{"id":6764,"date":"2022-06-26T03:16:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T17:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=6764"},"modified":"2025-11-11T08:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:02:27","slug":"life-in-total-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2022\/06\/26\/life-in-total-limbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Life In Total Limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Full-blown discombobulation is never good for the soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The view, from Hotel Villancourt in Le Pont de Claix… of the mountains was nice<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Friday 24th<\/sup> June 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr and Mrs Thoroughly Glum had a very sleepless night.  It wasn\u2019t just our worries about our tricky position, but there was an awful bad-egg style smell that woke us both up at 3am.  It was still lingering when we got up in the morning, still feeling like we were wallowing in some sort of strange limbo.  A shower helped and then yesterday\u2019s clothes went back on our tired bodies.  After breakfast and a pleading email to the RAC, someone phoned us from the RAC to say that he would order us another taxi to take us all the way back to Le Bourg de Oisans because Reggie hadn\u2019t been moved and was still sitting on the ground in the tow-truck car yard.  We could have stayed there and saved the RAC a night in a smelly hotel and two 44kms taxi rides costing over \u20ac110 each.  One thought I had on route was…. I don\u2019t think I have ever done such an expensive taxi ride in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time we got back to Reggie and greeted the staff in reception at the car yard, the rain was even heavier and thunder and lightning started to crash around the surrounding mountains. It was nice to be back in Reggie and we pottered about all day: bit of yoga, bit of weaving, Rodney got up to date on the news and read a good chunk of his book.  And all the time we waited for the RAC to ring us with some good news.  We didn\u2019t want to pester them, but we were really getting frustrated.  The rain eased around 3:30pm, but we didn\u2019t dare go for a walk, in case they suddenly rang to say we were on the move. Which they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our view all day in Reggie in the car yard after the rain stopped<\/em>….the mountains were nic<\/em>e.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around that time, yet another different person phoned to say she would escalate our breakdown and ensure someone rang us regularly; that has never happened. After a lot of intense questioning, she admitted that they had rung a garage in the morning and were still waiting for an answer.  We were getting a bit shouty by now and suggested that perhaps they could chase that request for an answer.  She then told us they were very busy and were having an IT problem.  What that has to do with phone calls to a garage is beyond us.  We told her there was a Fiat service centre in Grenoble and had she tried them.  We got the impression she didn\u2019t know that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben rang from the RAC just before 4pm, we got excited.  We were then told that we would probably not get a garage to look at Reggie for 2 to 3 weeks.  WHAT!!!  He suggested we repatriate Reggie to England, so we agreed and said that we would go with him.  Nope.  It would be 2 to 3 weeks before that could happen because there is a lot of paperwork to be done in the repatriation section.  Brexit has happened and England is no longer in Europe. Could we have a hire car to continue our journey?  Yes, was the reply.  At least now we were finally being told what was going on and we had an understanding that we were a bit stuck, and this was now going to create a problem for our co-owners, Neroli and Ian.  I told Ben to give us half an hour to look at our options and we would call straight back.  We decided to stay in Reggie for the night and organise the hire car to be delivered on Saturday morning.  Rodney went over to the car yard reception to check that it was okay to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panic stations!!!  Ben phoned again to say he was leaving work at 5pm.  The car yard told us we couldn\u2019t stay because they were locking the gates at 5pm and wouldn\u2019t be opening the barbed-wire fenced area until 9am on Monday morning.  We had 25-minutes to grab what we needed for three days in a hotel back towards Grenoble.  Some fruit and chocolate in the fridge were thrown into a cool bag.  Paperwork, passports, books, documents, computer, cables, phones etc. were chucked into the rucksack, the bathroom cabinet was emptied into soap-bags and clothes thrown randomly into two holdalls.  The car yard manager anxiously watched us and at 5:05pm we stood outside the gates waiting for a third taxi ride.  