The retired traveller: We're in France

The getting here is a long day. A hiccup in the process made it even longer and more tiring. The drive in the rental car from Madison to Chicago was smooth sailing - a look at the pile of bags and scooter parts should have been a warning. The hiccup came when we arrived at O'Hare and set up the scooter - no power, no power, no power! Yikes! Dave free-wheeled the scooter to a place I could wait along with the overloaded baggage cart for which I gladly paid $7. After returning the rental car, we fiddled with the scooter and had to give up.

Service at O'Hare for handicapped people is/was fabulous. Special check in desk, where they calmly changed the planned gate check of our scooter to luggage. After paying $75 per checked bag, (Ouch! Don't buy economy seats again.), a wheel chair was called for (and needed - over a half mile walk to our gate) which came quickly and proceeded through all security checkpoints by going to the head of the line. (Sorry, young folks.)

The next surprise came boarding the plane - the seats have become even smaller/narrower than the last trip. Dave and I sat aisle and middle of the 3-seat middle of the 9-across seating. We were literally shoulder on top of shoulder and the arm rest was digging into my thigh. And the tray table? Forget about it.

But, smooth flight, edible dinner, early arrival, and with wheel chair assistance, a quick trip through passport control (go to the head of the line), customs (what customs? No one was minding the store.) And finally to baggage pickup after which point we were on our own to walk all our stuff (Dave pushing the scooter and Lynn pushing the overloaded luggage cart. We walked forever, or so it seemed) to get to where we could catch the shuttle train that goes from one terminal to another and to the hotel. Slow going because of me and my lack of health, but we made it by 11:00 am and had a couple hours to wait anyway.

When Janis and Clark arrived, Dave went to pick up our leased car and parked just outside of the hotel so we could load the car with 4 adults, a broken scooter, 4 big suitcases, 4 backpacks, and a couple other bags and purses. It all fit with one suitcase riding center back seat. New car, a Peugeot 5008 was/is really good to drive. The built in GPS is great, but we can't figure out how to turn off the radio and turn up the volume of the woman giving directions on the GPS. A stop for gas (French rental cars typically only have a small amount of gas in them, they are not full when you get them.) Gas (diesel in our case) is 1.18 Euros per liter. That comes out to $7.80 per gallon. Not a surprise, gas is always expensive in Europe. So we can't complain too much for paying $3.15 per gallon at home. (I know it's expensive and hits poor people most, but American gas is not expensive compared to the rest of the world. A bit of perspective learned from living abroad.)

Then a quick stop at a rest stop with cafe for a croissant sandwich (a REAL croissant) and on the road again.

We arrived at 5:45 local time and were enthusiastically greeted by the owners, Cobie and Allen, who gave us a detailed tour of the house. It's fabulous. Rural, relaxing, small hamlet where La Maison du Capitaine sits quietly on the road side, old and sturdy. The inside is equally old (but updated), full of beamed ceilings and carved doors, stone fireplaces and old stone floors, huge armoires, sideboards, and chests of drawers.

We quickly picked out our rooms, emptied the car, and then went into Commarin to find our dinner.

The GPS surprised us by sending us on a 4.5 km route through beautiful countryside of rolling hills, fields separated by hedge rows, and pastures of Charolais cows (French beef cattle with white/light tan hides). Commarin isn't much more than one street wide so the recommended restaurant, Le Ban Bourguignon, was easy to find.