Neither of us slept very well. Too much excitement I guess.
Up again at 6.50am to set off early with the van back to Perpignan. We had to
get it back by 8am. Unfortunately we got a little confused on the outskirts of
town (mostly due to trying to find a gas station to fill up the fuel tank) and
only found our way there by 8:30pm. No problem at all for the hire firm. Feeling severely stressed/tired so stepped
next door again for a much needed coffee and 10min chillout.
Ten minute walk back to the bus station and while there returned
to the Europcar hire counter to argue over $ they had direct debited from our
bank account. They had charged us an extra day. The guy in Paris said we could
have it for 3 days, with the 3 hours left from our pickup time to close of
business in Perpignan on the last day not a problem. However, the receptionist
in the Perpignan office didn’t agree. Still no luck so feeling a bit bummed
about that.
Out onto the street to catch a bus to the scooter place and
fluked a bus straight away. The closest drop-off point was at the Auchan store
so we browsed through there, before walking to the scooter place which didn’t
open until 10am. No joy, the scooter hadn’t been serviced yet. Could we come
back at 3pm? Ugh – we are pretty sick of being out in this huge
commercial/industrial park place on the southern outskirts of Perpignan where
it is so hard to walk between each of the huge stores (no footpaths and huge
roundabouts to cross over) and they are all a good distance apart. Nothing to
be done for it so we backtracked to Decathlon further down the road and spent a
very slow two hours looking through all their sporting goods. We picked up some
wet weather gear for the scooter, some swim goggles and cap, some tennis balls,
exercise mats and a few other odds and sods.
Walked back again. The bakery place close to the scooter
place was closed from 1pm – 4pm so no show of lunch. Had a few emergency bars
with us but that was it. Organised our helmets and a good bike lock (thrown
into the purchase price of the scooter) and then tried to pay the balance. Our
card was refused by the bank. Darn! 3pm on Friday. Tried to ring our bank friend
but he was out of the office. Ended up paying on our other cards but still
don’t know why it was turned down because our balance is clearly fine. A
further wait for the bike and eventually away in a puff and wheeze at 4:00pm.
The scooter was not idling very well but there was no time to get it fully
serviced and we have to take it back anyway to get a rear light changed that
hadn’t been done. Will get the timing looked at then.
Found our way to Conforama to have a look at a stereo unit J
is considering for our music, but the shop assistant who looks after the stereo
gear was not there and no other assistant could let us plug in the unit to see
what its sound was like! There is a clear division of jobs here in France. If
you work in TVs, then you don’t help in the next aisle which is stereos, same
as in the hardware stores where hardware won’t help with electrical. A
different way of doing things. Will have to come back another time.
So, at 5pm, we headed off for Céret. Only trouble was we
were leaving from a slightly different part of town and proceeded to get
immensely lost while looking for a gas station, as we were running very low on
gas. Went through about three small villages (all new to us), saw a signpost
for an Intermarché (which is a supermarket mostly also selling fuel), couldn’t
find it so asked some locals and, much to our relief tanked up plus bought some
bread and cheese for dinner. Running seriously low on ergs ourselves by this
time but managed to get back on course to Céret, parked the bike immediately
outside our apartment, locked it to the scaffolding outside (very handy) and
sagged down on our bed at 6:30pm. Put together some bread and cheese for dinner
and now about to crawl into bed for some much needed rest. A hot (27-28°), long and frustrating day.
The last few days have been quite an adventure, but we are
very much looking forward to doing very little for a few days. Unfortunately,
as you can guess, J is champing at the bit to rip open the cartons and start
putting all the furniture together. I have to do some touch-up painting before
some of them can go in place, so I hope to get that done asap. We are
scootering out to see our friends Valerie and Lorcan for lunch on Sunday at
Laroque-des-Albères . They were our home exchange hosts in 2009, and house
scrutineers for us last year. They are great fun and we are looking forward to
having a relaxing time with them.
