The Griswolds Do Europe

Remember when I told you about our problems at the airport in Amsterdam? You would think that we would have learned something from that, but once again, life's little lessons failed to sink in. The morning that we departed Paris, we set out for the airport with all confidence that we had it planned. The night before we had spent quite a bit of time searching for a gas station so that we could return the car with a full tank. As it turns out, the little town where DeGaulle airport is located doesn't have a single gas station. We finally located one on the entrance road to the airport so we were all set--we thought. We headed out with plenty of time to spare, gassed up and started looking for the place to return the rental car. This airport has three terminals and we were headed for Terminal 2. There was no problem finding it, but it so happens that Terminal 2 isn't just one building. There are four Terminal 2 buildings--2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D. We knew that we were leaving from 2A, so that is where we headed. To our great relief we spotted a car rental return sign and got in the lane for it. However we never saw another direction sign and pretty soon we had made a loop and were right back where we started. We were looping a circle that included 2A and 2 B. We went round again, with the same results, then round again several more times. What's the definition of insanity? By the time we had looped it five or six times I decided that we were one level up and needed to be on the ground level. I could see lots of cars parked in the center of the loop so that must be the place, right? We spotted a ramp leading down and, with a big sigh of relief, down we went. Of course, it turned out to be another parking lot and once we were in, we had to pay to get out--just like in Amsterdam. So back we went to our familiar loop. Finally Brian noticed that above the one sign that indicated the car rental return, there were some letters such as Pa, Pb, Pe, or something like that. On the next circle we spotted another off ramp with one of the P letters on it. We took it, but when we didn't see any direction signs, we finally pulled over and asked an airport employee. Naturally he didn't speak any English and we couldn't think of how to ask directions in French. He finally got what we were asking and answered us with gestures and more French. I caught the word for left, so we thanked him and headed out. Sure enough, by keeping to the left we eventually found the entrance to the car return. It turned out to be on the bottom level of the loop that circled 2C and 2D. Of course there were no signs saying that, so who knew? Sadly, by that time I was so rattled that I left my prescription sunglasses in the car. I think that we have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.