News Flash: Two Weeks & Three Days & in Trouble With Authorities Already!

Today's big excursion was to le cave a vins, our local wine 'depot'. All went very well, we filled our two 5 litre tubs with a Merlot and a Rose, collected a cask of not too shabby savvy and paid the nice Mademoiselle 24 euros...approximately 15 litres of wine or twenty bottles for $2.00 each NZ.

The 'not so cheap' wine!

Feeling oh so clever, not too mention wondering how on earth we were ever going to drink it all, we headed for home with a quick stop at Esperaza for the regulation French baguette and croissants. Another brief visit to the librairie (bookshop) to pick up some blutac so Martin can put a big French map up on the wall in order to scrupulously plan our future big trips, all completed in a matter of minutes.  

The Ticket!

Back to the car only to find two uniformed monsieurs giving it a lot of attention, one monsieur appeared to be writing in a notebook. With all the memorised French she could muster Peggy asked if there was a problem...to be told that we had parked in a no parking area and we needed a special ticket to park there. What is it with the French and tickets!? Peggy tried to explain that we had parked there only the day before and was shown the newly painted arrow markings on the road which apparently meant ticket parking only. Our park only had a faint shadow of one of these but that was of no consequence, the ticket was handed over and we were told to pay the 11 euros to the Esperaza Parking Authority. Suddenly our oh so clever wine purchasing didn't seem quite so clever or cheap any more!

Not so happy 'Ticket Man'!

A slightly tiddly, sulking Ticket Man!

With our tail between our legs we arrived home and as I write Martin is sulking in his hammock, glass of red in one hand, book in the other!

Another brush with French bureaucracy just when I thought we'd aced it! Ah well, you live and learn...the pain will ease after a litre or two of not so cheap red wine...salut!