Getting out of France, part deux

So there is a town near us called Annemasse. It is in France. It is probably like 5 miles from us, if that. It's close. Everything in Switzerland is crazy expensive, and Jaime had heard from some of his co-workers that they shopped in this town and prices were like half what they are in Switzerland. The part One of this story is that we went there before our trip to Florida hoping to buy a DVD player for $100 instead of $250 that it would be here, and some other things. The short version is that we got stuck in France. We ended up getting a ride to the shopping mall from a man on the street when we realized that there was no bus coming and couldn't find the train station that appeared on the map, but didn't exist. We got to the shopping mall, bought our things and went outside to wait for the bus which was conveniently right outside the shopping center. Long story short, the bus apparently went from our house on Saturday's but not back. We ended up taking a bus farther into france to another train station thinking we could either catch a train home, or get a cab since cabs are usually around train stations. We found out that the train wasn't coming for hours and I guess there is only one cab driver in the town who just stops by sometimes. So we ended up finally finding the cab driver and got home crabby and barely speaking like 3 hours later, after 1/2 hour of shopping.

So even though this happened already, I still wanted to go back. I mean, there is this whole mall right there and the bus drops you off right in front, and it's way cheaper than here - what could be more tempting? I didn't want France to get me down, so decided to take Lucia there today to purchase among other things, a thing that you can dry your clothes on because we got a WASHER! No more laundry in the bathtub! No dryer though, so I thought I would buy a European rack thing that you dry clothes on.

So Lucia and I arrived at the bus stop about 15 min early, only to find that I was wrong on the times, so we had to wait about 45 min for the bus. We got on though and made it to the shopping mall where we made all of our purchases quickly. I went to the customer service desk after purchasing my items at the store and asked if they could call me a taxi. I thought, I'm not trying to sit in a bus station all day again and am just going to do the easy thing - our cab ride home last time was like $8, well worth it! So they call the taxi number like 3 times, no answer (I don't know why I thought there would be a different taxi man than the one who happened to stop by the train station, but I did). There is a lot of french discussion going on with all the ladies behind the desk and one finally says, um, I don't know in English? But writes on a pad of paper "NO ANSWER". Shoot. So I ask her if she can try one more time, still no answer. Shoot! So I finagle Lucia, the stroller, and my drying rack out of the store and start going down the 3 escalators to the bottom where the busses come. Did I mention that I got two whole chickens for the price of one and had them in a bag in the seat of the stroller because Lucia refused to sit in it? I did! So we were going down the escalator and somehow there was a bump and my chickens hurled themselves out onto the escalator. I pick them up and get them back in the seat before we get to the bottom, get Lucia and go down to where the busses come. Oh and another thing. There is a revolving door to the outside where the busses are. Have you ever tried to go through a revolving door driving a stroller one-handed. holding a drying rack under your arm and holding hands with a three year old? It's hard! We got stuck (as in the doors stopped moving) three times. Sigh. Every time the door would come around I would say "go go go!" to Lucia while trying to jockey the stroller in with her holding hands, and she was getting kind of freaked out. The last time we went through she asked me to pick her up instead of going through all of that craziness again. I don't blame her.

So we go outside and examine the bus schedule, and as I suspected, there is no bus coming to take us home till 4:30 pm (it is 1:30 pm). There are lots of busses before that, but the one that goes by our house only comes once in a blue moon. So I think you know what? I am not going to get stressed out, I am going to figure this out before I go and sit in that sorry train station again all day and get all angry inside. I am going to force someone to help me until it works. So I corral Lucia back in the mall, secure my chickens, and take the escalator back up until I find a security guard that I had seen earlier. I find him and ask if he can call me a taxi. He gets on his walki-talki, says a bunch of french and comes back and tells me that I need to go to the store that I was just at (where they called the cab with no answer) to ask them for the phone number. I sigh and look bummed out (because I was thinking - those ladies are going to think I am crazy!) so he says, o.k. one minute and goes to the store himself to get the phone number. He comes back like 20 min later and tells me that he called a taxi and it is coming in 4-5 minutes. I say YAY! Merci! All of that, and give him a hug. We are both happy. I think his day is probably pretty boring just standing by the escalators, so he seemed really pleased to help me. So I get Lucia back down the escalators, get stuck in the door again, and back out to the bus stop to where the cab is coming. About 3 minutes later my friend the security guard comes back and shows me his phone that is scrolled to 2:45 pm. He says um... your cab? And points to the phone. I look at my watch, it is 2pm. What happened to 4 or 5 minutes? He shrugs and goes back inside. I wait outside with Lucia and watch different bus 5's go by (our bus, but the wrong ones) and finally at 2:30 feel something missing. I ask Lucia where Hans is. Hans is her bear that goes everywhere with her. He may be a little bedraggled and stinky, but he is her best friend. She immediately looks at me and says Mama hold hands? Meaning, she is distressed. I remember that the last time I saw Hans was dangling off our shopping cart. Oh boy. So we go back inside the mall, up three floors, not speaking - I can tell that she is nervous too. I go to the same customer service desk that the cab ladies are at and ask for a dou-dou. This is one french word I know, teddy bears are dou-dou's. They all say Ah - dou-dou! And reach under the counter and pull out HANS! Phew. So we go back down the escalators, get stuck in the revolving door again and I am hoping we didn't miss our cab. We then see another bus pull up. I am unsure if we missed our cab by grabbing Hans or if it is really coming at this point, so I ask the driver if she goes to our stop. She says no. She speaks zero english and I speak little french. But, I was able to get out of her by pantomiming my fingers walking, that if we took her bus to the last stop, we could walk to ours. So I get Lucia and we get on. Why I didn't wait for my cab that could possibly have been 5 minutes away? I'm not sure.

So we get off at the stop the driver tells us to, and it is looking somewhat familiar to me. Basically we live next to a giant mountain and I know if I can see the mountain, I can get home. Not too hard. So I kind of know where I am, thank the bus driver and get off. Um, she neglected to tell me that walking to our stop would be about a 3 mile walk along a freeway with a miniscule shoulder. O.k. I did not like this one bit. There were trucks and fast cars whizzing past us like an inch away and it was not o.k. I felt like a terrible mother for walking my child on a freeway, but didn't know what else to do. I just wanted to get home! I pictured the french people in their cars saying what they heck is that crazy lady (like I would say if I saw me) doing with her kid on a freeway? We were on this bumpy and gravelly shoulder and I hated every minute of it. I finally got to our turn off and was so happy to take the road back into our quiet town. I arrived at the little store in our town sweaty and crabby, bought Lucia a juice and me a Fanta Zero and arrived home around 4pm. Um, we left at 11:30 and shopped for maybe an hour. I have to say that I am still mad about this french town. It is so close that it bugs me that I cannot get there and back... I mean part of me wants to attempt this again just to prove that it can be an easy task. But I need to just push that out of my head.

And if you are wondering why I didn't check a bus schedule and know that I couldn't get a bus back home - that's right, there are none - at least not the paper kind. I tried to look up the schedule online too, but couldn't find it despite my best key word searching, sigh. So that is my story. I think I need to give up on France for now... Hopefully if there is a part three, it will be a victory! part three.