Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Day 1 running on fumes literally

Day 1.
Our Open Skies flight from Newark to Paris was wonderful. We flew Premium plus it wasn't 1'st class but might as well have been. It was so roomy and they provided Ipad's for entertainment. I would fly them again anytime.

We arrived in Paris a little early and were transported directly from the plane on the tarmac to passport control by bus. This was our first experience with the crazy Paris drivers. Thank goodness drivers through out Europe aren't as crazy.

We went through passport control quickly and retrieved our bags just as quick. We sat outside the terminal and waited for the bus that took us to Chessy train station (at Disneyland) and then we caught a cab to pick up our RV at McRents in Lagney Sur Marney. At McRents we caught our first glitch, the credit card that I got specifically for the trip that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee wouldn't work, so we had to use another one instead. I don't understand what the issue was because we had no problem using taht specific card any other time on the trip.

McRents did have 1 English speaker to work with. What should have taken 30-45 minutes took 2 hours. We were glad to be out of there and on our way. We had to laugh though when we asked for a second set of sheets and they gave us paper sheets. Guess we'll be hitting the store in the morning to purchase some new ones.

The RV that we received was brand new and never used with an empty gas tank. First stop was at a supermarket to stock the rv and to put gas in it. Second glitch now occurs as the gas pump won't accept our credit card. So we drive back down the road to look for another gas station and discover we are traveling the wrong direction and turn around. Driving on fumes we pull back into the same gas station at the suprmarket and see if we can't get someone to help us. A guy tries to help us with his little English and tell us it's our card. This is where my jet lag was hitting as I knew that the gas pump would only accept a pin & chip not our American swipe cards...yet we still couldn't figure it out. We try to talk the guy into using his card for us and us paying him euro's but he is a taxi driver and can't use his card that way. Amazing that the few words that we all understood of eachothers language and we unserstood that. Praying every inch of the way we finally found a manned gas station that we could pay with cash. When I got out to speak with the clerk the friend that she was standing with spoke English. The friend asked if I was American and when I answered yes she said she loved Americans then hugged me and did the double cheek kiss. I could have cried it was such a relieve.

So with the gas tank full and our rental Tom Tom set we were off to find our campground in Jablins, France. This was a pretty area and a good start to our drive. Once we had the RV parked for the night we dined on ham, cheeses, bread and wine and finally in bed at midnight. This is where we discovered the odd sheets that were already on the bed. The top sheet was sewn at the foot end to the bottom sheet and had pillows sewn into them at the head end. Just not comfortable but sleep came quickly.

Our wine for the evening
The RV toilet and all

No comments:

Post a Comment