Wedding Road-Trip Part 1: The Long Way Down (in France)

The following is a harrowing tale. I contemplated calling this post 'a lesson in gas station protocol in France,' but decided against it. Our original itinerary for our 'wedding roadtrip' was as follows: 

Day 1: Drive to Tours, France

Day 2-3: Bordeaux, France  

Day 4-5: San Sebastian, Basque Country (Spain)

Day 6: Madrid, Spain

Day 7-14: Malaga, Spain 

Day 15-16: Valencia, Spain 

Day 17: Girona, Spain 

Day 18: Lyon, France 

Day 19: Home 

The trip started out really well. We were very excited to start the trip, and to drive down to Malaga. We drove into France and needed to fill up about 3 hours into the border. At this point, we stopped to get gas at a French gas station. WARNING! In France, the unleaded gas is labeled with the color green. The word for diesel is gazole in French. Having an Audi, Nate put gazole plus in our brand new unleaded car. For the record, unleaded is sans plomb. You will also know that the gas is diesel, because the nozzle is larger than the diesel nozzle. This is designed to keep people from putting diesel in an unleaded vehicle, but my big, strong husband muscled the nozzle into our car. 

If you EVER put diesel in your car and realize the issue, then absolutely do not turn your car on. Do not even put the key in the ignition! Unfortunately, we drove about 20 kilometers down the road until the car stopped working. At this point, we also ruined four spark plugs, but we didn't know that at the time. On the toll roads all over Europe, there are phones every couple kilometers in case you break down. I called, and then 20 minutes later, a nice Frenchman with a tow truck to help us out. 

Zzz...

Here is a gas station coffee. In France, most of the gas stations are the same. In the bathroom, there are no toilet seats (but it is free to use the restroom). There are vending machines for coffee, soup, and even baguette sandwiches. Nate particularly liked these because he could press the English option and not have to speak to anyone. For good luck, I wore my Hermes head scarf, but now I think it may be cursed. 

If you ever need a tow truck near Molinons, France, then we recommend Garage Louis. Hopefully, though, you'll never need their services! 

After we broke down, we were taken in to a small town called Molinons (population 286 in 2006), where not a single person spoke English. Luckily, we motioned a lot, and the owner of the shop was able to call the only hotel in town and reserve us a room and drove us to the hotel. We stayed in Logis Auberge des Vieux Moulins Banaux. It is a converted 16th-century water mill, and it was a great stay for the night. Everyone we encountered along the way during this fiasco was extremely nice to us and very welcoming. 

The view to the left from our hotel room in Molinons

The view to the right from our hotel room in Molinons

We decided to have our first meal at the hotel in France, considering we were relatively stranded. In France, most menus are set, with three or four courses. We decided to splurge on this meal, and we kept the wine pouring after our champagne aperitifs. For dessert, we had different options, but decided to go for the fromage (cheese) options. When in France...! Mine was incredibly savory, and I think we both decided that we like sweet desserts better than savory cheeses for our final course. 

Nate's giant sundae of cheese-- He is currently dipping in to my cheese because it was a little better 

The next morning, we waited for someone from Garage Louis to pick us up to take us back to the shop. It was decided by the show owner that our car would be towed to the nearest Audi dealership (in Sens, France), so we took another ride with the nice Frenchman to Sens. Once we got there, we realized that yet again nobody spoke English. Luckily, there was one mechanic who spoke limited German, so we were able to communicate. We were hoping for a quick fix, but we ended up having to stay the night in Sens. Yet again, somebody called and set a reservation for us and drove us to the hotel. This time, it was Hotel Virginia, which was situated right off the highway. 

A recurring theme from this experience at the Audi dealership was that everything kept taking longer than anticipated. We ended up walking in to Sens and checking out the city. We had a long walking tour while also waiting for the car to be ready. If you ever have time and are in Sens, they have a wonderful public park in the city. There is a petting zoo, and different animals and gardens throughout the park. It is called Le parc du Moulin à Tan, and I think it is worth a visit. 

Cathedral ~ Sens, France

When the car STILL wasn't ready, we headed back to the hotel and decided to have our second meal at the restaurant called Montana, right next to Hotel Virginia. We had some DELICIOUS dishes there, but our favorite was the oeufs meurette (a dish from Burgundy--eggs poached in red wine). We both ordered the oeufs on the second day. I also ordered a delicious duck dish, where the duck was shredded and served in a dish on top of purple potatoes with cheese baked on top. YUM!  

Mid-day Rose

Oeufs Meurette - served over toast and topped with onions, mushrooms, and that delicious red-wine sauce 

He had it for dinner and for lunch the next day 

Cafe Gourmand ~ a combination of different desserts with an espresso 

Eventually, we finally got the car back and got back on the road. At the next stop we definitely pumped sans plomb.