Made the drive from Troyes to Paris yesterday -- had originally planned on stopping by a garage sale in a nearby village to browse, then reread the posting and realized it was referencing mainly baby clothes/items so decided to pass.
Many of you know that I enjoy poking around garage sales back in the States -- I've looked to do that here but have only had the chance twice -- not sure why. My guess is that in smaller villages (like in the US), people in France/UK have an annual village-wide "sale" where people can get rid of things they don't want -- have seen signs for these events on my journey but unfortunately was there on the "wrong" weekends.
Skipping the garage sale meant I had extra time so decided to take a detour to Chartres and visit the Cathedral there -- a couple of people had been and said it was beautiful. Driving into Chartres, the Cathedral suddenly loomed up on the top of a hill overlooking the town, silhouetted against a deep blue sky and puffy white clouds -- very impressive. Of course, like so many times on this trip, I was in the middle of traffic doing 80mph with no where to turn-out and take a photo.
Parked and found my way to the Cathedral -- the architecture was fascinating -- you could see varying styles where it had been built/rebuilt at different times. Inside, it was much simpler than many of the other Cathedrals I've visited, but still had the incredible stain-glass windows that are the hallmark of these buildings -- makes you apreciate the talent, artistic vision and money it took to create them -- and it's even more amazing that so much of the original glass is intact!
After spending some time wandering around the Cathedral, I headed back to the car taking a detour through a nearby street market -- mostly clothes and jewelry -- was hungry and hoping to find some street food vendors but no such luck. Casual dining here is very different from the US -- in the States, if you're hungry, you can drive through almost any small town and find somewhere to grab a quick bite to eat -- here it's a more involved process. While larger towns often will have a MacDonalds-like fast food place, in smaller towns and villages, most of the cafes offering sandwiches or lighter meal options lack on-site parking which means you have to drive around and find a public parking lot (forget trying to park on the street) and then find your way back to the cafe which is really more focused on on-site dining than take-away. In the US, casual dining is focused on speed and efficiency, getting something and going -- in Europe, it's more on not being in a hurry and taking your time -- I've tried, but have to admit, I've struggled to adjust to that aspect of European life.
A few hours later, at two o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, I found myself in downtown Paris with traffic at a stand-still -- congestion here at just about any time of day is world-class! Made it to the hotel -- eventually -- my GPS couldn't find the hotel, the street it was on or even the city it was in -- figured it was the GPS"s last "best shot" at breaking me -- was I ever wrong!
After stopping a few times to ask for directions (yes, men will stop and ask for directions if they have to!), I finally found the hotel -- it was in a "hotel village" of other hotels near Charles Degaulle airport. Most of the hotels had 8'x10' neon signs (couldn't miss them) -- of course, the upscale place I chose to stay at had 8.5"x12" metal signs with fancy script lettering -- aargh!!! Very classy place, you'd think they could afford real signs like everone else! I'm guessing, it being an airport hotel, on an airport shuttle route, most of their guests aren't driving, so signage isn't a high priority.
After checking-in (the employees at the hotel were exceptional and seeing my stress level, made checking-in as painless as possible), my next mission was to return the car -- thought it'd be a "piece of cake" -- after all, when I picked-up the car from Peugeot, the agent had input the return coordinates into the GPS -- all I had to do was push a button to retrieve the coordinates and follow directions -- a no-brainer! Only problem was, the GPS had deviously deleted everything earlier than entries from last week from its memory.
So now I'm driving blind in traffic at CDG airport trying to locate a return location that my GPS said didn't exist -- have to admit the thought crossed my mind that "artificial intelligence's" evil plan to take over the world and destroy humanity had started. Eventually got someone from the car company on the phone who spoke English and she was able to "walk me in" to the drop-off location an hour and a half after I had begun my quest -- turns out the rogue GPS had taken me miles away from the airport -- frustrating in that my original destination was only about three hundred yards from the hotel I was staying in -- could've walked there. At least the GPS is out of my life and my blood pressure can go back below 250!! The whole experience has made me more than a little paranoid when I hear about self-driving cars being just around the corner -- not my corner!
Exhausted, a bottle of red wine was dinner last night! Just felt appropriate.
