Day 5 McDonald’s saves our life again!

Day 5 Sun. Oct. 19, 2008

Luck is with us again, in many more ways than one.

For instance, we woke this morning, having spent a night in a bed (not under a bridge) and went out to find that L’Esprit Gris started! This is the car that only coughed and sputtered down an entire mountain and then stopped cold last night at the end of transporting us safely to our “destination”.

She did sputter from time to time this morning and when she “ran”, she sounded like a MAC truck, nothing like the smooth sounding, easy stroking, beauty of former days.

It was Sunday. Sundays are bad days to have to get things set up for a stay (like buy groceries or GET A CAR FIXED.) So we went back to GAP. Gap is “big” city compared to most in the area and we hoped it had some places that didn’t “follow the rules” i.e. were not closed on Sunday. It seemed like a good decision despite being some 65 km away as all stores and gas stations in Jausiers and ALL other cities along the way were … closed. In fact, it looked like there had been an atom bomb scare and everyone had moved out. Closed, and no people… anywhere, or so it seemed.

So, Gap it was. But when we limped into town, we found no supermarkets, even small grocery stores that were open there either.

In desperation, we had seen a MacDo on our first ride through the day before, so Halette guided us there, with Ghosty coughing and sputtering - sighing to a stop in the MacDonald’s parking lot.

We went in to eat. Having had no breakfast, we were “starved” – if you can say that for a couple of tubbies. I had my usual European choice ( I never choose this in the US), of a Big Mac meal. Ted had a Royal. We forgot and bought “extra” thinking we would share the fries and the coke. Just to let you know, the pop/soda/cola (whatever your name is for the fizzy stuff ) is NOT available to you as a patron. There ain’t no free refills. When you have guzzled your first one down, you buy another coke (or Coke Zero, Coca Light, or change to a beer, or wine if you are so inclined… that’s right beer and wine at McDonalds, they aim to please all.)

We filled our tummies and now we were ready to break into a grocery store for provisions if necessary. (jk)

We got in the car. Ted took the wheel. Turned on the car. The starter whirled and whirled….. the starter whirled and whirled… the starter – Oh you get the idea. The Grey Ghost was dead. Not just coughing, not just on her last leg or pneu but fini. “Je suis finie” she said. (BTW, all cars according to the French language are girls, no matter what you name them. Interestingly, all boats are boys, even though Americans refer to them as SHE… Hmmm.. Languages are strange. Some of them are dead … like our car.)


There would be no breaking into an “alimentation” (grocery) as we had no get-away vehicle.
We had no cell phone either. We were 4 ½ hours from Marie-Hélène, and Gerhard – who was home by now from his convention, but they would currently have Australian house guests (they always have a full house – Do you want their address?) We also had no phone card, and were over 65 km from our “lucky to have” residence in Jausiers.






Did I say it was Sunday? No garages open, no mechanics, no offices to blubber to. I know this to be true as we did a “little” walk around town to find this out. After a very calm discussion with Ted on the bleakness of our situation (I had learned my lesson on poor Mike), I told Ted I had a plan. I put on my best Shrek 3 Cat face and re-entered McDonalds. I knew that I could count on McDonalds as they had saved the lives of both of our children, Ange and Mike, after they kissed a cow in Switzerland(BTAS ((But that’s another story))). I just knew that McDonalds would come through for us again.

I went in rating each candidate. I approached my unknowing victim, a cute young girl McDo ette.( I’m sorry if I over use “ette” as a feminine diminutive- it is so universal sounding) and asked where I could find a cabine téléphonique. She announced that (at least in Gap), the phone company, in its infinite wisdom, had done way with all or mostly all telephone booths since the cell phone industry take over.

I gave her the best Kitty eyes I could muster & told her about the wrong gas, the mountain, and our car sitting potentially permanently in their parking lot. I’m not sure which part was the most convincing, but she grabbed the manager. He was a great guy. He took out his cell phone and kept at it until he had the Citroen 24/7 people on the line, had explained my long convoluted story to them (why he didn’t give the phone to me is a mystery – a French home is a man’s castle, maybe a French man’s cell phone is his “scepter” not to be shared or handed to others?) He didn’t leave me until he had “rescue” on the way to resuscitate the dead ghost –(oxymoron.)



Perhaps the manager had an ulterior motive, maybe he didn’t want to permanently abandon a perfectly good spot in his parking lot…

Jacques arrived from Citroen central, siphoned out the old gas, gave me a lift to the gas station to buy 20 liters of the right stuff, and bled the system. Remember, this was a Sunday, when these people hide. He announced his bill as 94 Euros and 50 centimes. We gave him a tip of 20 Euros, dug up 100 more, and distributed another 10 to Mr. MacDo manager. Jacques was amazed by the tip but said he didn’t have change for the hundred. We said he could keep that too, and to take his two little ones out for ice cream as a treat from an absentee father. He was totally delighted, as was Mr. Manager.

We then went back to the one and only filling station that had a human on duty to swipe our antiquated American Visa card. We filled up again (that was 52 Euros of gas that we threw away) for another 58 Euros all toll. Esprit Gris was like a new fille, she blew out a little black smoke at first and then acted like she had died and gone to heaven (and I guess she had). She ran like new. (BTW, we had put REGULAR GAS in instead of diesel. Small surprise she didn’t run. Worse yet, according to Jacques, we were lucky she didn’t blow up!)So, were we lucky or not? Okay, we were stupid, but from a larger standpoint, we considered ourselves lucky after our stupidity. And we actually saved a lot of money. What? you say, that is as stupid as your gas faux pas.

