Gotta love Maccas !!! Mon 5/5/14

El here again …

We had a bit of a lie in this morning as our sleep was somewhat disturbed last night by a few hoons in the car park doing ‘donuts’ in their cars … for about an hour!  We couldn’t work out why no-one called the police but none seemed to arrive and the hoon kids all disappeared of their own volition eventually!
This morning we went over to the service point in the Aire to get some water.  This service point charged 2.50 Euros for 10 mins filling of water (and electricity if you so wished to plug in!).  We thought we would give the dastardly currency card a go again … but it was declined!  We then tried every card in Paul’s wallet and they were all declined … it didn’t take real money either, so we were stuffed!

The Aire at Pont de L’Arche is in a sort of car park / park which is next to a ‘proper’ (paying) caravan park. (The Aires are free and we are on a budget!) Anyway, we gesticulated in our best French to the caretaker in the caravan park that we needed water and the service point wouldn’t work and could we please come in the proper caravan park and get some… s’il vous plait?  Anyway, he very kindly said yes and raised the barrier for us, pointing to where the water lay!  We went off in search of the water tap but they were all push button fountains !  Hey ho, we filled up our water bottles and Paul did a few runs with his watering can to put some water in the tank and then we went to exit the caravan park.  On our way out we saw a policeman talking to the caretaker and making donuty/roaring noises while pointing at the Aire!¬  Yay, the cops had come … just 12 hours too late !!!

Sam was fed up with all this carry on so checked out, upside down on his cushion …

At this point Paul was verging on ‘meltdown’ mode …. muttering stuff like…’our cards have all been stopped / someone has stolen our identity’ etc. so we went to the bank to check out our cards there.  They worked – even the FX one, so we have no idea what is going on with them all!  Anyway, he was then a happy little vegemite and we set off on today’s journey!

We didn’t get far when we spotted a MacDonald’s, so we headed into the car park, put the laptops in the rucksack and went in.  Now this may seem simple to most folk but it was a big deal for us!  We don’t frequent Maccas  at all and I think we have only ever been to two … and those visits were purely out of desperation!  We don’t really understand how they work and it is all very alien to us simpletons.  Anyway, the place was deserted and the chap behind the counter spoke English and was very helpful to us.  We ordered two lattes and a muffin and a cookie – we had only intended to have coffee but we felt guilty in the knowing that we were only there to use the Wifi!!  The chappie even told me where we could sit to plug into the power!!

Well, what a wonderful experience it was .. even the coffee was nice!  I had a feeling like I had gone to the future sitting in there … there were even machines in there that you could enter your order into, so that it was then delivered to your table!  I guess that is for socially phobic people who don’t want to go to the counter?!  Anyway it was very nice and I am sure we outstayed our welcome whilst publishing the blog, checking emails etc!


We eventually tore ourselves away from t’internet and continued our journey south …  Sammy navigating again …


Then it got all too much for the boys and they collapsed for a change …


The cats weren’t much better … William had found a nice sunny spot to put his head in …


We had plugged our route in the Tom Tom and – being our usual organised selves – didn’t really have a clue which route it was taking (apart from avoiding toll roads!).  The following pic just illustrates that you can never trust Tom Tom.  This is where it lead us to this afternoon … handy washing machine though!


I know, how many pics of sleeping dogs can you have in one blog?  Sorry … they just amuse me!  They sleep A LOT …


We weren’t really in the mood for clocking up a lot of miles today, so when we saw a sign for an Aire in Marboue we followed it!  What a delightful place it is … right by the river again and no hoons in sight !  Plus it had a working service point that took 2 Euro coins, so we filled the tank full of water and Paul filled a couple of buckets so that he could scrub the bugs off of the front of the van!


It was such a lovely day we got the chairs out and the dogs and the cats!  William hasn’t been out for ages and wasn’t that ecstatic about it but we are trying to get him out when we can …


Paul reckons this pic illustrates exactly what he has been dreaming about … sitting out with all the doors and windows open …in the countryside etc.  It really was lovely – we sat out for ages and even had our dinner outside tonight, listening to the sound of the insects … bliss!


Looking back at the Aire from the river …


While walking the dogs around the park, Paul rescued some local wildlife, which he found lying in the road.  He did ask some parents with their kids if they had lost an ‘escargot’ – practicing his best French!!! They said no, it wasn’t theirs … so, we claimed it as ours!   Here it is, our lucky mascot … ‘Escargot’ – the … er …frog!! (What is French for frog?!!!!!!!)


We had a little stroll around the village later in the day .. not too much to report but here is Paul’s arty shot for the day …


Here is the high tech bit for the day - this is where we are at tonight … Marboue …


Oh – and Paul recalibrated the Tom Tom today so it may be that it won’t be getting us so lost in the future … ever hopeful!