Trouble in Paradise

Not the normal blog post pictures.  Wednesday morning, I returned to my car parked in the car park close to my house to find someone had keyed both doors on the passenger side.  My first response was shock and disbelief. Who would do this in my little French village? Why?  Over the years, we would occasionally have trouble from bored teenagers.  In my former home here, a group of teenagers broke into our courtyard storage or "cave" as we call it,  fitted it with a bench they stole from the village, and used our little storage area as a smoking lounge. Clueless we wondered why we kept smelling cigarette smoke in our living room. It all  took a while to sort out, and finally we put a big padlock on the "cave."

After discovering the nasty scratch, I spent an hour and a half at the Gendarmerie. Three gendarmes came out to survey the damage. Nothing much ever happens in Monflanquin.  It was decided I should report this incident and fill out an official report.  The gendarme who took down all the information was very kind and dreamy looking. I emerged with a ton of papers. This seems to be the norm in France.

 Would my insurance cover this damage? Yes,  I did call and check, but I knew from a past rental car mishap, I would need to fill out a million forms, and provide all kinds of documents. Instead, I went to the local garage with its stellar reputation. The body work guy quoted me 250 euros for the repair. 

It seemed reasonable to me, and I knew the rental car agency would charge at least double. So be it. I did get the nasty scratch repaired at the local garage. It looks as good as new, and tomorrow I will return the car to the rental car agency in Bergerac.

However, my relationship with this garage named Authentic Garage (I don't know why) did not stop there.  Since each time I come to Monflanquin, my rental car bill totals at least $3000 due to my need for an automatic car hire which costs a lot more in Europe, Bill and I discussed the possibility of buying a used car to keep here. I asked Authentic Garage if they could find me a used automatic. Thinking, this would be highly unlikely and could take months, I was shocked to learn they had two automatic cars for sale on their lot. I set up an appointment to meet with Philippe, the designated used car salesman. Whatever you think about used car salesmen,  forget it. Philippe was so kind, patient, informative, and tuned in to what I need in a car, I dubbed him my professeur de voiture. As my car teacher, he showed me all the car features etc etc. As competent as I am in French, I don't do much car vocabulary.  I test drove the car and found it easy to drive.  And ???? To be continued in my next blog post.