French Picnics and Backing Out of Toll Booths

We left Brussels via the Thalys train to Paris. I love how trains work in the rest of the world - you have an assigned car and an assigned seat. They show a little diagram of the train showing which car will arrive at which point on the platform so you know exactly where to stand to get directly into your car. At least Amtrak has e-ticketing now - baby steps!

Train diagram

The train conductor was checking that everyone knew where they were supposed to be on the platform which ended up being our first successful all-French conversation of the trip. I guess it paid off that we spent time on train station vocabulary every other week in high school French class.

We managed to rent our little Opal, diesel, stick-shift hatchback from the Sixt near Gare du Nord and successfully navigate ourselves out of Central Paris to the Peripherique inner ring road and onto the A10 south. An interesting paradox of French drivers is that they are completely unwilling to give an inch when merging 3 lanes into 1 on a Paris street (explaining why the last person who rented our car had lost the driver's side mirror) but then religiously follow the traveling lane/passing lane custom on the highway, dutifully moving back into the right lane after passing one car even if they will soon pass another.

The A10 highway seems to have more rest areas (aires) than exits and they range from just a pull off with a bathroom to a large plaza with a picnic area, playground, and semi-sit down restaurant. We had a picnic lunch of sandwiches at one of the first aires after leaving Paris and were soon joined at our picnic table by a French family having a very French "pique-nique" with baguettes and pâté (no wine though, probably because the French legal limit is 0.05).

C at the "aire" with French picnickers behind him

We completed the 4.5 hour drive to Airvault with only one problem along the way. We got off the A10 a few exits south of Tours and had to pay a toll based on the ticket we had picked up at an earlier toll booth. We went to the credit cards toll lane, put in our ticket, the price of 6.70 Euros displayed, we entered our credit card... "paiement refuse." Tried again with our credit card that has a European style chip... "paiement refuse." At this point we realize our only option is to back up out of the credit card only lane and move to a lane that accepts cash. We do this, but when we pull into the cash lane we realize we have lost our ticket in the midst of the scramble to try the ticket multiple times and then back up before another car comes up behind us.

So now we are stuck in a toll lane and 2 cars are pulling up behind us and we have no ticket. We manage to motion to the two cars behind us that we need to back up and for the second time in 3 minutes back out of the toll booth! We find the one lane that is manned by a person and manage to have our second all-French conversation of the day explaining that the credit card did not work in the machine, and now we have lost the ticket but the machine said we need to pay 6.70 Euros. We had to fill out a form (while a line piled up at the toll booth behind us) then the toll collector asked where we got on and, sure enough, we had to pay 6.70. Not sure what will happen with that form but, Mom and Dad, be on the lookout for some sort of ticket or fine from the French highway administration in the mail.

Without further incident we made our way along winding back roads lined with sunflower farms and hay stacked higher than buildings. Each stack was made of giant cubes of hay stacked at least 6 high. Would like to see the piece of farm equipment capable of making those stacks.

Sunflowers and haystacks

Upon arrival at The Voltaire B&B in Airvault the English proprietor, Jo (and cute baby Isabella), let us know that their kitchen was closed because her husband had to go back to the UK for something, the hotel next door and it's restaurant were closed because the owners decided to go on vacation for 2 weeks and the other restaurant in town is only open on Thu, Fri, and Sat. Luckily there was a big supermarket in town so we put together our own French "pique-nique" with brie, chèvre, pâté, chorizo, baguette, and red wine, which we enjoyed in the garden at the B&B. We had a beautiful sunny evening, and the weather looks like it will be bright sun and highs in the upper 80s for the next few days.

A enjoying our picnic at The Voltaire