Day 2: Australian Judge saves the day in Amiens

Catherine says:

Bonjour mes amies.  G'day folks.

Apropos to the previous post, our car troubles increase when the following morning (Friday) our hotel desk manager advises that as hard as they may have tried the only way to swap our hybrid car is to return it to the hire car company at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Yes, brilliant idea.  But how do we do that if we can't turn the damned car on!

As we were scheduled to participate in a battlefields tour from 9am to 6.30pm on Friday, the hotel desk manager (or perhaps I should say managers as our car problems seem to have resulted in the hotel creating a Project Management team to resolve our issue!) advised that we should take the tour anyway and they would try to sort out the issue of swapping the car over in Amiens as it was quite impossible for us to return the car to Paris if we couldn't turn on the wretched thing.

So we trotted off for a 20 minute walk to the Amiens train station where we were met by Barbara Legrand of True Blue Digger Tours (corny, I know, but said with a French accent one can get away with it).  Also participating in the tour were two Australian Judges by the name of Bob and Deborah who were the most delightful tour companions.

What The Mater and I were not aware of when we met our tour companions is that they are both hybrid car aficionados.  Yes, people, Bob and Deborah drive hybrid cars at home!

After an hour or so when the topic of transport arose whilst comparing travelling notes, we mentioned our little dilemma and Bob's and Deborah's faces lit up!  "Oh they're the easiest cars to drive" said Bob who promptly offered to give me a lesson in starting up our pesky little vehicle.

At this point we were having a tour of the Amiens Cathedral (the largest and most spectacular in France) which just happened to be a hop skip and a jump (not a 1500m Olympic walk) away from our hotel and the car park where the hybrid was lying low.  So Bob suggested we go then and there to sort out our vehicular issues and within no time I had mastered the art of turning on the car and actually driving it.

What a fortuitous encounter!  Thank you Angel Bob!

All the while the tour guide, losing valuable tour time, and Mum and Deborah had returned to the tour van whilst awaiting Bob's and my return.  However, we didn't know where the van was parked and so Bob and I simply returned to the street corner where we had last left the trio.  We waited and waited and waited.  And no sign of Margot, Deborah or Barbara.  Bob then thought that perhaps they had all returned to his hotel as he was cold and thought Deborah may have gone back for a jumper him.  So after a short debate we started walking towards his hotel.  But then he made the comment about being lost in the desert and that perhaps we should just stay put.  I then did a little reconnaissance of the square in front of the cathedral but still no sign of them.

With my overactive imagination and the sudden sound of an ambulance siren I quickly came to the conclusion that it was Mum's turn to have a cardiac infarction!  I imagined that I had pushed her too far in the walking stakes and that our holiday was now well and truly over.

However, next I see Deborah walking down the street towards Bob and we were all reunited again!  The day was saved!

The Mater/Mum/Margot will write about our battlefields tour in the next post.