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Published: November 29th 2006
Today was suppose to be a nice day, consisting of the following: 1. Wine tasting at a little vineyard in the morning (yeah, thats right, drinking in the morning again) 2. Driving to Tours, Cheneceaux, and Blois for some chateau hopping, nice French dinner, and stay at a cute little hotel overlooking downtown Blois. None of those happened and we ended up eating pizza at 11PM at a restaurant next to a roadstop and staying at a Holiday Inn Express somewhere on the road to Paris.
Here is how it went down:
Wake up at Audes, get the directions for the vineyard, chateau hopping, and the hotel and head off. We had an amazing bottle of wine at dinner the night before and wanted to go taste some more and make some purchases to bring back for friends and family. We arrive at the vineyard ready for wine tasting and are informed that 1. They dont do wine tastings for ordinary people (and they didnt budge when I said I was the editor and chief of Wines Today magazine) 2. They were out of the wine we liked so much 3. We could buy it at the local wine store, but they were closed until 2PM for "lunch". So, defeated we headed for Cheneceaux.
On the way there we got lost because they stopped marking the freeway. While driving around lost, the low gas light came on. No big deal, I might be lost but I saw a sign for gas. We pull in and there are no pumps, only construction crews. Apparently, there will be a gas station there in a few months, but the sign crew works faster than the construction crew. No big deal, I get directions to another station. As I pull in, I realize that the station is dark. I go to a bakery and ask where the closest OPEN station is. She tells me it is about 2 KM away, which is good because my know-it-all car computer tells me I only have 10 KM of gas left. As Im pulling into the station the computer now reads 0 KM of gas left (Jesus must have taken the wheel at this point). Doesnt matter, Im about to fill up with sweet petrol. In goes the credit card, out goes the credit card. Odd. In goes the credit card, then right back out again. I try Christinas and the same thing happens. Then I try the bank cards. Nothing. The guy next to me uses his card, so I wait for him to finish and try his pump. Nope. We have used these cards for 3 months and in 15 different countries, but now they dont work!!!No big deal. I have cash. Then I realize that they only accept cash during normal hours. Awesome. I flag a guy down and start explaining that if I dont get gas soon "auto kaput". We get directions to ANOTHER gas station that he says is 1. Open 2. Accepts cash and credit cards. We head off but I change out of my sandals and put on my walking shoes before we leave.
Finally, we get gas at station number 4. Now, it is time to get back to chateau hopping.
So by this time it is getting pretty late. We figure we can just drive by Chenenceaux really quickly, take a picture and head for our hotel. So we get there and by this time it is dark. So dark in fact, that we cant see the Chateu at all. Awesome. Well, at least we have our nice hotel waiting for us.
We drive to Blois in 30 mins and start looking for our hotel. An hour later we stop at a store and ask where St. Malo is, the city where our hotel is which, according to Orbitz is 1.7 miles outside the city. The lady says 300km north. I am confused and figure its the translation that is the problem, so we move on. 20 mins later we stop outside another hotel, Christina runs in and asks them if they know where this hotel is. They print her up directions and Christina is relieved when they say it is near here. She looks at the directions and it says the hotel is 300KM away. Confused and exasperated, she gets directions to an internet cafe to check the booking. 15 mins later, Orbitz is again telling her that this hotel is 1.7 miles outside Blois in the city of St. Malo. Lies! Orbitz got it wrong. They have one hotel listed in St.Malo and are giving directions for another hotel in Blois. Frustrated and exasperated we hit the road looking for ANY hotel.
We pull off the freeway at the first exit, drive around for 20 mins and discover that all the hotels in this small town are closed. No really, they were. So instead we get back on the freeway (rather, I should say tollway) and head for the next BIG town which is Orlean. We pull off to see a Holiday Inn Express calling to us like an angel from Heaven. By now it is almost 11. We get our key and head straight for the pizza place next door where we order 2 martinis, pizza, and wine.
We could not wait to get home after this fiasco.
(PS - while writing this blog, the site crashed 2 times and I lost my work. Something about this day is cursed)
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Jon Lim
non-member comment
C'mon, your luck had to end sometime soon!
Well, when you have an action packed honeymoon stretching over several months in Europe, you're really living a charmed life. Life can't be all peachy during the Pearson power tour. You need to have your Aaron bleepin' Booone moments just to keep it real. ;) You did manage to wake up every morning (not in a bathtub full of ice) with all your organs accounted for. So that's a plus. Oh yeah, select and copy the text prior to sending. You can just paste it back later if the site crashes.