Un Pneu Crevé dans les Pyrénées

   The title means "Flat Tire in the Pyrenees"

   Today started out just like any other day. We ate breakfast in the hotel in the city of Pau and headed out to bird the foothills of the Pyrenees. The Pyrenees Mountains are in France and Spain. Some of the taller mountains had snow on the top. We both laughed when we both saw the sign below.

   As we were driving down rural mountain roads, we stopped at Les Bords du Gave. It is a nice place with a fast flowing river, a cute mill, a small little city park with a grandmother watching her grandchildren, an ancient church and a cool waterfall. We saw some of the birds we have discussed in previous blog posts.

   Our only new bird for today was the Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa Striata). We was perched on a tree limb and allowed us to look at him for an extended period of time. The Spotted Flycatcher is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have gray-brown upper coverts and whitish belly, with a streaked crown and breast. Difficult to see, except that it was perched so long on the limb.

   Around 11am, Robert noticed the car's check tire light had come on. When we checked the tires, we discovered that the right front tire was going flat. We pulled over to the side of a narrow rural road and prepared to change the tire. That is when we found out that our rental car from Hertz did not have a spare tire. Our day went down hill from there.

   We called Hertz customer service. They were very helpful. It took a while to explain to them where exactly we were, but once that was understood, the representative sent out a wrecker which arrived about an hour later. The mechanic determined that he could not fix the tire or replace it, so he loaded the car onto the wrecker and we went with him about 10 miles to the village of Arudy, France.

   When we got to garage, the mechanic told Robert that either someone would come to fix the tire or we would get another car. He assured Robert that we would be on our way no later than 4:00pm. Robert asked him if he would take us to a restaurant in the middle of the village and he agreed. We had a pretty lunch. Since we had plenty of time, we both got crême brulée for dessert which was brought to the table on fire to burn the sugar and Cointreau on top.

   After lunch, while we were waiting for the mechanic to come back to get us, we walked around the village. Robert explained how the old Romain churches were dark inside, because without the flying buttress technology, the old Roman Church was dark inside. We also stopped in at a sundry store, but did not but anything.

   We got back to the garage around 3:00pm. Our mechanic told us that someone from Hertz was bringing us another car. We waited at the garage until 5:30pm when the mechanic suggested that we call a taxi and go to a hotel. He was ready to go home for the day. Robert again called Hertz. The Customer Service Representative told him that they would send a taxi for us to take us to the Hertz counter at the Pau airport, which was about 30 miles away. We finally got to the airport at 7:45pm and got another car.

   Robert was having to do all the talking and handling of the issues because Berry does not speak French. In a nine hour period Robert was required to converse in French to the mechanic who had stones in his mouth, the fast talking waitress in a restaurant, and the taxi driver who took us to get a new car. He spoke Spanish to the cook in the restaurant and to a Spanish driver who came into the garage to ask driving directions to Spain. He responded in Chinese to a Chinese friend who e-mailed Robert about playing Go. And, all the while, speaking English to Berry. What a day, but he took care of me.

   After we got the new car, we had the wettest pizza we have ever had, then found a hotel room in the same city where we started out this morning. Good night.

Berry and Robert

Photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler