Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Airport Adventures - Saturday

We changed our tickets to fly Saturday to take advantage of the metro/train system in Paris instead of having to take a taxi. The bus doesn't run to our village on Sunday. Later we thought about this and a taxi instead of the bus from the train might have cost us €10, but hindsight is 20/40 (we both use prescription eyewear so we can't quite hit 20/20). Vueling Airlines (German, I believe, pronounced whirling) complicated our plans.

I spent a lot of time trying to phone the cottage owner, who was going to pick us up at the train station, as the flight delays grew longer. It turns out that on inbound international calls to France, you drop the first 0 of the 10 digit number. After half an hour and multiple calling cards, I read this in the guide book. Oh, the things you learn the hard way that you hope you can use again in life to amortize the sweat and suffering required to learn the lesson.

Our flight was three hours late, so our public transportation options dwindled as 11 pm approached. We looked at several rental car places. Then some helpful ladies at information at gate A found us a quote for a taxi, €120, which was better than we had expected (and with shuttles and trains the public transportation system could have cost us €60. The cabby was very friendly and played US oldies tunes. He had never been to our village, Vetheuil. Anne, the cottage owner met us at the house after midnight and walked us through it.

-D

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