I still have 2 days of our French travels left to report on, but right now my computer is in the hotel checked baggage. So, this will have to be finished when we get home. Which will not be today as scheduled. Have you got a hint that all has not gone well?
It's now 12:30 French time and Dave and I are sitting in the lobby of the NH hotel at the Toulouse airport. You might be wondering how this can be since we should be in Amsterdam by now.
All started well yesterday, sad goodbyes to Lorna, David and our house of 2 months, followed by a bit of a walking tour in downtown Toulouse and lunch in a park next to the Garonne River. The troubles only started when we tried to leave France,
We left Toulouse center about 2 headed to our hotel, Odalys City, near the airport. Strangely, the driveway in front of the hotel was blocked by barrier cones, actually by a large white van that was stopped at the cones, unloading luggage. She explained that the hotel couldn't or wouldn't put down the cones. A bit disconcerting since, besides the scooter, we have 2 large suitcases and 4 carry-on items. While I checked in, Dave dragged 2 loads of suitcases down to the front desk, then up to our room (after paying 7 Euros 50 for room tax). Once I was in the hotel room, Dave took the leased car back to the airport. We had our last (we thought) aperos with our last bottle of wine, Dave checked us in for our flight, and we turned in early.
Oh I forgot. Second hint of problems: While Dave returned the car, I requested shuttle service to the airport. This involved a long conversation with the shuttle service punctuated by interruptions from another client at the desk who apparently had 100 questions that her clerk couldn't answer. The short answer was that the shuttle company couldn't take us because of the " chaise roulant" (my scooter). They didn't think they had the right certificates or something. So we needed to book a taxi, which I did reluctantly - shuttle = free; taxi = pay. After more waiting while the clerk spoke with the taxi company, and more interruptions from the other client, I said I'd check in later and went back to my room.
Next time downstairs, the clerk confirmed a cab would pick us up from the lobby at 8:30 in the morning. That was hard!
Early to bed and up early to get to the airport. Downstairs a few minutes early, I checked with the desk to confirm our taxi. A man next to me started to say something about the taxi being canceled and we'd have to take the shuttle. I began to protest and it became clear that this man was the one on the other end of the conversation yesterday - owner, manager, whatever, of the shuttle service. He had reconsidered and wanted to be sure we didn't have to pay for getting to the airport. I wonder when they were going to tell us of the change in plans?
He directed us to the end of the drive where we had unloaded yesterday and Dave again made two trips to get the bags in position. A black SUV backed down the driveway, Dave helped load the luggage and we were soon after deposited at the departures at the airport.
Even though our flight said it was open, the Air France employee told us to come back at 9:45. Of course, when we returned, there was a long line and a half hour wait to check in. From there things went downhill fast. For some reason, it took forever to process our boarding passes, requiring multiple trips to a supervisor. Finally given our boarding passes, they had our arrival at Charles de Gaulle in Paris. Dave questioned, another trip to the supervisor and this time she came back to explain that our flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis had been canceled at 6 am this morning and we'd have to rebook and fly tomorrow.
By now, I was totally deflated. Tired, no breakfast, aching, I was pretty crabby. It took another hour of waiting before the supervisor returned with boarding passes for tomorrow - flying at 6 am to Charles de Gaulle (which we were carefully avoiding because of the Olympics) and then to Atlanta (another hub we hate because things always go wrong there too).
And just to complicate things, our checked luggage needed to be found and returned to us. The supervisor escorted Dave to arrivals and apologized for the isssues and lack of solution they could provide. (Of course, she was Air France and the issues were with KLM/Delta.) sheesh.
And we had to find a hotel at our own expense. We could try to get a voucher from Delta for the cost, but Air France couldn't help. (and there's no Delta desk at this airport). Dave tried to use the app on his iPad, but the chat " person" had his hands tied and couldn't help us. Of course the NH hotel that is in the airport didn't have any standard rooms available, so we had to get the 300 Euro room ($330). Oh, and it would be a couple hours before one was available.
We ate lunch at a deli in the airport, then went back to the lounge of the hotel to wait till a room was ready. Which is where we are now. Dave's still trying to talk to KLM and I'm writing a sad ending to an otherwise fantastic stay in France.
Now I'm glad that I still have exploration blogs to post as it would be sad to end this trip (and its blog) on such a sour note.
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