Another lady at RAC then rang to let us know that Ben had booked us a hotel for the night and a taxi would be with us in 30 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So off we went\u2026\u2026.back to Grenoble, goodness knows what is wrong with the hotels in Le Bourg de Oisans.  We had found some good deals there, while we were waiting.  The same taxi driver as last night turned up and drove us to a different hotel in the same chain, which was closer to the centre of Grenoble.  We thought this was a small plus, but nope.  The comedy of errors and ineptitude continued.  After another taxi ride costing \u20ac127.20 the nice driver took us inside with a piece of paper to check-in.  Thank goodness he did.  It turned out that the RAC had failed to make payment for the room, so it was not held and someone else had taken it.  The hotel was now full.  He let us sit back in the taxi for 5-minutes while he made frantic phone calls and apologised to us.  Then we had to get out of the taxi because he had another booking and needed to get back.  We sat on the pavement with our assortment of bags, unable to go anywhere.  It was 20-minutes since we arrived and I needed a pee, so I went into the un-booked hotel and the nice receptionist took me down to the staff toilets.  She unlocked the door and apologised for the smell.  The toilets were filthy, and the smell was the same \u2018bad egg\u2019 smell that we had been woken by, in the other hotel last night.  It was foul.  I burst out of there, happier to sit on the pavement rather than in that hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waiting outside the fully booked hotel in Grenoble eating crisps for dinne<\/em>r<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All up, we were outside for an hour before another taxi turned up at 7:50pm.  We got in and the taxi driver asked us if we were going home, where did we want to go?  We were stunned!  We had no idea what or where the RAC had booked.  I nearly said “take us to the most expensive hotel in Grenoble and charge it to the RAC”.  It was so hard not to scream.  She made phone calls to her base and finally she drove us north-east out of Grenoble to yet another hotel in the same chain, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  Our hearts sank with thoughts of another smelly night, but Rodney noticed this was 4 stars, not 3 stars, so hopefully they would have better drains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taxi driver then insisted that we pay her because the RAC hadn\u2019t.  We couldn\u2019t know for sure if this was correct, so after more frantic phone calls we gave up and paid her \u20ac25.70, grabbed our six small bags and staggered into Le Trois Roses Hotel at 8:40pm.  Tired, frustrated, angry, confused and feeling totally out of any control over our own lives, I will admit to breaking down in tears at that point. The wonderfully sympathetic receptionist helped me breath and checked us into our room, explaining that we were now in Corenc and there was a 24-hour reception, in case we needed anything at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But wait there\u2019s more.  There is no restaurant, it\u2019s now 8:45pm, so dinner was off the menu tonight.  She also told us that if we wanted breakfast we had to pay because the RAC hadn\u2019t, despite it being in our breakdown agreement that accommodation and breakfast are provided.  We wished we had grabbed all of the food from the fridge in Reggie!  This was the last straw in a long and shitty day.  We got on the phone again to the RAC and the idiot on the other end started to suggest he move us to another hotel.  \u201cNO\u201d, we both screamed down the phone.  Just phone the hotel now and tell them that breakfast is paid.  We also asked if the rental car had been organised for us.  Why on earth did we expect a positive answer to that question? We were starting to think we must be stupid, but we were sure it was not us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 25th<\/sup> June 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No smells in the night and a reasonable night\u2019s sleep with only a few bizarre nightmares got us through to Saturday morning\u2026.. still in limbo.  We ate as much as we could for breakfast, not knowing when our next meal might be.  Then we returned to our hotel room to wait for the RAC to reply to our email which was sent at 10pm the previous night, plus all the others sent.  At 10:50am Paul rang from the RAC.  He had no idea about our situation and asked us where we were and what we needed.  I\u2019m sure at this point, most people would lose their rag and we were so very close to exploding.  We told him we were in the hotel that they<\/strong> had put us in and that perhaps if he read, our now extensive file he might find out.  He admitted he hadn\u2019t read the file and \u201cwas trying to avoid that\u201d !!!   