Had a leisurely breakfast this morning with those remaining at the hotel from our tour group, each discussing where we were off to next.
Checked out of the hotel and got a cab to the Europcar Rental car desk a short distance away and went throug the rigmarole of paperwork, upgrading to a car with GPS, staff helping us put into English language then off we went.
Well… it started from there!!!! Manual car, right hand drive, gear stick in the middle and the middle of Paris!!!! Talk about stressful! Mrs GPS didn’t know where the hell she was taking us to begin with and as such we went round and round in circles until we eventually stopped an re-plotted to another destination on our way to Bordeaux. That worked and slowly managed to weave our way out of Paris. Major intersections, left, right, though the middle, over there, around that corner, watch – don’t run that lady over, whoa, should have stopped there… holy shit!!!!!
Didn’t manage to sideswipe or ding anything or anybody and eventually made it out of the main city area but still very tricky woring out where to go. But who cares – we’re free of the city!!!!
Wanted to go to Chatres and the Cathedral there but ended up in some residential only street that need a press button something to get in and I’m sure it took our number plate on the way out!! I just drove straight past the pillars where I was ‘supposed’ to press something! End ed up back on the road we came in and though – bugger the cathedral!
Headed next towards Tours where I had planned that we would spend the night but decided that one of these smaller towns of the way was a better option as Tours would surely be a big city and hard to navigate. So we stopped in Chateau-Renault and found a small hotel tucked in the middle of the town square with a restaurant next door. I was stuffed from a stressful driving day and really wanted to go no further so was more than happy to bed down here for the night. Whew!!! Day one driving in France over!
If any of you fellow travellers from tour are reading this, I hope your toll gate issues weren’t as bad as ours!! Ticket on entrance was fine but exiting – only takes credit card with Maestro on it so had to back out, no office to talk to, just buttons! Oh no madame, not possible (on putting the visa card in) cash s’il vous plait. Grrrrr…. Cash eventually worked so that will be our payment method from now on!!
