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.

Gardens at Villandry

Villandry and Langeais

Villandry  

Langeais 

Treehouse 

Chinon

Chinon

Counting down the chateaux

Today is Monday the 21st of September and George and Mary arrive tomorrow evening.  Gene and I spent the day visiting some chateaux nearby. The first was Villandry with a chateau and beautiful, extensive gardens. The second was Langeais, not as formal but still very interesting.  Yesterday we drove to Angers,about 40k from Varennes, to see the chateau. It was Sunday and the place was packed.  The line to enter was about 150yds long so we decided we would visit that chateau at a later date.  We found a place to have lunch, Hippopotamus, that was basically a burger place. But since it was Sunday most restaurants were closed.  The place was packed. We walked around the old town after lunch and headed home. Nap time.

Gene still hasn't told the missing wallet story.  Coming soon.

Trying to save a buck

When Joan and I have come to Europe I have always tried to secure some of the currency used in the European Union.  These are called, of course, Euros. It helps to have them for incidental purchases when you don't want to use a credit card.  As you may know purchasing Euros in the United States always comes with a fee, as much as seven percent.  So changing $100.00 will cost $107.00 and then you get your Euros at the current exchange rate whatever that might be given on any particular day.  The seven percent fee has always grated on me.

Enter my "friend" Michael, the money changer I met on line. Michael very conveniently lives in Phoenix and has quite the knack of coming up with lots of Euros and is very willing to sell them without the seven percent add-on fee.   Perfect.  What could possibly go wrong? 

Michael calls me from time to time and informs me that he has accumulated a good supply of money and that we should meet and complete a transaction, dollars for Euros.  

Only one small issue. He only accumulates coins!  Euro coins come in two Euros, one Euro, .50, .20, .10, .05, .02 and .01.   

The most recent phone call included the amazing detail that he had over $500 in Euro coins.  This purchase would save me over $35.  Knowing we would be in France for over a month this time we could do use this amount.  I should mention that this purchase was made months ago when the exchange rate was one Euro for $1.25. He agreed to sell them to me for $1.18, a great rate!  I wonder where he gets them and for what rate.  He has never revealed his source.  Flea markets, maybe.

I met him as the usual place and he handed me the coins and I found to my dismay that they weighed over 60 pounds!! A quick look determined that no coin was over the .20 denomination and quite a few smaller.  I agreed to the deal on the phone so the transaction was made.

Fast forward to travel day about a week ago.  I have a small carry on suitcase that has wheels so no one noticed the weight but the TSA agent sure noticed the "blob" in the suitcase and was quite insistent that he was going to find out what was going on.  Volume wise the case was 80 percent empty with the big "blob " at the bottom.  He found it very important to flatten out each baggy of coins to make sure that I didn't have some contraband hidden in the middle of the coins.  He was stone faced throughout the search while I thought he was a bit overboard.  He probably thought I was an idiot.  On to the plane where I knew I  needed to lift the carry-on up into the overhead bins.  When is the last time YOU lifted 60 pounds over your head?  With a great big heave I was able to do it with no one noticing.  With nothing strained off we were to Atlanta and then to Paris, so, of course, I had to get them down in Atlanta, up in Atlanta and down in Paris. It was a real struggle every time.  

Oh, did I mention that by the time we left Phoenix the exchange rare was down to one Euro for $1.17. I could have secure 500 euros in 100 Euro notes and slid them into my wallet?  Weight? Less that tenth of an once.

Now the challenge of changing the coins to paper money.  Not easy at all.  The banks in France, I find out, want no part of the "blob" .  We did start feeding some of the .20's into the pay tolls, which are quite prevalent on the freeways.  That got rid of a little.  I decided to try to get our landlord to change them in for me but again was told the banks wouldn't take them.  But Steve, our gracious landlord, did come up with a solution. He told me the local Supermarket had a machine that took coins and gave you a receipt that could be used for goods at the store.  I lugged in four baggies, about a third of my pile, and started feeding them to the machine. It worked perfectly and spit out a record receipt for about 150 Euros.  With this huge credit Joan and I began our shopping.  At the cash register the amount came to about 100 Euros.  The clerk apparently had never this scenario where there was still a credit due. A call. to the manager solved the dilemma. We purchased a gift card only redeemable at this store.  A second visit to the store and the same scenario.  We're getting this drill down to a science.  In the meantime I have been dumping more coins at the local bakery, eating out at lunch, etc.  A couple more visits to the supermarket and the task will be finished.

