I Have Arrived

Hi All,

I actually made here! The trip was awful and I am not even going to sugar coat it. We got up at 5:30am on Sunday to leave by 7:30am to get to LAX. It rained on the way (but that was nothing compared to the rest of our trip). Everything went great at the airport, no issues there. The flight was really great. I recommend Air Tahiti Nui anytime! You should have seen the food they gave us (chicken and rice with veggies, bread, chocolate mousse, cheese, crackers, coffee) and for breakfast (waffles with raspberries on top, fruit, yogurt etc). I think it was the best airline food I have ever had! I should have know that our bliss would not last. Once arriving in Paris, it was all over. We arrived at 9am at Charles De Gualle airport. We were suppose to catch the TGV at 11:50 to be in Marseille and pick up our rental car at 3:30pm and make it to the hotel by 4pm. That never happened. Instead, we were told that our train had been canceled due to the strike and we would not be able to take another train until 2:30pm. So we parked ourselves and all of our luggage (6 very large suitcases 30" and 3 carry-ons 20" my computer and my daughters backpack)in the train station for 5 and 1/2 hours. Mind you, it was freezing in there. They do not heat the train station. Once on the train (it was a little late) we had to make every stop imaginable because not enough trains were running. It took 4 and 1/2 hours to get to Marseilles. By the time we got in, the car rental place was closed. It was now 7pm at night. I went to the ticket both to find a train to La Ciotat and was told that we would have to wait until 9:40pm ( 2 hours and 40 minutes in the station) before we could leave and it would be on a bus, not a train because they weren't running any more that night, that dropped us off, God knows where, some place in La Ciotat. So we went to find a ATM machine (which was outside in a shady area, and I don't mean under a tree, in Marseilles)and got some money to find a taxi to take us to La Ciotat. Well, the cars here are very small so picture Ross or Jacob's car but maybe a foot longer and that is what we got. Do you remember how much luggage I told you we had? So we didn't fit too well and in the tax station there were 5 guys trying to literally tie our luggage on to a Ross/Jacob sized car. The taxi driver left the back hatch open and tied the door down over our luggage. We also had luggage in the passenger's side of the car from floor to ceiling and Michael, my daughter and I each had a piece of luggage on our laps in the back seat. We did finally made it to our hotel, but it was 10:30pm (we were suppose to be there at 4pm). We did not have internet or a phone in the room and the heat and television didn't work. We also didn't have any food.(We decided before getting a taxi that we should eat something in the Marseilles station so we did that. I can't believe my first meal in France was stupid McDonalds!! That was the only thing open, but at lease we got dinner)

The next day I went to the hotel office to get the password for the internet and new batteries for the remote so we had heat and TV. I wanted to also tell them that a rental car was going to come and pick us up at 9am. I went to the office at 8:30 and was told by some guy outside the office, that it was closed until 10:30am that day (office hours are suppose to be 8:00am to noon and then 2pm until 7pm). Mind you, in the time I have been there no person has ever been in the office before 10am! Anyway, the guy gave me the batteries so that I could have TV and heat, but said that the secretary was the only one who could give me the password so that I could get on line. (I also did not have a phone at this time). The guy told me he would watch for the car rental. Well time passed and no car showed up. It was now 11am and I went back to the office. The lady was not there even though she was suppose to be there at 10:30am. There was another guy there who said he never saw a car. I asked if I could use the office phone. Well guess what! The office phone didn't work. Apparently France Telecom went on strike as well and they decided to shut down lines in certain areas and my hotel was in the unlucky area. So still no phone. The nice man let me use his cell phone to call Marie. I let her know what happened with the car so she called the car rental place and then called me back on the nice man's phone. They argued for a while (that was hilarious) and then I talked to Maire and she said the car rental people were coming back to get us.  They showed up about 15 minutes later and the guy in the car (I will call him Benoit) started to argue with the nice man at the hotel whose phone I had borrowed. Apparently the car rental did show up at 9am like they were suppose to, but no one told them to go to my room since the office was closed when it should have been opened! So we leave with Benoit in our microscopic car and go to the rental agency. Since this agency is small and in La Ciotat and not Marseille, we now have to pay more for the car rental than we would have if our train was on time! Nice. At the car rental agency Michael's credit card wouldn't work because Chase thought that his card had been stolen. That was fixed pretty quickly and we were on a way. WOW, we got 1 thing accomplished!

When getting to the office I learned from Marie that she was at a meeting that morning and guess who was there with her?? The secretary of the hotel office. That is why she wasn't at the hotel office and instead of some one there to take her place they just closed the office and no one told me my car was there! Beautiful... That night we found out that we still didn't have any heat in the hotel.

On Wednesday, we tried to get phones ( that still hasn't worked out for us) and look at some apartments (I didn't like them). Then we went to the office and stayed until 9pm. Apparently my Microsoft Outlook Email doesn't like my computer being in France. I can't get my email. So while I was on the phone for 2 hours with Jason, Michael was busy trying to see what he was going to do to get the internet speed faster. At 9pm we left, my email still not doing exactly what it is suppose to do and Michael having some ideas of what he would like to try to improve the internet speed. When we got home, Michael broke the hotel coffee maker and then blew up his drill charger plugging it into the wall thinking it was a 110/220. I guess not. Boy was the sound loud. Good thing the hotel doesn't have smoke alarms or they would have all gone off and we would have had to evacuate. Needless to say, our very cold room stunk that night.

On Thursday, we saw 2 apartments in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. We liked the one in the afternoon and went back with the owner to give her all my paperwork (boy-it was a ton! They want everything around here except your first born!) Now they know everything about me. They lady said that the owner was actually her son who lives in Paris and she would give him the info and get back to us. We are still waiting, but are hopeful that we will get the place. It is right around the corner from the office and it has a garage which Michael wanted for all of his tools. It is also close to shopping and the beach so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get it. We would like to move in this weekend and get out of the hotel. It is too expensive and I don't want to keep paying for the room. We have suitcases every where and want to get settled. We again stayed at the office until 9pm talking to Jason about fixing my computer mail. It sill doesn't like me being here. But I have to give Jason a big "shout out" for all the patience and hard work he is doing to try to get me up and running. At the moment, I have to use webmail which seems to be working okay, I just don't have my signature and it is not as user friendly, but it works for now. Since we stayed at the office until 9pm, all the markets were closed and we couldn't by any groceries. We had McDonald's for dinner again. Can you believe it?? I didn't come to France to eat stupid McDonald's! I hate that place, but when you are hungry, I guess you will eat anything!

Today is Friday, guess what?? I have to call Jason again. Still need help with the email. I am at the office and Michael went off to the store to see about getting some wires and plugs for the internet at the office. He just called and some motorcycle passed him on the left while he was making a left hand turn. The motor cycle hit him and now he is in the police station. What the hell!! This is not my week. I have no idea what is going on since, of course, I am not there. He doesn't really have the capability to defend himself so I am worried that they will say it is his fault. So today is in the wash. By the time he is done fooling around with these yahoos at the station the store will be closed and he won't be able to get what he needs. Then he is going to come back super pissed and I will have to live with him being like that for the next couple of days. Great, that's all I need! I still don't have word about the apartment and really want to get in there by the weekend. It will be much easier to move then than during the week. Pray for us, we really need it!

Until later...........

Ashley