Camping, Fiat Parking Lot

By Claire
The transmission arrived, we have our rental car so while the Fiat guys did the work, we spent the day killing time in the little towns of St. James and Fougères which has one of Europe’s largest medieval castles. More ramparts! Chuck was in heaven. I was looking forward to the Jardins Public.

It was nice to find another small village but with a little bit more happening. We started out in a bar with a petite déjeuner of hot chocolate and coffee, orange juice, and of course, croissants. Because it was gray skies and chilly, we took our time. St. James has a little self guided walking tour and we really enjoyed getting into the back streets and gardens. We even found a house for sale and fantasized about buying it, especially if it came with the cool cat.

Walking path


Cool cat at cool house for sale


Front door of cool house for sale


Very old house


In France it's quaint, at home it's blight


Very orange pumpkins and rain barrels


One of many cats we befriended along the way




New House


We bought bread at the boulangerie and some things at the grocery store for a pique-nique and found a wonderful spot.





The bread was not a baguette but more like good old French bread. Delicious. Not that we’re tired of baguettes…..

We decided to drive on to Fougères to see the medieval castle



Jardin Public:

This place reminded me so much of the Arboretum in Davis




Surprise formal gardens





Interesting bike rack


Our recycling


Driving back to the Fiat place with great anticipation, we saw Homer parked and ready to go. However, when we went into the office to settle up, we found out that the transmission BW sent is the wrong one. The Fiat guys had tried to reach us at the campground. We are currently at a stalemate with Rene, who thinks the dealership is trying to screw us and that it is the correct transmission. We feel that the people at the dealership are honest and fair. They have treated us very well, making all the phone calls to Amsterdam and pulling Joe away from work to translate things for us. We found out he is originally from England. That explains his strong English accent! We are currently killing time in the Fiat parking lot where we spent last night, and alternately talking to Rene and the manager through Joe trying to come up with a solution. It is now 5 minutes to 12, lunch time for 2 hours when everything shuts down. We are looking into having the camper transported back to Amsterdam so BW can work on it while we figure out how to get ourselves there (the easy part). We will keep you posted. Naturally, it's a Friday....

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. ~ Jack Kerouac