Oh, no!

Here I am drinking delectable Breton cider  at a cute Creperie near our hotel in Paris.  Part of me still can't believe we made it to France, so complicated, confusing, and risky was this trip. Before departure, I contacted five French embassies and got five different answers to my question about entering France from Poland.  The reality of the trip felt relatively easy, and everyone was kind along the way.

We did encounter a few, "Oh. no." situations  in Paris. The Bus Direct into Paris posted a suspended service  sign due to the health crisis. We spent at least an hour  figuring out alternative transportation.  It felt harder to get out of Charles de Gaulle Airport than to get into France.  The next morning we proceeded to the train station with our Ouigo train tickets in hand. Alas, we did not go because due to remodeling and lack of signage at the Gare Montparnasse, we missed our train. I cannot remember the last time I missed a train. We bought new  more expensive tickets  and fell exhausted into our seats.

Once at our house in Monflanquin came the biggest "Oh, no!" of all. No  functioning Internet,  telephone, or television. Even my French cell phone  wouldn't work. Cut off from the world, we drove over to the Orange boutique in Villeneuve-sur-lot the next day. Thus began the painful process of explaining, testing equipment, more explaining, more testing until finally one long week later, Orange sent out a technician who resolved the problem in five minutes.  

On the flight to Krakow, I noticed a little toddler boy. He seemed the male equivalent of the "Hey, Lady" toddler on the flight to Chicago. Every few minutes, he would cry out, "Oh, no!" until he finally conked out. I dedicate this blog post to him and hope our "Oh, no" experiences are over for now.