Chattanooga Choo Choo

LT 5 July 8pm, Cambremer
Over a delicious breakfast at the B&B we learned that the ‘double’ bell ringing we had heard in St-G were not the result of two churches with a time difference in their watches, actually it was a single church, and it chimed on the hour and at two minutes past the hour on purpose! Evidently French people are notoriously late, and the double chime means you can be out in the garden when you hear the first bell, but still get inside and cleaned up in time for your visitors before the second chime, and not be considered late! Or maybe that's just the story they tell tourists! 
Peter had agreed with the Peugeot representative the day before that they would call at 9am to discuss what was going to happen that day. Not surprisingly they didn’t call, and we did a bit of research on our travel options in the meantime. We were really keen to get to Normandy – and were now down to a maximum of 2 days/3 nights out of our original 5 days/6 nights. Our tentative plan, depending on what information they had, was to return the batmobile to the Europcar agency at the TGV station, and get on the high speed train to Paris. From there we hoped we could get a rental car from Paris, drive up to Normandy, then return the car to Paris on Saturday when we drove down as planned. We’d had no indication of the timeframe of repairing the Peugeot, so the plans had to be a bit loose. The trip to Lyon was fun for the kids but we were really keen to get up to Normandy to visit the D-Day sites and memorials etc, plus we had accommodation there booked and paid for. Later in the morning Peter called Peugeot and told them what we were thinking – since they had no word on the car yet we agreed to check out the train etc and then call them back later. 
The Peugeot lease contract, which looked so good on paper, has turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. As part of the contract, we are required to collect the car once it is fixed, whatever our original holiday plans happen to be. On top of that, their incident ‘assistance’ is limited to providing a rental car OR accommodation OR return transport to collect the repaired car, and even that is limited to a fairly nominal amount. They have provided us a car so far, but we’ve had to pay for the accommodation for waiting around, and, more than 4 days after being delivered to the garage as they advised, they have not even diagnosed it, let alone repaired it. 
With a bit of time to spare we went for a walk up the hill near St-Gengoux to look over the village. It was quite steep and pretty hot work for a while, but the views were pretty amazing. You could see right over the village to the hills and vineyards on the other side. There was a statue of a Madonna (no not the singer!) up there, but that was beside the point really. I guess she must have been into badminton as the little signpost up the hill had “Madone” and a little graphic of a circle with beams radiating out of it on one side that looked for all the world like a little shuttlecock. Ah you learn something every day. 
We then headed over to Le Creusot, location of the rental car agency and TGV station. We first checked out about times and prices on the train, then checked about returning the car. Peter had to race out to fill it up, and Caelan did a quick scramble around in the back with the wet wipes cleaning up the ridiculous amount of crumbs and mess that three children can generate in the space of a few short days. 
By this time we only had about half an hour before the train would come. Peter called Peugeot again and talked to someone who left him with the understanding that she would get onto arranging a rental car for us in Paris in time for our arrival – a mere 1h15 after leaving Le Creusot, probably around 350km to Paris. Unbeknownst to us she then finished her shift and went home without doing anything, but that was something we’d find out later! 
By this time the train tickets in cattle class had sold out, and we faced the option of going 1st class or waiting an extra 2 hours for the next train. A trip on the TGV had been on our wishlist from the beginning, but we hadn’t figured out a way to fit it in, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity, and we decided to go 1st class! Ooooh, aaaah. The middle-aged businessmen already on board did not seem as excited about that decision as we were, but we all put on our best manners and behaviour. It was actually a really amazing trip. Not only were the seats really huge and comfortable, with lots of space and tables etc, the whole TGV thing was just amazing. Apparently they regularly reach a top speed of over 300km/h – when you meet a train coming the other way there is a big whoosh, and a blur out the window for no more than a second, then it’s gone. The ride was very smooth and quiet, and we zoomed past cars on the motorway next to us. All in all a superb experience. The approach to the Gare de Lyon is probably not the most scenic part of Paris, but it was exciting all the same to be looking out the window at PARIS! 
Over the next few hours our transport problem (i.e NO CAR) became apparent, and after several lengthy, very frustrating, head-vs-brickwall conversations, someone at Peugeot authorised the provision of a rental car for us for 48 hours, and then someone else set about finding us one. We sat a few stressful hours in the middle of the Gare de Lyon with our mountain of luggage but finally a taxi came to take us to our new vehicle. This time they really were having a laugh. For all its faults and style issues, the Kangoo was at least big enough. The taxi driver was the first to alert Peugeot to the fact that we were five people and 12 bags, and maybe the little hatchback they’d arranged wouldn’t be big enough. Quote of the day from Peugeot to Peter: “the car will be big enough for 5 persons and some of your bags”. Hysterical. Even already I can chuckle and I can see that in months to come it actually will become funny, but standing out on the street with all these bags, cursing the laws of physics that said absolutely that these bags would not fit in that car, it was not funny in the slightest. In the end we left our combined junk suitcase, the largest, behind in the Avis office, packed 2 small suitcases around/on the kids in the backseat and a big backpack on my lap in the front, and headed for Normandy at about 8pm. We stopped for dinner on the way – the day had been a bit disastrous food-wise: big breakfast at the B&B at 8, chips and cake (leftover snacks) in the car at 12, an apple donut on arrival at the Gare de Lyon at 4, and dinner about 10pm. We were very pleased to arrive at our cottage in Cambremer just before midnight.