Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

We made a trip out to the Toulouse airport today in order to better plan our upcoming return-trip home. I wanted to specifically find out about bringing my bike on the plane. I looked online and discovered that Lufthansa does indeed allow bicycles—I would normally assume that this is the case but here in France I have found it best never to assume anything—but their website did not make mention of how the bike should be packed and wether or not they would provide any packing material. Usually the airlines will typically provide you with a large plastic bag or a box to place your bicycle in but I didn’t feel comfortable assuming that the same would be true here. At the airport I spoke to Lufthansa and they confirmed that they do allow bikes—excellent!!!—but that they have no plastic bags or boxes to provide me. Instead they suggested that I ask Air France if they had bike bags or boxes. So I waited in line to speak to Air France and they did indeed have bike boxes for sale for about 5 euros but unfortunately they could only sell them to Air France customers. Ok, this is all good to know ahead of time instead of discovering all this on the day of our flight. And fortunately I did keep the original plastic bag that Air Canada gave me back in Canada. The bag is in poor shape but I can tape it back together I think.

While at the airport, I also verified the location of the Peugeot Open Europe parking lot so that I would know exactly where to return my rental vehicle on the day of our departure. I also verified what time they open (0600) as our flight is at 0725.

I had some small frustrations when leaving the airport parking lot. The parking system at Toulouse airport is setup in a way that is similar to the system at Vancouver International Airport. Just before returning to you car one pays for their parking at one of the payment machines located next to the terminal. The bar code on the ticket is then registered into the computer as having been paid and you then have about 15 minutes to reach the exit gate with your vehicle to present your ticket to the automated machine. At Toulouse airport there are two groups of payment machines: one that accepts cash and one that accepts credit cards. Both groups of machines had lineups and I started with the cash lineup. After waiting in line and attempting to pay with cash I discovered that the machine will only accept coins and 5 euro bills. I only had 10 and 20 euro bills. Ok, no problem, I will wait in the lineup for the machines that accept credit cards. When it was finally my turn at the credit card machine I discovered that the machine does not accept Visa or Mastercard cards from Canada. Nice. Did you know that France is the most visited country in the world? It receives over 75 million visitors per year. Our visa cards from Canada work in most places in France without problem but they certainly do not work at the airport parking machines and at the train station automated ticketing machines and at many gas stations. Sometimes I think that the French build their systems to be as difficult and non-intuitive as possible for tourists. But then I realise its probably just me and that I have a different perspective on how things should be built. For example, I have this crazy idea that if I were in the most visited country in the world that I would think to accept foreign credit cards in places where travellers might be like at the airport or train station. I’m smiling as I type this but I wasn’t laughing earlier in the day…I lost it and actually cursed and vowed that I would never return to this country. Clearly untrue words issued in the heat of the moment by a frustrated, partly inflexible Canadian accustomed to conveniences not found in some parts of the old world.

Anyway, todays trip to the airport was worthwhile and will make our departure on Thursday much smoother.