From Avalon to Avallon

We had a very slow start, mainly due to bad weather. There have been
frequent showers of rain and strong winds. Not ideal for painting.

Saturday last week looked to be the perfect day for painting. Warm,
sunny and not much wind. We set out from Les Chouettes quite early.
However, a few Kms down the road, the car stopped. There was a warning
light showing a man with a spanner in hand and the car manual said to
take it to a dealer.

So, now we had a chance to see if Europcar (our normal choice in
France) could get us going quickly. Penny went for a walk to discover
where we were. David looked for obvious problems in the engine but
found nothing. So, we rang the National Assistance number. They said
that a mechanic would be with us in less than an hour. This happened.
r However the mechanic was unable to make the car run; fortunately, he
had brought a tow truck! So, he winched the car onto the truck and we
climbed in with him. The first confusion occurred because Europcar had
not told him it was a rental car. It was a bit of a worry for other
motorists as he sped down the narrow country roads while talking on
his mobile phone and also looking at our rental contract. Naturally,
being French, he was also waving his hands around while talking! At
one stage, he stopped across an entering street to get the odometer
reading from our car.

We reached an Opel dealership, well outside the large town of Auxerre.
The helpful mechanic told us that a taxi would pick us up and take us
to a replacement car. It had taken 2 hours by this time and we were
hopeful of being at the boat by noon. Such was not to be. After 45mins
there was no taxi. So, we again rang the assistance line and they gave
us the number of the Auxerre Europcar office. The guy there was not
helpful. "We have no cars and cannot get one" "Sorry"! He was
unwilling to do anything to help. It seems that this is why there was
no taxi. No point if no car, but no-one told us.

So, we again rang Assistance. They organised a car but it was 50Km
away- in Avallon- déjà vu because we live in Avalon (Sydney).
Unfortunately, lunchtime is 1200 to 1400 and it was 1145. We had been
standing with no-where to sit outside the Opel garage in the deserted
industrial area. The Assistance people said a taxi would be there
soon. 25 minutes later and no taxi; so again we rang Assistance. "5
more minutes"- and it was. A friendly taxi driver took us to Avallon
for about A$130 (on Europocar's account) and we had another 90 minute
wait in another deserted industrial area. Fortunately, we had a
package of beautiful biscuits from Chantal, so we ate them for lunch.
Also, it did not rain.

The Europcar lady appeared and gave us a replacement car. Quite a few
damage marks and no radio aerial, but she assured us the damage was on
the computer despite it not being on the replacement contract. Anyway,
we now had "wheels" again and finally arrived at the boat around six
hours later than planned and certainly too late to get any painting
done.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny