September 27, 2012

After a nine hour bumpy flight, which consisted of two movies, a nap, a book, a nap, and two small unidentifiable meals, we landed at Charles de Gaul airport in Paris, via Air France. We picked up our rental car and headed for the little town of Bagnoles de l'Orne. We had planned on taking the little back roads to the town because the country side is so beautiful, but we were tired and just wanted to get there. We hopped on the highway and headed west. Big mistake. I had forgotten to get any money converted to Euros and we only had dollars, OOPS. At the first toll booth we learned that American credit and bank cards are not read by the toll booths. European credit cards have a chip in them. The booths read the chip, not the magnetic stripe on the back. The attendant smiled, spoke French, no English. Cars began to line up behind us. I put on our hazard flashers. After much pointing and gesturing, I came to understand that I was to back up and pull over into the far right hand lane that was blocked off. The attendant told the other drivers that had lined up behind us to go to another toll booth. We backed up followed hand signals to a side access road that led us off the highway and into a little village. Amazingly, no one had yelled or honked their horn. They just went about their way, as if this happened every day. C'est la vie, such is life.

After driving around for what seemed like forever, we spotted an ATM. Back in the money! Then it was just a matter of finding our way out of the town and back onto the highway. Thank God, for the GPS on my iPad.

We passed through the automated toll booth, no problem. They are all automated, with attendants hiding in a little side office off of the road. I really wanted to show the guy I really did have money, but I never saw him again.
Three hours later, we checked into our little hotel. The Hôtel Gayot in Bagnoles.

Hotel Gayot

We spent the next driving around the little town and getting to know it. It was just as beautiful as the pictures on the internet. Several houses caught our eye. Several were for sale, but our plan was to lease a house for a year while we traveled and learned more about Europe.

The original house that we wanted to see.

The house we originally were interested in, turned out to be on a steep hill with no where to park a car. It did have a garage, of sorts (a place to store lawn equipment), but no driveway!

Other houses caught our eye and we diligently took pictures and wrote down addresses and phone numbers of the realtors. All the signs were for sale, only two were for rent.

We found a realtor and told them we wanted to move to Bagnoles. We were interested in leasing for a year.
"The standard lease is for three years." We were told.
"Can we lease a house that is on the market for sale?" We asked.
"No."
"Can we lease with the option to buy?"
"No."
"Can we ask the owner if they are willing to lease?"
"Yes, but they will say, no."
"What is available to lease?" we asked.
"Apartment. Maybe small house."
So we asked to see the largest apartments and the small houses. The apartments had no parking (nor kitchen oven, refrigerator, nor stove). Tenants had to find a place to park around town, if they owned a car. The houses we saw were small, dark and not so pretty.

Our feet dragged as we went back to our hotel room and flopped onto the bed, discouraged. We decided to take the next day off. It was Monday and it seemed like everything in Bagnoles was closed on Monday, including the realty offices.

Our hotel room.

There was nothing else to do, but have a glass of wine, the Plat du Jour, and get a good night's sleep. Maybe two glasses, or three.