Paris here we come!

Our Hotel in Chinon

Our last day in Chinon ends with a hearty breakfast in the dining room.  Go figure.  We have a 2:00 apt with the transit outfit in Paris to turn our car in for shipment back to the US.   We anticipate about a 3 hour drive so we pack it up and get on the road by 9:30.  We'd rather be early than late.
  Kathy takes the first leg and drives about an hour and a half. It is an uneventful drive, the weather is beautiful and the traffic is light.  Terry snoozing in the back, Dan watching the scenery and Karen navigating.  We pull over to stretch and Terry takes the wheel and will see us in from here.  Traffic picks up as we get near Paris.  Traffic picks up more and more and more.  Oh jeez.   Now the traffic is thick, the motorcycles again whiz by at break neck speed.  Everyone jockeying for their position in whatever lane they need to be in. Thank you Dan for taking the navigators seat. Nervous Nelly in the backseat is anxious to get to our designated destination.   We need to wash the car before we turn it in so we plan to find a car wash as near the drop off point as possible.  We locate the car wash and get in line. We approach the kiosk and put in the credit card.  The machine doesn't accept the card.  Try again.  Spits out the card.  One more time.  The card is not being accepted.  What's the problem?  With the help from the guy in line behind us we find out that the kiosk doesn't even accept cards only tickets that you have to purchase prior to getting in line! OOPS!!! Terry runs across the parking lot purchases a ticket and returns to finish the process.  We get everything dialed in and the car wash begins it's cycle.    Our new friend tells us to put the mirrors in and takes the key from Terry to help with this detail.  In doing so he inadvertently rolls down the passenger side window just a smidge.  Well, I guess the inside needed a bit of a cleaning as well.  Just a bit of water has made it's way through the 1/2 open window.  While we are grateful for the kindness of strangers, sometimes things don't always go according to Hoyle.  Karen somehow is able to convey to the attendant that we need "papier" towels and comes back with a small handful to dry the inside of the car.  We all laugh about the fact that we've made it this far on the trip with no malfunctions and here we are just minutes away from turning in the car and we've almost flooded it!  One last hurdle, actually getting to the TT and dropping off the car.  We have the address in the nav system and know we are a stones throw away. Dan navigates our way but Terry is a little ahead of us and turns into the wrong lane!!!!!!!  MANY TAXIS are heading towards us on a one way street.  The first 6 taxis give us the WTF is wrong with you but the 7th car stops and instructs us how to get out of this mess.  WHEW.
We turn around, make our way out of the taxi station and into the correct drop off spot. 
I sign a few papers and say goodbye to our faithful carriage.

  We wait for our car service to pick us up and deliver us to our apartment in the heart of Paris!  Thank you First Way, we will leave the driving to you.  An hour later we arrive at our home for the next week.  107 Rue Du Temple.  Our host meets us at the apartment and gives us the pertinent information however we soon find out that the key code they have given us is meant for another apartment entirely.  After a trip to the market, we return to find that we are locked out!  Fortunately, the kind neighbor shows up and gives us the correct door code.  We're in.  Not to happy with our hosts at this point.  But we are in Paris and the weather is perfect, the company is perfect, the wine is perfect and we are looking forward to the morning bike tour!