I exploded. He put us on hold.  When he came back, he said he was trying to find a garage to fix Reggie.  \u201cNO\u201d  we shouted, you\u2019ve been doing that for 2 days and you are supposed to be organising repatriation as off 4pm yesterday afternoon.  We have already given you the name and address of the garage it is to go to in England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We demanded the rental car a.s.a.p., explained that we needed to get back to our motorhome, not a broken-down car, asap, to collect all our belongings and transfer them to the rental car in which we would continue our journey, as per their breakdown policy.  After another long hold, he said he could start to organise a rental car. We told him someone had started that yesterday\u2026\u2026.or said they had.  We suggested he get us one for tomorrow, but he said it would be better to organise today, on a Saturday, because a Sunday would not be possible. \u201cYes\u201d we shouted that would be great.  We were so relieved that we might be taking a step forward at last.  But then he said that if he did that, we would have to move out of the hotel, that they had already booked and paid for, because we couldn\u2019t have a car and a hotel, despite the policy stating that was our entitlement.  Rodney told him to check the policy and Paul said he couldn\u2019t, he didn\u2019t have access to it.  Rodney told him we would have to sleep in the car, but then we gave up arguing anymore and said to leave us in the hotel and just ensure that we would have a car ready for 9am on Monday.  He then told us that we couldn\u2019t take the rental car to England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It took him a while to comprehend that we couldn\u2019t catch a train or walk on a ferry with this much luggage.  He gave us the number of a taxi company in Dover that would come over to Calais to collect us and take us on the ferry back to Dover.  We rang them and went through the whole procedure with the very helpful boss.  Then we got out of the hotel, wandered the streets for a few hours, got something to eat and bought a large suitcase (something we don’t travel with in a motorhome) to reduce the number of small bags on route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Le Trois Roses Hotel in Corenc and another nice mountain…..<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So at this point we\u2019re sitting in Le Roses Hotel in Corenc.  We\u2019ll catch a trolley bus into Grenoble tomorrow to cheer ourselves up a bit.  We\u2019re assuming that the RAC will do nothing on a Sunday in France.  We have our fingers and toes crossed that a rental car will be delivered to our hotel at 9am on Monday morning, but we dare not get our hopes up too much.  If it happens, we will drive back to Le Bourg de Oisans, yet again, take lots of photos of Reggie and our bikes on the back, and then load what we can into our bags.  We\u2019re not sure where to head to next; we may not be allowed to take the car across the border into Switzerland.  But we know we need to be in Obernai on July 3rd<\/sup> to meet up with our friend Maxime and also Bobby and Shiho who are flying in from America.  After that we will need to be in Calais on July 6th<\/sup> ready for a Eurotunnel trip in a taxi to Dover on July 7th<\/sup>.  It looks like Reggie will be stuck in Le Bourg de Oisans for a while longer until he is repatriated back to a garage near Neroli and Ian; probably after we have returned to Australia.  All of our plans for emptying and cleaning Reggie before we return him home, have gone out the window and it seems so unfair on Neroli and Ian to leave them with the mess, but we never imagined any of this would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day, we will now expect things to go wrong.  When we finally do get a rental car we will have to cancel our ferry, book the Eurotunnel for us and a taxi with driver, book hotels en route, or chance it, book a rental car for Dover, etc..  Lugging a suitcase in and out of hotels won\u2019t be the same as travelling in a motorhome. I will miss doing the remainder of our journey with the wardrobe, kitchen and bathroom behind us.  But c est la vie\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full-blown discombobulation is never good for the soul. Friday 24th June 2022 Mr and Mrs Thoroughly Glum had a very sleepless night.  It wasn\u2019t just our worries about our tricky position, but there was an awful bad-egg style smell that woke us both up at 3am.  It was still lingering when we got up in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":6758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-routes-around-europe-in-reggie-the-motorhome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6764"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8060,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764\/revisions\/8060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}