The moral of the story.  Never try to save a few dollars of fees, never lug coins to Europe and make an appointment with your chiropractor for after your trip.  And, oh yeah, Michael, don't call me ever again!!

Champfreau

Sun!

Today is Saturday and the first day without rain.  The forecast for the next while is quite good.  The amount of rain we have endured has been phenomenal. Pat and Leanne left this morning to return home. We had a nice visit with them, the highlight being the dinner prepared for us by the owners of the manor house. They are very gracious landlords who provide great hospitality to their renters. We have visited a few chateaux, one under restoration and another closed between noon and three pm which is when we arrived. So no visit. We drove to another town and had lunch as we watched the rain thunder down. Ah, the French. One day we wanted to have some lunch around two pm. No restaurant would let us in, all were ferme(closed). If you go to a store that closes at noon you must be in the store by 1145 or so or they won't let you in.  The workers have to be finished by closing time. We've had some drama here too.  Gene is going to tell that story as he created the drama.

Azay le Rideau

You can buy almost anything at this market

The market at Bourgueil 

Out and about

Yesterday we visited the E. Le Clerc supermarche in Saumur.  A very large superstore in a mall with many shops. The weather is still pretty rainy so after spending quite a bit of time there we returned to the house for lunch and a nap for Gene.  We finally got the wi-fi problem worked out so we no longer have to go out the front door to connect.  Steven, one of the owners, gave us a jar of tomato sauce he made and we had it with some pasta and meatballs for dinner.  Today we went to the outdoor market in Bourgueil and then continued on to Azay le Rideau to visit a chateau.  Unfortunately it was undergoing restoration so most of the outside was not visible.  We did visit inside and strolled through the gardens. We had lunch in the charming town, then returned here to await the arrival of Pat and Leanne. The only computer I brought with me is my IPad, so it is a learning process posting photos to this blog.  Hope to have some on shortly. We have had some adventures mostly involving Gene. Expect some stories soon.

Why take the short and easy way when you can take the long and difficult way?

Good afternoon from partly, sunny, partly cloudy and partly rainy France.  Joan and I are sitting here in the Loire Valley trying to decide if it is summer or winter. Actually it is the middle of September but depending on how you feel it can seem like both.  This is not a complaint since you would be a complete jerk to complain about anything if you are sitting in one of the most beautiful places on earth!

We left last Thursday, September 10th for a month here in the Loire Valley , a trip in the planning for many many months.  Joan spotted our small chateau on the Internet and in a moment of haste we committed to it.  After just a day and a half we are very happy we did. There will be detail and description of our abode to come in future posts.

Our flights out of Phoenix were on time and uneventful.  A three hour layover in the Delta Sky Room was quite nice with the usual free food and drink.  The second flight, from Atlanta to Paris was, as mentioned, on time and ok as we were seated in Premium Econony, giving us about four more inches in leg room and, supposedly, more degrees of tilt in our back rests.  This was actually on Air France, a partner of Delta.  Their idea of "more tilt, is to have the entire seat move forward with the back rest staying in place. In other words your head stays in the same place while your legs move forward.   Oops, instantly there goes all the extra leg space.  Completely defeated the purpose.  Needless to say we didn't slide the seat forward.  Really not a big issue!  What was a big issue was the fact that the seats were, it seemed, made out of granite rock!!  By the time we hit the runway in Paris my rear end was screaming.  Who was the rocket scientist who designed these seats.  Apparently some guy who has never been on an airplane.  It never felt so good to get off a plane. My tailbone will take a week to heal.

