Day 07 - Sunday 30th April

Today's cooked breakfast at the B&B was pain perdu which consists of French bread toasted and soaked in egg. As we were finishing our breakfast, an English couple came downstairs for breakfast. He has just retired and they have driven from the UK and are heading to Majorca for a few months. The other guests, a French couple, came downstairs as we were leaving the dining room.

Today we will be driving to Bordeaux to join the Scenic river cruise. The forecast for Bordeaux was for heavy rain this afternoon.

David helped us downstairs with our bags at about 11am. Wendy and David gave us a warm farewell and, after programming our route on the TomTom, we set off at about 11:15am.

Initially we drove along local roads - most of which were numbered D followed by a numeral. Eventually we got to the A89 motorway. Once again, there was a toll booth at the entrance to the motorway.

By the time, we'd got to the motorway, we'd passed through some light showers. As we progressed towards Bordeaux, the rain got heavier. Several times it was so heavy it was hard to see.

We stopped for lunch at about 1pm at a roadside service centre. As I struggled to tell the lady behind the counter what we wanted, she eventually asked me if I speak English. It was much easier after that.

Avis had told us that we should fill up with petrol before returning the car because their fee for petrol is high compared with petrol stations. So we used the TomTom to locate a couple of petrol stations close to Bordeaux.

Perhaps because it was a Sunday, the petrol stations had no staff. It was self serve. You had to insert a credit card before filling the tank but it rejected our MasterCard and Visa cards. Eventually we gave up and headed towards the Avis depot.

We'd booked to return the car to Avis at the Bordeaux railway station, Gare St Jean. As we drove past the station, there was no sign of Avis and so we managed to park the car and walked into the railway station to ask for directions at the information desk. He directed us to the other side of the station through the pedestrian tunnel under the railway tracks.

The girl at the Avis desk gave a map on which she marked the route we had to follow. Back in our car, we tried to navigate following her advice but one of the streets was one-way. We tried one of the nearby side-streets wondering how we would ever find it.

Halfway along this narrow back alley, we looked up and saw an Avis sign. This turned out to be the right place where we had to return the car. It was nowhere near the place she told us to go. When we drove in, a man walked up to us and asked us if our name was Byrne.

This was a miracle. We had no idea where we were going and we somehow managed to stumble on the right place. There was no talent in this. Just pure luck. We were very relieved.

The Avis man told us that we would be charged for a full tank of petrol even though it was still two thirds full. By this time we were beyond arguing. He organised a taxi to take us to the wharf to meet our Scenic Diamond boat.

As we approach the boat at about 3:30pm, two men came running to take our bags on board for us. As we walked down the ramp and into the boat we were met at the entrance by about 10 of the ship's crew lined up in their uniforms. The captain was first to greet us. He shook my hand and welcomed us to the cruise.

It was a very warm welcome. We hadn't been expecting this. Suzy told me later that she'd been overwhelmed by our welcome. After all the hassles with returning the car to Avis, it was such a wonderful change to receive such a friendly welcome. She said that she almost burst into tears.

One staff member showed us to our room and explained some of the features in the room. Soon afterwards, our butler, Bora, came to our room and gave us a detailed explanation of everything in the room. Bora is a big burly man from Serbia.

Everyone was required to attend a safety briefing on the open top deck at 5:30pm. Before and after this we took advantage of the large lounge area.

Dinner was a buffet. Apparently this is the only night we'd be having a buffet because every other night would be a-la-carte. They were no menus tonight - just lots of choice.