les voisin Francais

Wednesday continued:

I went to see Marie Pascale and Eric our neighbours in Kerverbel, to ask them for help in phoning for a hire car company. They insisted on phoning and arranging a convenient hire car from Europcar in St Brieuc. Marie-Pascale then insisted on running me up to pick up the hire car at the allotted hour of 4.00 oclock.

While I was away collecting the car, Laura and Clare decided to take a walk to Corlay to do some shopping. Corlay is 5km away. apparently after about 20 min of the walk a car stopped and an old lady offered them a lift into Corlay. They had not been hitch hiking but the lady just stopped out of (more) goodwill. After the exertions of the lift the ladies decided that a cool beer would be refreshing so they stopped in a bar for a glass of cheer. After the shopping they decided that another drink would reinforce their resolve to walk back to the farm. This time they had to walk all the way. A moral there perhaps, perhaps not.

When we arrived in St Brieuc we were told that the car would be another hour. To me this would have been unacceptable but Marie Pascale shrugged her shoulders and suggested we visit the local LeClerc store for a look round and a coffee. We managed to pass away an hour or so in broken French and pidgeon English and returned to the Europcar agency. The charming young girl behind the counter then reported that the car would only be another 20 mins and then carried on cleaning her counter with a spray and duster. Another shrug of the shoulders and a 40 minute wait. A man came in and Marie-Pascale started chatting. Friendly bunch, I thought but it turned out that she knew him. and then the car arived. At least now I had the car a Peugeot 206 (I think that these are built in Coventry at the Ryton Plant). I thanked Marie Pascale and she left and I set off back to the farm. At least we were mobile again. The French are a patient lot in many ways as I am only just finding out! They accept setbacks with a stoicism we seem to have lost in the uK


Thursday:
The following morning, another surprise. Europ Assistance rang to inform us that the garage who had the van were unable to complete the repairs for at least a week. They would arrange car hire to get us home and eventually arrange for me to return to collect the van. They also said that the depannage would return the van and could the neighbours accept the key. Marie -Pascale of course once again agreed. We have learned the meaning of neighbourliness. Or 'bon voisinage.'

We decided that we needed a break and off we went to visit Pontivy Even the charms of Pontivy (or Napolonville) were muted by the grey skies and cold wind. At least it stopped raining (once known as Napoleonville for Napoleon made it his capital for a while).

The Defayes have now invited us over several times for 'aperitifs'. This appears to be a French way of sussing out the neighbours in the first instance. It consists of drinks and usually snacks and if you are accepted carries on for some time. Our first time we were there for three hours. This last twice we were afraid of wearing out our welcome so we only stayed for one and a half hours. But the last time was on the day following the van breakdown and ensuing hassles. That morning we had gone to Pontivy and bought a bouquet for Marie-Pascale to thank her for her help and when we presented her with it they once again invited us for 'aperitifs'. It is an enjoyable custom. Next time they have invited us for a meal. Very formal the French.

Friday:
The hire car from St Brieuc to Calais was an Opel Zafira. This had air-con. climate control, cruise control etc and was a very nice vehicle to drive and in some comfort. 61/2 hours with one stop. With ease. A bit better than the drive down! (see earlier post).

At Calais the system for handling baggage in these cases is similar but not as sophisticated as on an airline. We had to drive the car out to the berth, find a trolley and load our bags on to it. The French handler was a young bearded man with a lovely smile and very helpful. He found us a trolley and helped us load up. We then had to report to passenger terminal once again to deposit the car and wait for the call to board. We parked the car at the terminal as instructed and the keys pushed into the slot of the Hertz car rental booth. We arrived at around 6p.m. and were told that we would probably catch the 9:15 ferry (or thereabouts as the berth problems were still in effect).

However our helpful baggage handler had other ideas. He appeared behind the desk looking rather in a rush, and was on his two way radio speaking to a colleague. "Come on" he called to us "zey can load your baggage on ze six sirty". " where are ze uzzers" It turned out that he was looking for another couple waiting to board but couldn't find them. "Their loss" I thought, but he was genuinely concerned that they wouldn't catch the ferry.

Our baggage handler, it turned out, was also the bus driver and as we got to the boat "zer is ze truck" and there was our trolley being drawn by a tractor unit on to the car deck of the boat. 'Follow that trolley'. and we did. The boarding vehicles were stopped while we were driven on to the car deck with some style. I felt rather as I imagine a minor VIP might. We managed to say farewell and thanks to our driver and saviour, but all we got was a bon voyage and a flash of teeth as he smiled with the smile of one who has the satisfaction of a job well done. The traffic was stopped, he drove off and was gone leaving us on the car deck standing as if we had emerged from a dream.

As we stepped through the passenger doors from the car deck I wouldn't have been at all surprised if we had stepped through the back of a wardrobe and into the bedroom at the end of an outlandish adventure.

Once at Dover we phoned the car hire company Avis who would have a car for us and we waited for our luggage to appear on the airport-like baggage conveyors. Surely not, we thought as we surveyed the huge conveyours in this barn of a terminal hall. But surely yes. Apparently (I wasn't there to witness this) the luggage trolley arrived outside with flashing lights, unloaded the bags on to this monster of a conveyor and in a whir of gears, electric motors and conveyor belts, used enough electricity to run a house for several days to transport four measly looking bags 20 feet into the room.

The helpful Avis Rentals man arrived and let us loose with the keys of a new Vauxhall Vectra, again with cruise control (but no climate control!) This was adequate to get us home but was no great pleasure to drive, too many irritating little vagaries for me. I much preferred the Zafira.

We dropped a weary Clare and Steve off in Stoplsey and headed for home sweet home and arrived at the not too ungodly hour of 11:15 p.m. Just missing a last drink at the local!! And after such a week I could have just managed one. Still you can't have everything, can you.

So, so much for the French being a dour unfriendly lot who have a particular vitriol reserved for the English. In all my years of visiting France I have always found a polite, willing and helpful albeit reserved people. I have many experiences of the lengths the French will go to to be helpful. Mind you, I always try to speak their language and try to be polite and friendly in return. Perhaps that says it all. You reap what you sow. A lesson perhaps?

As a footnote, when I returned the car to the Avis office in Leicester the following morning I parked in the garage and went to the back of the office to check in and as I called in I recognised the voice at the desk as belonging to a girl I knew, Anna. She had worked at our local pub some years ago and was now based in this office, what a small world.