Clearing Customs and grabbing our bags was a breeze and the car rental office was nearby. We piled our bags in the car and started our drive, about 120 miles to city of Tours.  With the added benefit of GPS in the car this was going to be an easy, no brainer drive.  We should be at our hotel in a couple of hours.  Ah ha, not so fast.   The car, an Volkswagen Golf,  is equipped with an advanced GPS system that has access to real time traffic data and updates directions every few moments and " compensates" by figuring out alternative routes based on said traffic.  Sounds good but in its haste to get you to your destination it quickly becomes apparent it outsmarts itself because the alternative route then becomes congested so it sets you out in another "quicker" direction.   The end result? We soon found ourselves, rather than staying on the freeway for the direct route, on very small side streets in an industrial area of Paris.  I knew this wasn't right but kept following the directions until we were in the worst gridlock traffic known to mankind.   Of course there were no terse words exchanged between Joan and me.  Of course not, never!!   I finally said we were getting back on the next freeway no matter where it led to.  Even if it was going to Germany!!   We drove in silence, found a freeway and jumped on it.  Fortunately it was going in the correct direction and away we went turning a two hour drive into three.  But surely I was enjoying every minute of it, after all we were in France!!  Surely you believe this.

The hotel showed mercy on us and allowed us an early check in.  After a very short walk to loosen up our legs we returned to the hotel, fell into bed and slept for 14 hours.

More adventures to come.

Nous sommes ici.

We arrived at Chamfreau yesterday evening after spending our first night in Tours. Weather is rainy and will continue for a few days.. Wi-fi connection isn't great.  I'm sitting by the front door to get a decent connection.  We went to the outdoor market in Montsoreau this morning.  Beautiful vegetables, fruits and other food stuff.  The house and grounds are lovely.  Now we need some sunshine.

Off to France

Gene and I have decided to return to Europe after a hiatus of a few years.  France is our destination this fall.  We have rented a home (photo below) in Saumur, France for 4 weeks starting Sep 12.  We are looking forward to exploring in the Loire Valley and surrounding areas.  We will have lots of guests to enjoy the place with us.

Hail! Hail!

The morning after the hail

It has been a rainy week.  Thunderstorms mostly at night so it hasn't bothered us. On Wednesday evening we were surprised to hear loud pings on the roof.  Marble sized hail fell for about 5 minutes.  Our first thought was "the car, what about the car!"  No damage.  Our car is parked off our road on a shoulder that is owned by our neighbor.  He was kind enough to allow this as we could not get into our car park without seriously scraping the bottom of the car.  Our driveway is a joke.  Most cars have a problem but the big car can't access it.

Driving lessons

Friday morning, July 13th, under cloudy skies and very cool!  Absolutely delightful.  


Driving in Europe, particularly in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.    
 Since a lot of you have never driven in Europe but have heard stories, rumors, half truths  and other falsehoods I thought I would try to clear up some misconceptions and set the story straight, at least from my perspective.  Yes, driving over here is certainly different from driving in the good old USA.  In no particular order here are some observations from my experiences. Europeans drive on the same side of the road as we do in the USA.  The English, Irish and Scots have it all wrong over in the United Kingdom. Many don't even call the United Kingdom "Europe". In any event they drive on the left side of the road and thus make it extremely difficult for the Yanks and Europeans to negotiate their roads.  With the rental cars right hand drive?  Well forget about sight seeing.  It's all about avoiding a horrific accident!


Fuel in Italy is extremely expensive!  Super Unleaded , which we must use, is 1.81 Euros per liter. Converting that into dollars per gallon results in $8.39 per gallon.  (3.8 liters equal a gallon and it costs approximately $1.22 per Euro).  A little higher than the $3.50 a gallon we bitterly complain about in the US.  Consequently most automobiles in Europe are very small and get extremely good mileage. All the major manufacturers compete for this "small car" business and thus you see on a daily basis vehicles never seen in the US.  Yes, we now have the Smart car and the Fiat 500 at home but these are just the tip of the iceberg over here.  Even BMW and Mercedes produce small cars with low horse power.  40 MPH is attained very easily in these vehicles.  The question is, "do you want to ride around in a car this size for the rest of your life"?  Absolutely no way.   Argue all you want for the 40MPG but trading what we have in the US just doesn't cut it. Before you jump on the economic bandwagon I suggest you drive in Europe in one of these little make believe cars before you ban the SUV, s ect.  Even Ralph Nader would hate it!  Be very careful what you ask for.


