No car Sunday – about freedom that comes with dependence

This weekend took off positively. Our first visitors arrived on Saturday as the prelude to the upcoming two months where we will have many more friends and family that will follow them on the same road from NL to FR. The house will be pretty busy. We tried to tidy up everything and arrange everything properly before all the excitement would begin. So that during this period we would be able to do the things we wanted to do and our friends and family could enjoy their holidays without having to lean too much on each other. We could enjoy the time separately and come together when we all wanted to. And so we thought we were prepared when the first guests arrived on Saturday evening. On Sunday this plan bursted apart though and we became pretty dependent on our guests. But first some fun things ;)

Sunday began early due to the fact that one of the visitors is still a baby and needs attention early in the morning. Also we wanted to visit a market and markets are open only in the early morning here in our region – but maybe in most of France. We  visited the market, did our groceries, enjoyed the weather and did a bunch of more things when we arrived back home. But since we woke up so early we had a whole day left and Eduard and I decided to drive up our mountain to a farm that organises wild food tastings and all that kind of things. We wanted to inform ourselves about possible trips we could do with some of our guest later on this period.

So we took off together and visited the farm, did some inquiries about the possibilities, looked around, cuddled the animals, bought some garden plants and – impressed by the beauty of the farm we headed home. Our retreat was accompanied by some moooo’s  from the cows in the field across the farm.

We didn’t come far though, soon we heard a loud noise. Something like a flat tire and with a braking noise we stopped. While still in shock – we left the car – placed the warning triangle behind our car and had a look at the tire that seemed to be broke. It was broken, but unfortunately not flat! The whole wheel seemed to have collapsed underneath the drivers seat. It was the wheel that was repaired earlier this year! Oil started leaking underneath the car, so while Eduard started calling emergency help, the farmer came out to help him as far as he couldn’t explain the women on the other side of the line what happened, and afterwards he brought some straw to put on top of the oil so that people wouldn’t slip after the car was going to be pulled away. Things didn’t look good at that moment and we were only counting our blessings that this didn’t happen on the highway.

An hour later the car help came and with some pushing and pulling, he placed the car on top of the truck and told us that it was probably going to be repairable. So we chose the garage where he could take the car to and off he went – our silver transporter. Fortunately our visitors arrived here by car and we could therefore call them and ask them if they could pick us up from the place we were left now. Yep, two days later we are still dependent on our visitors car. We live far away #onthemountain and a car is pretty essential in our lifestyle now.

This morning we therefore visited our garage to hear what could be done, we already heard that it was going to cost 1000+ euro and they asked us to bring some information about the last repairs the car had so that they could see if the last repair was done properly. And guess what! The former garage was indeed to blame! So without having to ask him, he called them, explained the situation. He told them what was wrong and that he thought their repair was not preformed properly. He explained that the situation we ended up in was dangerous and apparently the person on the other side of the line agreed to pay the whole reparation. What!? Seriously?! Our luck was turning.

Eduard told his colleagues today that the garage helped us out and that the past repair was apparently insured and they confirmed that this was a normal procedure in France. They told him that the garage was even lucky. If any harm was done to the passengers of a car they would have been investigated and probably shut down as a whole! Wow, that’s a bit comforting to know that garages are held responsible for their work if it isn’t done properly. I assume I will have some trouble re-trusting the car again after we get it back this friday, so it’s good to know that this garage will probably take their job more seriously. Until then we are independent! And sometimes being dependent can set you free. Or better: if you allow yourself to depend on someone, it can liberate you:

Duct Tape Surfing from Mark Tipple on Vimeo.