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| The ferris wheel across the water in Deauville, France. Many sailboats here. |
It’s been a crazy, wet and cold week arriving in Deauville, France. Leaving the balmy 80 degree weather in Benalamadena, Spain, cruising through the airport without any issues and arriving in Paris into a rainy, cold 60 degrees, the beginning of a rough day. The fight was 1/2 hour early. In the US, if we were that early, we probably would be on the tarmac waiting for an open gate.
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| The red and green markers for exiting/entering the channel. I was rough weather this day. Didn’t see any boats leaving. |
Not here! The French just pull up a set of stairs and march you right in! That was awesome! We picked up our luggage with out incident, all 4 bags came off at the same time. That never happens! We had to walk across the street in the rain. The good news is we had a “free” cart for the luggage.
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| Beautiful sailboats lined up. There will be a race this month that we may get to see. |
I was shocked we didn’t have to pay for it. At the grocery stores you have to pay .50 cent euros to just use a buggy to buy your groceries. They actually lock them! And to use a public toilet, its .30 cent euros.
There was one toilet we didn’t have to pay for. You’ll see the picture below. No place to sit. You have to squat. I laughed so hard, I just had to go get the camera. This was definitely a photo op!
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| A huge casino across the water. You have to take a water taxi to it. I’m sure we’ll investigate this monstrosity soon. |
The public toilet at the train station I could either squat or use a pull down metal ring. Supposedly clean since each time you close the door, it goes through a washing motion.
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| Homes, apartments and hotels line the waterways and stacked up the mountain. |
I decided to test my leg strength again. With the luggage in tow, we made it across the way to the Avis counter, through the rain. So glad I wore a long sleeve shirt and my jacket.
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| They were catching small crabs. |
We reserved the smallest car. From all the pictures online, I was sure it would fit our luggage and get us on our way. Many times when you rent the smallest car, they move you to the next size up because they don’t carry many of the small ones and they rent out quickly. Not this time.
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| One of the beaches we’ll venture to once its warmer. Hard to believe there were people in the water and surfing. |
They had the car we reserved. It was Renault
Twingo
. It looked like a clown car at the circus. Even the girl at Avis (at the return location) laughed when we told her what it was.
Back at the pick up location: Chuck felt the car was too small and he had already been in line for about 1/2 hour so he decided to upgrade. Mistake!
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| The clown car! aka TWINGO! |
The price of the car to include drop off fee was $200
USD
. The rental agent didn’t have a clue what she was doing and after upgrading and getting ready to sign the contract, it was $700.
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| Luggage packed in behind us. |
Seriously? I thought Chuck was going to have a cow. We had to call over someone that 1) knew some English enough to assist 2) had worked at Avis more than one or two days.
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| It was soooo small but it all fit! Did I mention it was a 5 speed? 🙂 |
After 1 1/2 hours, we ended up back in the
Twingo
and the cost of the car was now $170. We were exhausted by the time we got to the car. When we saw it, we thought oh no! This is not going to fit. Luckily we had 4 doors and with the back seats pushed down we were able to fit all the luggage in. Its a miracle or as the french say…VOILA!
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| Many tunnels (well built) leaving Paris. |
We got on our way and made it to Deauville
with our trusty GPS and only turned down one street the wrong way.
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| The infamous squatty potty! |
Luckily it was a small side street and we didn’t get run over. Our trip was about 2 1/2 hours from Paris.
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| Another beautiful view while driving. |
It was a pretty easy trip other than being hungry and wet. We survived!
We have found the language barrier to be more difficult here. Our understanding of French is much more difficult to figure out than Spanish. Even with google translate we are seeing more difficulty. I am sure with time we will do OK. We are picking up a few words of importance, Bonjour, Au revoir and Merci – hello, goodbye and thank you.
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| The houses are unique and this church as pretty. The wind was so bad, we mostly took photos while driving. |
The area is pretty, although it’s been cold and wet and we’ve only gone out a few days in the car. We walked around another day when the skies were clear and wind had settled down. The sunset was pretty after the weather cleared.
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| Found this beauty. I tried to find a name of the church but couldn’t. It had a for sale sign so may not be in use. |
The weather is expected to improve next week. We have many plans to visit the D-Day beaches and historical sites. We are excited about those visits.
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| Beautiful sunset behind the apartments. |
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 
Mmmm, not a fan of that toilet😂
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Mmmm, not a fan of that toilet😂
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