Scrambling, scrambling

Monday June 27, 2011                                                Day 362

We finally settled on a train trip to Barcelona Tuesday evening, then a flight from there to Atlanta, with connections to DFW, on Wednesday. We went to the SNCF boutique to inquire into a refund for our Thursday trip and to purchase Barcelona tickets. The only thing the agent could do for us was give us the address for customer service and advise that we write SNCF at that address to inquire into a refund.

I went to Orange to try to get our phone unlocked. The agent there gave me a phone number to call, but when I tried it later, it was a voice tree in French, which defeated me. I called our neighbor who lives below and asked her if she would help us when she got home from work. She agreed, and buzzed me at the door buzzer when she got home. I fixed some lemonade and took it, along with some ice and a couple of glasses, downstairs, and explained the problem. She made a couple of calls and finally produced a number for me, a PUK number, but she said she thought I still needed something else. Sensing that I was at the end of my likelihood of success, I thanked her and left.

We got out our luggage and spread it around the house and began filling it. We called Francis, who is our landlord’s local manger, to arrange for checkout tomorrow afternoon at 5:00.

Roger went to chess today for the last time, armed with his chess set and twenty euros. He bought a round of sodas for everyone present and gave his chess set to one of the players, whom he was sure would show up almost every day and put it to good use.