants.

We then pulled ourselves together to go out to visit a few close by towns and chateaus.  Phone. Yep. Keys? Yep. Hat? Yep.  Wallet?  "Hey, has anyone seen my wallet"? No, no and no were the responses. The search was on.  I just knew it was in the house but where?  I have a bad habit of putting things down wherever and at the same time really not paying attention. Either trying to do two things at once, or more accurately just getting forgetful in my old age.  A quick sweep of the likely places produced no results so I called in the reserves and had everyone on the hunt.  After checking and rechecking the likely spots panic began to set in.  Now we were looking in the very unlikely spots (under cushions, in the garbage, behind the toilets, in drawers I hadn't opened since our arrival, in the car under all the seats, in the trunk, in suitcases, etc.)  Now panic was here in all its glory.  Time to make a major decision.   Shall I have my normal meltdown as I usually do in these conditions or shall I man up and act like this is only a slight inconvenience? Very surprising to Joan, Pat and Leanne I actually acted like an adult.  Not easy but I did it.Two big questions arose.  Did I lose it at the restaurant two nights before? Did I lose it at the supermarket, or did I lose it on the croissant run in the morning? It certainly was not in the house, now was it?  A less than one mile backtrack to the bakery was easy but no luck there. Joan wrote down the French word for wallet "portefueille" and I left my cell number in case someone turned it in. All in French I might add.  Nice young girl who understood my predicament.  Back to the restaurant was an eight mile ride and I ruled that out.

We decided to forget about it and head out on our sightseeing day.  We passed what looked like a lot full of buses for sale and I remarked that I think I'll buy a bus.  Joan piped up from the back seat, "l'm afraid  not, you have no money". A hearty laugh by all at my expense.  I cried!!  We saw some nice sights, had lunch and headed home.  I decided to talk to Bruce and Steve about it and knocked on their door.  Bruce answered and after hearing my plight immediately volunteered to come over and join in the hunt.  Again we looked everywhere and a few new places, went out to the car again and searched that.  Back in the house again I sat down in a chair to think about calling the credit card companies and getting new ones somehow.  I was also lamenting the fact that I had over 600 Euros in the damned wallet.  I looked up as Bruce was saying how sorry he was about this when my eye caught the large pile of maps we have and noticed something wasn't right. What is that slight bulge?  I jumped out of the chair and low and behold there was the missing wallet squeezed in the group of maps. A great yell of "I found it" was heard for miles. We had all fingered that pile but never noticed it.  I continue to take a lot of razzing for this bonehead play but I am so happy I found it and equally happy I didn't have a giant immature meltdown.

Again all is well in the Loire Valley, at least until the next catastrophe.