We ended up taking it to a stop called Marie Orly instead of Aeroport D'orly. We thought Marie was the right stop because the bus driver turned off the bus and everyone got off, so we did too. But after getting off and looking at a map we noticed we were pretty far from the Aeroport and didn't know how to get there. So we tried walking all the way but soon realized that it wasn't possible. So then we asked a young man who didn't speak English and he finally just told us to follow him. So we followed him until we found out he was leading us to a train and not a bus; so we nonchalantly let him keep walking while we stopped and asked a little old lady who DID speak English and she said the fastest way was to take the train and then switch to a bus. But we didn't want to take the train because we already had a bus ticket. Or so we thought. So we walked the 10 minutes back to the bus stop and went back and forth trying to communicate with two different bus drivers who kept sending us back to the other one. Finally one of them said another bus was coming that went all the way to the Airport. So we waited for that bus and finally got on something that would take us near the Airport.
So that bus took us to our destination, finally. After we got off the bus we started crossing the crosswalk and all of the sudden I hear the sound of the suitcase handle hitting concrete. I turn around and see my mother lying on the ground. There was nothing for her to even trip on so apparently she blacked out and then fell. She's okay..she only hurt her hip a little and got a nice little scrape on the palm of her hand. With all the stress of trying to find the right bus, emotions have been high strung. So we cleaned mom up and got her a bandaid and then ran around the airport like chickens with our head cut off until finally we found the signs pointing to get on a shuttle to take us to the car rental place. So we went there and waited for a bus and then asked the driver if it was going to the AVIS car park. He said yes so we made our selves comfortable. On the first stop on this bus, a few people get off and we are sitting there waiting when the bus driver turns around and says "Ibis? Ibis? That's here." To explain, one of the major hotel chains around here is the Ibis Hotel when sounds a lot like Avis if you say it French like. So I had figured this out and was trying to tell the driver what we meant when another couple gets on and they speak English so they try and help us with the driver. But they think we are saying Ibis too. So my mom starts waving her hands trying to gesture that we need a car and the couple and the driver start nodding and pointing towards the hotel parking lot, repeating "ibis Ibis". So my parents I guess decide to give in and get off the bus at that stop. After we get off I explain to my dad the similarity and we decide that it definitely isn't where we want to be. So we wait 9 minutes for the next shuttle to come around and finally get back on and make our way to the last stop which is the car rentals.
The car rental place went pretty well except we spent 7 or 8 minutes trying to slide my dads credit card in the machine before finally someone tells the lady it hasn't been working since Monday. It was news to her!
Finally we find our car and get on the road to pick up my brother using not one, but TWO navigation systems. One in the car, and one on my mother's phone. We like to call the car gps Gertrude because she sounds like an old English lady.
Next we try and navigate the crazy streets of France without killing ourselves and finally make into Kody's neighborhood. But we make one wrong turn and that turns us all around and we find ourselves in a one way street with construction everywhere and no idea which one is Kody's apartment. So we drive around and decide to try and find his school. Once we find it we park, almost run over a pedestrian while backing up, and go inside.
The lady at the front desk starts speaking in rapide French and when we say "parlez-vous anglais?" she says no. So we try and communicate that we are looking for a student who is in class and we need to borrow her telephone to try and call him. After writing down his name and number she finally understand and calls him. Good timing on our part because he had just finished his last final when his phone starts going off. He asks his professor to answer and he does and this lady starts speaking in rapide french again and Kody doesn't understand so he just hands the phone to his teacher. Next thing we know she hangs up and tells us to wait. So we sit down and a few minutes later his professor comes down and asks us to follow him. So we do and then wait for Kody to get out of class and finally we are reunited again.
Next we go to his dorm and eat lunch and wait for him to pack and tell him all about the adventures of the morning. Then we take off for Normandy.
After driving for awhile, my dad informs us that we need to try and find a bank to get a deposit for the next place we are staying at. So we type in ATM into Gertrude and she takes us EVERYWHERE. Between Gertrude and the unnamed phone GPS we were enjoying the outskirt towns 10 miles off the interstate and winding down the dirt roads of the French country side. Later on we found out we were on the "scenic" setting on Gertrude. Finally we found the ATM and got our money and we were Normandy bound…except…
We got a flat tire. Oh man, what a trip. Driving down the interstate we here the sound of a tire flapping on the back side I was sitting on. So we pull over into this highly convenient pull out and start unloading the trunk to find the tools to change it. Easy pees right? We had two men with us. It shouldn't be a problem…Wrong. After pulling out the tools we realized the wrench didn't fit the screws on the tire. So we couldn't get the tire off. Did I mention that Kody's phone only works if someone calls him? We had no minutes on his calling card and no way to contact Avis to figure out how to change it without the proper tools. So we sat there trying again and again to get the wrench to fit and finally a nice man drives by and we motion him that we need help. He comes over and we ask him for English and he says only a little; so we try and communicate that we need to call this number and we need to borrow his phone but he doesn't realize that we need his phone. He just thinks we should call them. Finally he figures it out and calls them but that number doesn't work. So we try a different one and he gets put on hold; and then they hang up on him. So the man walks over to our car and tries to figure it out himself. He can't get it to fit either, so he goes over to his car and pulls out his wrench and LUCKILY it fits, sortve. We put it on a start unscrewing and realize that they had covers on them and that's why the wrench Avis provided wouldn't fit. As soon as we got all the covers off the wrench fit and we speedily got the spare put on. After thanking the guy repeatedly, we were off!
Besides Gertrude taking us through a town filled entirely with pottery we got there pretty smoothly after that. We did make a stop at a sketchy little market to try and get a calling card for the phone just in case. The guys that ran the store were just sitting around drinking a beer and when Kody tried to communicate with them they sold him a little slip of paper with some information on it for 10 Euros. For all we knew as soon as he left they all said "SUCKER! Thanks for the sale" and toasted to the stupid Americans. But alas Kody's phone was dead so we couldn't enter the info on the paper to see if it actually was renewed minutes. So we prayed we didn't just waste 10 Euros.
Finally after following Gertrude through some small towns we looked at the paper directions we had which said "find the black and white bo vien and turn left" we did just that and made our way to a nice little cottage in an old Normandy town.
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| Little cottage in the middle of Normandy |
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