Settling In

     First of all, to answer the question that many of you have been asking:  yes, my pink suitcase showed up!  I'll pick up where I left off last Sunday.  After spending the night in the crappy hotel near the Toulouse airport, I had a quick traditional French breakfast of a croissant, jam (they forgot the butter!) and hot tea.  (They also forgot the applesauce).  Since the breakfast was brought to my little room on the back of the hotel building I didn't want to walk all the way around to the front to get the butter and applesauce.
     The rooms were arranged like an American motel where each room is on the first level with a door leading out to the parking lot.  The only way to get to my room from the lobby was to haul my big suitcase, backpack, CoCo and her carrier all the way around to the back of the building through the long parking lot - and then back again.  At that point I was glad I didn't have the other suitcase!
     The lady in the tiny lobby called me a taxi to take me back to the airport to retrieve my other bag and pick up my leased Peugeot.  That was easily done and so now I'm arriving in the Toulouse airport on the day I had originally planned.  Except that I'm 6 hours earlier than I had told the Peugeot people so I wasn't sure if the car would be ready for me.  It stated quite clearly on the paperwork I printed off their website that the car pick up was by appointment only depending on the flight arrival.
     The paperwork told me where to find a public phone in the airport to call the toll free number for the car park.  That phone did not work.  So I headed to the other end of the airport where there were some shops thinking that there might be another phone down there.  And along the way I was looking for the door with the button outside which would connect me to the baggage storage area.
     I found both.  The public phone at that end of the airport didn't work either!  But there was an information booth close by.  I stopped in there (remember I still have my big suitcase, my backpack, CoCo and her carrier) and asked if they could possibly make a phone call for me since neither of their public phones worked.  They said they would be happy to.  I told them I would return once I had my other suitcase so that I would be ready when the car people showed up for me.
     Now I headed to the door with the outside buzzer.  And no one answered.  Other people showed up at the door and they all tried and still no one answered.  Someone else showed up and pushed another  button for another service and the door opened - so we all rushed in!  The people ahead of me were out of luck as their suitcase had still not shown up, but luck was now on my side (about time!) and there was my lovely pink suitcase!
     Then I realized I had to go through customs again and a plane load of people had just arrived and I had seen four military guys in uniform with their very big guns walking down the concourse so I figured I couldn't just slip through like I did the day before.  But, there was still no one manning the customs area!  Not a soul in sight!  So, once again, I just breezed through - with my large suitcase, my pink suitcase, my backpack, CoCo and her carrier!
     Back to the information desk where they called to see if by any chance my car was ready as I came in early.  And, hooray for lady luck, it was!  So I hauled all my stuff outside to wait by the curb for the guy from Peugeot to pick me up.  And then everything went smoothly.  I got a cute little Peugeot, managed to fit everything inside and used my GPS to get me to the nice hotel that I had already reserved for Thursday night.  What a wonderful change from Wednesday night.
     Le Deauville is situated near the airport but close to the Garonne River and so had a feel of being out in the country even though it wasn't.  We were able to get into the room right away.  I left the big suitcase in the car as it was packed with winter things.  The young girl at reception insisted on carrying my pink suitcase upstairs (very few French hotels have elevators) and CoCo and I settled into a lovely air conditioned room away from the noise of the city.
     After getting cleaned up we took a stroll into the little village to a place that had caught my eye when we drove by it.  It was called "Hero Coffee, Burger, Frites"  Since I wanted two of those I thought I'd give it a try.  The reason it's called "Hero" is because it's decorated with all the Marvel Super Heroes and the burgers have corresponding names.  I got a bacon cheeseburger - the Iron Burger - with a coke and fries to go.  Took it back to the room and decompressed for the rest of the evening.
     After a good night's sleep I had a quick breakfast and then was on the road towards the town of Lectoure where I would spend Friday night before heading to my cottage Saturday morning.  Lectoure is a wonderful medieval walled town with an ancient 12th century cathedral.  The hotel has the odd name of "Le Bastard".  Really!  Apparently there was an extremely wealthy family of that name who owned the estate which later became the hotel.  What a lovely setting - right on the ramparts of the old city and overlooking a garden and the countryside below.  The room was small, but the property was amazing.  And I woke up the next morning to hot air balloons!

My aperitif and a book while waiting for my room to be ready

Looking down on the garden

     After breakfast CoCo and I headed to our new home for the next eight months - Lassénat St Georges and were welcomed by Hélène and Guiseppe with the traditional kisses on each cheek.  It was so nice to finally be "home".
     Next week I'll treat you to all the adventures I'm having in this little corner of France called the Gers - the little shops, the outdoor markets, the winding narrow roads, the countryside.
     Thank you for joining me on this grand adventure - on French roads with bends and turns and bumps!  Merci!!