My partner and I closed on a house one week before we left for our two week trip to Provence, so this trip report is a long time past due. So, for the edification of those who’ve come behind and for the amusement of those who’ve gone ahead, here is my
“Fortnight in Provence.”
The most important thing I learned on this trip is never, and I mean, never, purchase a house just before leaving on a two week vacation. For one thing, you will never get those two weeks back. While you were packing for your two weeks in Provence, nobody was packing for your imminent move across town. Secondly, you will spend the two weeks in the South of France imagining how you will make your new home an homage to Provence. This means that your trip home will be loaded up with every hand-painted (or not) cigale you come across, along with every handmade (or not) Provencal nape et serviette set. Not to mention those cute little fold up bread-baskets. Sure, you can pack fabric pretty easily, but trust me…it’s heavier than it looks, and the tighter it’s folded, the more you’re going to try and pack. )
Which brings me to my second major lesson learned: GPS Systems are not a necessity. I had joked that the reason we rented an automatic was because my partner couldn’t drive a standard transmission. Moreover, my partner is prone to motion sickness, so I lost “driver status” some years ago, so, if anyone thought that I was going to sit in the passenger seat with Aaron behind the wheel of a car in France with only a map to navigate with, they were crazy. Unfortunately, Mrs. Peel (as she came to be affectionately known) had a fondness for the back country that we just couldn’t get her to give up. While driving through the vineyards was indeed what we had flown 5000 miles to do…we didn’t necessarily want to do it every single day just to get to the nearest Hyper U. Also, we rented our car through Kemwel.com, who I can heartily recommend (with a few caveats which I will get to), but none of their vendors would rent a car from a train station pre-equipped with a GPS Navigator. We bought our tickets as a code share from Continental, which put us on the TGV from CDG to Gare St Charles in Marseille. (Remember this point, it’s very important later).
Since I had my foolish heart set on my very own portable GPS Unit, I took Kemwel up on their kind offer to arrange a rental of a Garmin StreetPilot III along with the rental of a French GSM Equipped cell phone. The cell phone was a very good deal. It was free for the first week, $2.00 per day for the second week (compared to $14.00). Both pieces of equipment would arrive several days before our departure, which would give us time to get everything charged and our nifty French cell phone number to our friends and loved ones. (Incoming calls were free. Outgoing calls were $0.99 to French landlines or $1.99 back to the US, or to US Global Numbers belonging to anyone who might be accompanying us.
The cell phone was and still is a good idea. We didn’t use it much, but it allowed for co-ordination of arrival at CDG for most of our party. (We were all on different flights, coming from a variety of locations in the states, converging on the TGV Station at CDG for the 1310 to Marseille. It also helped later that week, when I got “kidnapped” by some of my traveling companions and I needed to call my husband to beg his forgiveness for being gone all day.
The GPS was a mistake from the beginning, I’m sad to say. I believe the rental on our own personal tour guide was about $184.00 for the two week period. I also didn’t count on how much space the little British lady in the black box was going to take up in my luggage. (Imagine a 35MM camera bag holding a Nikon D50 and you get the idea.)
Fortunately, this didn’t matter so much on the way over as we’d packed lightly, leaving plenty of room (or so we thought) for decorative items for the new house (and, oh, yeah, presents for those we’d left behind to take care of our two cats, including the bulimic one). Come to think of it, it didn’t matter on the trip home, as unfortunately, half-way through the trip, we, um, well, it’s like this:
Parking is a b***h. Lesson #3. The bigger the car, the harder to park. We’d reserved a Mercedes A180 Automatic (or equivalent). The actual rental company was EuropCar. Of course they took the “or equivalent option,” but it worked out in our favor as they gave us a Citroen Picasso, that would ultimately seat 7 people. Two in the front, three in the back and two in the jump seat. Oddly enough, despite the fact that my parking skills aren’t what they could be, I was better equipped to drive in France than my partner. My grandparents lived in the hills of West Virginia, and after spending time driving on their narrow, winding roads (if you want to call them that) I was actually quite comfortable (for the most part) driving in Provence. I was fine, for example, getting up to Bonnieux, but I did hold my breath driving through it.
However, three separate trips to Aix-en-Provence almost managed to be my undoing. The first trip was on a Wednesday, I believe. My partner only packed one pair of shorts, and having heard about Carrefour, expressed an interest in driving down to Aix to buy some shorts, or better yet, several pairs of those men’s Capri pants that every guy in Provence (at least our age or younger) seemed to be wearing. For those of you who haven’t been, Carrefour is sort of like Wal-Mart (but better, and not just because it’s in France). If you have time, I strongly urge you all to go to Carrefour and Super U and if you’re feeling very brave, go to a Casino. We have this image in our heads that the French only shop at expensive designer shops in Paris for their clothes and open air markets for their food. Obviously that’s not the case. Though open air markets are one of the prime reasons for going to Provence…you’re not going to find baby food or TP their. (Or at fancy designer shops, for that matter.)
