Day 5 Part 1: Secured to go to Japan, but stay 3 days longer, to unvisited Northern France – 2014 Medoc Marathon Diary No.13

Local Time: September 15, 2014

Finally, it’s the day of returning home, or according to the schedule, it’s the day of returning home, but due to a strike by Air France pilots, the flight AF276 to Narita departing on the 15th was cancelled. Will I be able to return to Japan safely?

Return the car at the airport

I checked out of the hotel near the airport at 5:00 a.m., drove a few minutes and parked the car in a parking lot reserved for rental cars. I carefully checked to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything in the car, and returned the car. But it was too early in the morning and there was no attendant, so I just put the car down and put the key in the key box in the office to complete the return procedure.

It’s three days away, but I’ve got a safe flight to Japan.

I hurried to the Air France counter. I asked them to find an alternative flight for my Japan flight which was cancelled suddenly. As yesterday, I thought there would be confusion at the counter, but there was no one in line at all. Is it like this?

First of all, I was told that there was a flight back via China if it was on the same day. But I refused. Because if I couldn’t go back to work in an extreme situation, there was no point in going back on the same day. If I could go back to the office as originally planned, I would have been able to finish my work in time, but if I had to change my flight via China, I wouldn’t have made it anyway.

To be honest, if you get this far, it’s clearly better to take advantage of the situation.

I asked him in my poor English if another day is OK, if it is not via KLM, Amsterdam, or not this week, and he said he can prepare a flight on Wednesday 18th.

早速それでお願いしたのですが、ここでトラブル発生。なんと、担当の係員が昨日変更して確保していた本日15日7:10出発のボルドーパリ便までご丁寧にも変更してしまったのです。確かに18日でお願いとは言いましたが、日本便だけを18日に変更してくれとはっきり言わなかったから、こういう結果になってしまったようです。あいまいな言い方はダメなんだなあとあらためて思いました。

すでにクルマは返却済み。もうボルドー周辺には用がないのでそれでは大変困ります。ということで、とりあえずこの後出るこの日の7:10の便の変更はなしにして元に戻してもらい、18日のKLM便をあらためて手配してもらうことになったのですが、再びトラブルが。なんとこうしたやりとりをしている間に18日の便がすでに満席になってしまったです。

幸い翌日の19日に全く同じ便がとれたので事なきを得ました。

So, now we really have the means to get to Japan.

Check in your luggage, get on the plane, and leave Bordeaux.

Give up your stay in Paris and choose to travel with a rental car.

The Bordeaux-Paris flight cruised as scheduled and arrived at Paris on time. Probably there were many Japanese who had to change their schedule due to the strike, just like me. Ms. Naoko Takahashi was also on the same flight.

Now, I’m safely in Paris, but how to spend the next three days before Thursday 19th? I’m thinking about this and that while wandering around in the airport.

An empty Air France counter.

I’m still on holiday, so contacting the company will have to wait for now. First of all, I borrowed WiFi at the airport and considered staying in Paris. However, all the affordable hotels are fully booked, and there are many 4 and 5 star luxury hotels, 30,000 yen per night is still good, but there are many rooms over 50,000 yen….

I gave up. It’s such a waste of money to spend in Paris.

After all, I decided to rent a car country drive of the stone for me. However, this is also a hardship. It was almost impossible to rent a car at the airport in Paris without a reservation.

After all, only Hertz could be rented by jumping in on the day. However, it cost 430 euro for 3 days for a car like Peugeot 107! And with a distance limit of 250km per day.

I was annoyed by this rip-off, but it was much better than staying in Paris and wasting money. And the high value of the euro is a bit of a bummer. Fortunately, the cost of living is cheaper in the countryside, even for hotels, so I consoled myself by thinking so and drove on.