Taxi to Paris

On Thursday morning the windows of the cars around us were icy. It's a good thing that we have the caravan with us and don't have to freeze.

After a short visit to the hallowed workshop halls, we take a walk to the local "market", which is filled with a fruit and vegetable shop, a slipper and apron shop and a chestnut stand. There is a high probability that we will spend this sunny weekend here in town, so we stock up generously on food. At the extremely and almost indescribably nice and cheerful Madame Boulangerie, we get bread and Criossants, eggs, garbage bags and toothpaste and return optimistically to the workshop.

We now place the camping chairs in the warming morning sun and wait for things to happen. They don't take long to arrive. Mademoiselle Garage soon informs us that the colleagues here are unable to find the fault in the robbers' den because they don't have the right equipment. We have to go to another workshop.

The dejavu bubble I'm trying to navigate in bursts with a loud bang when Mademoiselle reports that she's already called Tence and we don't have to pay our respects there until next Thursday. Bon merde!

We're both amazed and the right words and ideas are missing. Next Thursday? We have to be back home by next Sunday at the latest! We have to go back to work too! What in Spain at least caused looks of pity and understanding, only provoked a very French shrug of the shoulders from Mademoiselle.

I decide to get advice from the ADAC. The young man on the line has a lot of ums and ems, but also good vibrations. Unlike his colleague yesterday, he gives me a lot of encouragement and hope by promising that we are entitled to a repair within three working days, that he will take care of it and get back to you soon.

And the positive news actually comes before the lunch break: we are taken to Tence and a specialist will take care of the problem this afternoon - hurraaa! The only thing they forgot about was the caravan, but that was quickly sorted out too: the little castle was allowed to come along. Out of sheer joy, I postpone exploring the botanical gardens and we do Midi.

Then Monsieur Depannage quickly gives us a piggyback ride and we can quickly take our places in the folding chair in front of the garage in Tence and watch what's going on.
Three very young men, between 19 and 23 years old, are trying to cope with the hectic hustle and bustle around the workshop. Every now and then they take a look under the hood of our den of thieves.

First we find out where we ended up. Tence is a small town in the Velay in the southeast of the Massif central, a landscape characterized by volcanic cones, whose most famous place is probably Le Puy on the Way of St. James. Less than a hundred meters from us there is a Carrefour, a Netto and an agricultural hardware store. There is a campsite and the Lignon du Velay river flows through the town. So we are well looked after.

As the end of the day approaches, Antoine also approaches. He is apparently the bravest of the three boys and is tasked with telling us the bad news. They can't find the fault, they took photos and sent them to the boss and they would tow our caravan to the campsite. Unfortunately, the season has already ended and that's why we remain at the gates of Renault.

In order to digest the message, we hike the two kilometers to the bathing area to wash off the perplexity of the day in the ice-cold water of the Lignon.

On Friday morning the windows of the cars around us were icy. It's a good thing that we have the caravan with us so we don't have to freeze.
We want to explore the local suppliers and although we don't actually need anything since we already stocked up for the weekend at the market yesterday, we stroll through all the supermarkets and marvel at what's on offer.

Back in the workshop we besiege Antoine. He gets a panicked look on his face, explains to us that today he is alone in the garage full of cars in need of repair, his reader doesn't connect to our Kangoo system and he doesn't know how to go back or forward anyway. He can't repair our car, he can't find the problem, he's overwhelmed. Bon merde!

What should we do now? The situation appears more than hopeless. I'm calling the ADAC. I now know my membership number by heart.
After the colleague himself spoke to Antoine, he informed me about the options: we drive home in the rental car, the Kangoo is transported by the yellow angels, but this takes at least five weeks, the caravan stays in Tence.

This needs to be digested first! Zappa takes me by the hand and pulls me into the little town, which is actually very pretty, but we don't have much of a view of it at the moment. We hang our heads and try to think of a solution to the dilemma. No matter how we twist and turn the story, this time unfortunately there is no happy ending in sight - https://vakantio.de/chateauprojekte/happy-end-0 - this time the journey is over here and now.

On the way back, Zappa decides that we have to talk to those responsible again.
We go to Madame Garage, who first gives us coffee that wakes the dead. Then she calls Antoine over, who further assures us that we have no chance of getting the car repaired here until next Thursday. I report to Madame about our current prospects and that the château will not be transported. She opens her eyes in horror and then calls Monsieur Chef, who confirms that it's no problem leaving the caravan with them, even if we can't say when we'll have a car to pick it up. Maybe not until November - although I think that's very optimistic and Madame exclaims in shock: "Jesus, there's already meters of snow here!"

I inform the ADAC that we will drive home in a rental car, but a small car is not enough as we have to take our personal belongings with us from the caravan and the van.

Now we first have to research such a car. This is available either in Le Puy, in St.-Ètienne, in Valence or - because the weekend is just around the corner - in Lyon, about 120km away. Then we have to take a taxi and pick up the car. The yellow angels are providing us with 50 euros for this. Because we have not yet booked an overnight stay, this amount increases to 128 euros. Will we get to Lyon with it? Well, we don't want to take a taxi to Paris!

An hour later, as we shower in the ice-cold Lignon, I receive a text message that we can pick up the rental car from Hertz in St-Ètienne in a few minutes.
Great, in the previous conversation it was said that it won't happen before Monday because they're not open on the weekend! Half an hour for 50km over bumpy slopes, hairpin bends and narrow streets! How is that supposed to work, we don't even have a taxi?

Luckily I reach an employee at Hertz, we can pick up the car on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and a very nice Monsieur Taxi-Velay takes us there on time.

Everything is sorted, we can cook some pasta and gather our strength in the warm château, pretty exhausted from the day.