But I digress. Carrefour was a success. Aaron found his clothes, and reasonably priced, I might add. Of course, the Carrefour was on the edge of Aix, and had it’s own above ground parking garage. So, feeling overconfident, I asked Mrs. Peel to direct us to the town center. I had set up an online savings account with HSBC as well as a free checking account. Both accounts had ATM privileges and while I’d tested the card at the HSBC ATM at CDG, I knew that the nearest HSBC ATM to our villa was at Aix. I wanted to try and find the HSBC ATM in Aix before I needed it. Once Mrs. Peel directed us to the centre ville, we asked her for parking locations. She directed us to the Parc Carnot, one of the massive underground garages in Aix. For those of you who don’t know, the garages have one feature that is quite nice: Their signs give a running tally of empty spaces. This is useful information to know, because it might save you from making the same mistake I did, namely taking the first space you come across no matter how ill-equipped you may be to actually park in it. If you know there are 75, or 100, or 200 places remaining in a parking garage, chances are if you keep going down (or up), you’re going to find two that are side by side. I’m not advocating taking more than your fair share of parking space, by any means, but if there are empty spaces on either side of you, it significantly reduces the chances you’re going to scrape something on either side!!!
Sadly, I did not manage to park in the spot I picked. I did, however, manage to scrape the left side of my rental car against the pillar of the garage. Considering discretion the better part of valor, I decided that I really didn’t need to find the HSBC ATM machine. After all, what was a couple of dollars in out-of-network fees, compared to the possibility that I’d just inflicted several thousand dollars worth of damage to my rental? In fact, I was so distressed, that upon exiting the parking garage, I managed to knock the right side rear view mirror on the exit wall. Thank god for hinged side mirrors!!
My second trip into Aix, I had not yet learned the lesson of the place available signs. However, this trip was a large group and it occurred to me as we turned onto the main street of Aix, that the passenger behind me had lived in Chicago for several years. Also, I’d had the forethought to add Carla as an authorized driver to the rental car Also, she was a lesbian. (Not that it matters, but while I hate to reinforce stereotypes, I have to say that I figured the odds were that a lesbian had to have better parking skills than a gay-man). So at the first available light, we did the proverbial fire-drill and I ended up in the back seat, where, I watched in abject horror as Carla entered the dreaded Parc Carnot.
Only to discover that at the bottom of the garage were empty spaces galore. And, at last, fellow travelers, I made the correlation between the ever-changing numbers outside with the empty spots inside. We also discovered that unlike many garages in the states, it’s important that you take your parking ticket with you when you leave, because when you come back you will need to insert your parking ticket into a machine which will tell you how much to pay. Upon receipt of payment your ticket will be validated. WITHOUT this validated parking ticket you will be unable to exit the garage, much to the annoyance of the drivers behind you. (Not personal knowledge…but witnessed.)
Needless to say, on my next trip to Aix-en-Provence, the following Monday, I drove directly to the Parc Carnot, drove inside, went down until I found lots of available places, and, just to be on the safe side, we put down our window so that we could fold the rear-view mirror in to allow us to get safely past the pillars.
You can see what’s coming, can’t you? Of course, one of us left our window down. Of course we left our rented GPS Navigator in the car, and of course it was gone when we returned.
So, to summarize today’s lessons learned: Rent the least expensive car that you can afford and spend a little more on the insurance plan. We opted for the middle of the road limited liability (limited to me, I mean) CDW. This left us with potential liability of $1500.00. This seemed like a reasonable risk, to me; until I was faced with the actual possibility that I was going to be charged $1500.00 for a new paint job. $1500.00 for a Picasso painting is a bargain. $1500.00 to paint a Picasso would be a very boring way to spend money. Next time, considering how little he actually drove, I’m getting a standard transmission and spending the difference on the No Excess CDW. It worked out in the end, the damage was imperceptible, but a hair closer and I’d have been out another $1500.00 on top of the $1000.00 that the GPS cost us. That really put a damper on our remaining trip. Of course, next time, I’m not worrying about the GPS. Give me a good map and the willingness to go through a round-a-bout as many times as it takes to read all of the signs and I’m good. (Also, another quick tip: When all else fails, try autre directions. Chances are that exit will take you to another round-a-bout, that has the name of wherever you’re trying to go.)
Of course the loss of an extra grand or two didn’t stop us from shopping for the new house. See lesson #1.
More lessons, soon. (I hope.)
|||
Merci beaucoup for your very enjoyable review of things related to renting, driving and parking a car in France. Having just experienced many of the same things, albeit without the added expense, my sympathy at your lessons learned is immense.
I would love to know whether all the provencal fabric has been put to use???
|||
Autres Directions and Centre Ville - two of the most perplexing signs in the French Language lol!!
Thank you for such an entertaining account of your visit.
|||
I hope to have more time to write more soon. We had some very good times and some (to some, anyway) amusing times. ;)
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 8:17 pm, September 03, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment