We signed up for Dutch lessons and they start on April 15th. I decided to spend this week with our dear friends, the Faures, in France. I left early on Monday morning to drive to their home in Mortagne-sur-Gironde, which is located outside of Bordeaux. There were differing estimates for the amount of time it would take according to different mapping engines, but it ranged from 8 ½ hours to 9 ½ hours. It took me exactly 11 hours.
The French highway system exacts hefty tolls. It cost me over 50 Euros in tolls to drive for about 7 hours on them. Fortunately, it appears that the money is actually used on the highways as they were in great condition. In addition, along the highways, perhaps every 15 minutes there is something known as an “aire.” An aire is a rest area and at a minimum has bathroom facilities, a picnic area and a parking lot. I made frequent use of the aires for diaper changes, to rescue jettisoned sippy cups, and to make bottles. It was worth every (euro)cent. I stopped at one remarkable aire that had a gorgeous Gallo-Roman ruin on it.
One annoying thing that happened was along the way, I entered a toll booth that said “CB,” or Carte Bleue with a credit card symbol. Carte Bleue is like Visa or Mastercard. However, where I entered did not accept Visa or Mastercard for the 20.35 toll. I called the tollbooth personnel, but I could not speak with them because some people with jackhammers were in the next lane. I gave the toll person, who eventually arrived, 20.50, to which she replied, you do not have 20.35. I told her I didn’t care about the 15 cents and drove off.
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