Speeds on the Autobahn (Germany and Switzerland) and Autostrade (Italy). 
Fancy words for freeways, but most of these roads are not free.  In Italy you stop for tolls quite frequently.  In Switzerland you are supposed to buy a sticker for your car for 30Euro.  In France the roads are called Autopeage, also with lots of tolls.  The usual misconception is that there are no speed limits on these roads.  Wrong, but not totally wrong. In Germany there are portions of the Autobahn that traverse nowhere near a city or town, where there is limited ingress and egress and where you can just go for it but you had better have a car that is up to it. These areas are usually few and far between but they do exist.  Very occasionally you will be cruising along and spot in your rear view mirror a high powered  BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche or other exotic bearing down on you.  It's quite the phenomenon and quite the sight to see someone pass you at 150MPH. Your move is to get out of the "fast" lane and let them fly by.  I would term this "rare" but at the same time it does happen. But as it is in most countries, it is illegal to race on the Autobahn and a severe penalty to get caught. Normally these drivers had the wherewith all to purchase these cars and are using them to the capacity to which they were built. I have never see an accident involving these speeds but when they do occur it's lights out. So yes, unlimited speeds do exist in Germany but just occasionally.  In Italy where we do most of our driving the Autosrades are in very very good shape, have posted limits of about 120 Kilometers per hour (75MPH).  This seems to be a suggestion rather than a hard rule because the far left lane moves along at about 150K, maybe more without any "Carbinieri ' running you down ready to slap you with a big old expensive ticket.  The unwritten rule is to be very careful, stay out of the fast lane if possible, and mind your own business.  If someone comes up behind you just get out of the way, don't get upset and never give anyone the finger! It's rude, impolite and completely unnecessary. There is nothing personal associated with it. The guy driving is in your life for about 10 seconds and then he is down the road. Let him by and be done with it.  The police seem to be there to help breakdowns and to clear accidents.  The silly notion that the Highway Patrol must ticket you for speeding, collect a heavy fine for the city or state, and force your insurance rates up just doesn't exist over here. We certainly could learn a lesson in the US off of the European method. No, the death and accident rates are NOT higher over here.  It just might have something to do with the very strict and very expensive process in handing out driver licenses in Europe.  I know that it costs more than $1500 dollars for the driving license process in Germany. Oh,  and yeah, you need to be eighteen and a responsible person. They don't hand out licenses like candy to sixteen year olds as we do in the US.


There is a massive amount of truck traffic as we have in the states but these trucks MUST stay out of the far left lane except for occasional passing and they are barred from  running  on weekends.  Most routes have three lanes running in both directions so the left lane rule is in effect all the time.  The drivers are professional and polite. This is not a knock on US truck drives but since most rural freeways in the US have only two lanes running in each direction it is difficult to keep an even speed while faster trucks over come slower trucks. utilization of the left lane is a must. This problem will go away as the Interstate system is updated to the twenty first century but it's  going to take a lot time and  lot of money, but it is coming. 


Rest stops on the Autostrade are frequent and are quite fun to stop at.  You can't exit the Autosrade completely but the stop always includes a very large gas station and at least two retail stores. A small store right next to the pumps like a Seven Eleven and then a massive complex including a restaurant and a store carrying the biggest array of junk food you have ever seen, from cookies, candy, soft drinks, beer, wine, cheeses, health food, magazines, toys, model cars, hats, shirts, stuff to fix your car, etc. If they don't have it you don't need it!  It is a lot of fun to just browse. And the displays are massive. There a literally hundreds of cars at each one of these stops but you can get in and out as fast as you want.  We just don't have these kinds of places in the US, even at the biggest truck stops. Seeing is believing!!


Yes, driving is driving but it is definitely a different experience over here! Be calm, be alert, be polite and be courteous!!