Part 1
I asked in my best but rusty French if she had a cappuccino. I actually meant any coffee with something creamy/milky in it, but I had already made my first mistake. She looked at me with her dark brown eyes just peeping over the glasses resting on her nose: 'Non, café', and when I asked she replied 'Yes I could get milk with that'.
We felt very much out of place, my boyfriend and I, but this restaurant with a sort of 'lounge' where we were allowed to get a drink was the only place we came across on these tiny roads. So we sat there, the two of us, sipping our coffee, while The Lady made us feel like we were 'sort of welcome' but not really. Well, we were off the road, so all was well, right?
It was time to pay, so I grabbed my wallet with my debit cards and walked towards The Lady. "No Card", she said, or well, she spoke in French, but I'm not going to bother you with that throughout this post.
I immediately knew: I'm in trouble! I never carry cash because I never ever ever need it in the Netherlands. If I travel 'far' I might take some cash because I know not all countries accept cards for every tiny amount of money, but France was sooo... close to home! I hadn't considered it wasn't possible to pay by card like at home. Mistake!
Of course, my boyfriend didn't carry cash either, so we asked for the nearest cash machine. 'Five kilometers' she said. That seemed a bit much (maybe not if you're an American, but here things are always within 200 meters distance :D) to just go grab 10 euros to pay for the 3 euro and 80 cents coffee. So first we explored other options. "Can I transfer the money?", I pointed at my phone, where I have my banking app. She looked at me. "Very complicated", she mumbled, but she went upstairs to search for the banking information I needed.
In the meanwhile my boyfriend and I kept brainstorming. Even though this should have been her job, we realized people would have to pay for their meals and do really all French people carry that much cash all the time? So maybe she didn't mean 'no card', but meant 'cards only for bigger amounts'.
So when she finally came down with a note in her hand with the banking info we asked her if we could pin a bigger amount, and she would return us the difference in Cash. But that was a 'No' again, since the cash register wouldn't open if a costumer was using a card.
Then we said: well, what is the minimum amount? I would have gladly paid 10 euros to get it over with. Then she said: '6 euros'. Well, six euros... That was only 2,20 more than we consumed, and driving 10 kilometers in total to get some cash would cost us as well.
So we swiped our card.
Now, one thing I know is a weak point of mine: I can't handle people who are not considerate of others. She, the French lady, had in no way shown interest in thinking with us to solve this 'problem'. She only said 'No' to whatever we suggested or offered, and didn't seem to appreciate we had solved our, her (!) problem.
In times like that I get annoyed easily. A smile doesn't hurt anybody! So I was very very willing to leave the place where we had never felt really welcome and where we now had finally paid for our 2 cups of coffee...
Part 2
Oh, WOW! An hour later we arrived at a gorgeous lookout spot. Some crops with gorgeous leaves with leading lines towards the water, in a late afternoon sunlight... I had just been driving this hour and was happy with a break. I opened the car door to grab my camera - but where was it then?
I sort of instinctively knew: Mistake, again.
"Fuck fuck fuck I left my camera at the restaurant, nooooo!" I yelled, very angry at myself, as I felt 1) I couldn't take that perfect picture (worst thing for a photographer, immediate punishment for stupidity :D), 2) We were actually very much in need of a place to rest for the day, but this would add 2 hours to our driving hours for the day at least, and 3) I would have to face The Lady again!
My boyfriend, never angry at anything or anyone, went into his 'let's solve this' mode, calling the restaurant, only to find out that they were closed for the rest of the day. "Nothing we can do now!", he said, and we would find a place to sleep and get the camera back the next morning...
Part 3
And so we did. We woke up, hopped in the car, and arrived at the restaurant at 10:30, 30 minutes after Google said the restaurant would open. I stepped out of the car, looked at the place, and yes... Mistake. We had assumed Google's info was right and hadn't checked by calling, of course, so the place was: closed.
I went to look for information, and there it was: open from 12:00. So we would have to wait 1,5 hours. We quickly decided to not let this prevent us from having fun, so we looked up a bakery and a picknick spot, and off we went again.
Driving off the parking spot, turning left, almost... A car approached, and the lights told us it wanted to come on the restaurant's parking. I quickly deducted: that must be an employee! Since there was nothing else to do in this neighbourhood, and the parking was a dedicated restaurant parking, and the restaurant was closed so chances of it being a wannabe customer were small... I looked at the car, tried to see the driver, and YES! There she was. The Lady.
What are the chances?
So like a good good stalker I was already out of my car walking towards hers before she even was able to use the brakes and turn off the vehicle. She stepped out of the car, looked at me with her strict eyes over her glasses still resting on her nose: "Oui?"
No recognition. No indication she knew what I was doing here. Not even a bit of surprise I was here when she had just arrived.
"Did you find a camera?", I asked. "Oui", she said, and explained it had been hiding behind my chair out of sight, explaining why I hadn't noticed it anymore while leaving the place.
We walked towards the restaurant where she would grab my camera to give it to me. In those 30 seconds she finally showed a little bit of humanity: "Were you already far away from here when you found out?"
Which was really all it took for me to see The Lady wasn't as stoic as she appeared to be after all.