Okay a little accounting might straighten out the probable difference of opinion.
First and foremost, two, old, fat, (and dumb), previously injured Americans didn’t have to walk blocks and blocks looking for a phone card, to put in a non –existent telephone booth. We did walk a bit before approaching the manager at Mc Donalds. At that point, we thought we were lucky when we ran into the Gendarmerie only 100 meters from the MacDo. We thought the police dudes might help us, perhaps with the car, but at least with help in getting in touch with someone who could fix it. Those mecs/types (guys) live in that town after all, they must know someone.

Their advice? It was Sunday, no one they knew would help us on Sunday (including them). There was an (expensive) hotel across town. They said to spend the night there and the next day to find a service station that would tow our car. The cops were sure that we had ruined the engine putting in the wrong fuel and it was probably going to cost us an arm and a leg for a new engine, but we looked like we probably could afford it, so no great loss, they probably surmised.

The repairs would only take a few days, but, well, hey, we were only on vacation, so no great loss here either. (French people, by law, have a minimum of four weeks of vacation and many have seven or eight, so what’s a few days out of vacation time to anyone?) Can anyone guestimate how much the Policemen’s scenario would have put us back, in time and in money. Well, I figured it out (see bottom of this post for details if interested.)

We left the police crew, spiffying up their vehicles, and planning how we would siphon the gas out of the car ourselves on the morrow without poisoning ourselves ingesting the lethal liquid. This activity was probably going to go over like a lead balloon with those McDonald’s folks, but were prepared to fix it ourselves if need be. All we needed was a gas station that took our old-fashioned plastic, a hose and some large gas cans (and a rocket ship, and four horses, and why not ask for some béarnaise to put on our steak while we were at it?) But all that was moot. The car was fixed now, so Thank the Good Lord, we didn’t have to find a way to do any of the above.

As we were driving back to Jausiers from Gap (after our second meal at McDonalds – What else were we going to eat on a Sunday?), we discussed our luck.

1) We were lucky that Esprit did not die between Jausiers and Gap on the way there that morning. At the pace we go, we would still be walking in one direction or another to this very day.

2) We were dumb, but lucky enough to be at least smart enough to peruse all the literature that the rental people had given us, and found a 24/7 Citroen service that actually existed.

3) We lucked out that Ghosty succumb in McDo’s parking lot, where a manager was diligent enough to see us through to our exit.

4) I was lucky enough to happen on to a manager who was smart enough to try all three numbers listed and not just the general (800) number. It was like a rat’s maze. One of the other numbers listed, while it was closed on Sundays, gave him still another number to call to get a Sunday fix. (Don’t always believe the 24/7 thing in another country. I sure didn’t. Glad to be wrong.)

5) I was lucky enough to have chosen to spend nearly 40 years of my life learning French, and not Slovenian.
6- 1000) We felt lucky that we didn’t have to drink poison gas, walk forever finding equipment, or waste three days in a hotel losing precious time we had scheduled for more interesting endeavors. Okay, it was our 40th wedding anniversary trip, but we are too old to spend three days doing “that”, ya know what I mean, and I had silly plans of coming home with a live husband.





Did I mention it was Sunday? We still had nothing to eat back at the ranch (in Jausiers) and all the restaurants and supermarkets would be closed there.





1001) Lucky again. As we rounded the bend of a small town on our way “home”,there was a light on and a lady standing outside of an “OPEN” little supermarket. I couldn’t believe it. We stopped. I got some basic provisions. I paid and she shut the door on my heels. It was like she had waited for us to come, let us shop, and then put out the lights.





Let’s face it folks, it was another lucky day.
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**** Next part only for those who might be interested in the accounting feature of today’s blog.

Money sacrificed the Mc Donald’s way.

• Jacques – our Main Man from Citroen – 120 Euros

• MacDo manager 10 Euros

• Wasted Gas 52 Euros.

(Savings by eating two meals at McDonalds instead of a regular restaurant –
80 Euros (normal restaurant) minus 24 (Mac and Don’s) = + 56 – Hey that was the price of the tossed out gas!…. Not bad.)



Total: 172 Euros (or 146 if you consider the discounted meals) About

$228.76 (or even $194.00)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Gendarme’s Solution

• Sunday – Tuesday – Hotel Room 100 Euros per night ( okay it would be a dump) = 300 Euros + VAT = 400

• Euros + meals in restaurants as we would be neither close to McDonalds nor at our place with a kitchen.

• Monday: Service Station hauls car to Station – 75 to 100 Euros.

• Get mechanic to “vider” crappy gas out. 75 – 100 Euros 550 + 52 + 35 = 637 + meals

• New Gas 52 Euros or more since they would probably charge to fill it up.

• New Gas filter 35 Euros installed.

• Whatever they “find else” that is wrong due to our misuse of the car – 500 – 1000 Euros (or more)

• Thursday – take the next plane home because our ‘nearly free vacation’ broke the bank and we couldn’t afford any more bad luck. $2000 dollars…each
.

Total: Minimum – 637 Euros (involves starving as well)
Maximum – 7000 Dollars (skip the Euro conversion)

Difference? Priceless (or at least incalculable)

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