Day 2 Middle of the Night in Rouen France
So we have a crazy story to share that happened last night (Saturday night). We went to bed around 1:00 am because of several factors (arriving late in Rouen, getting into our apartment, finding food, etc.)
Well around 5:00 am we heard a loud BOOM just outside our window. We both had ear plugs in because French people love to party ALL NIGHT, but we still woke up instantly. Charmaine thought it was a gunshot, but I knew that it wasn't that and that it had to be something bigger. We jump out of bed and look out our 3rd floor window to see what's going on below. There's a police car just below our flat, and a tow truck that is trying to load up a car off the street. That's when Charmaine realized that there were only 3 total cars on all the streets below us. Which is super shocking because we were lucky to find a parking spot a few hours earlier. There was literally NO empty spot at 9 pm except for the one we found. But now, the streets are empty, except for 3 cars. Including ours.
So then we start slowly getting brain power enough to put 2 and 2 together. They're clearing off the streets, by towing one car at a time! They put chains around the white car and hoisted the entire thing up and onto the tow truck. And in just a minute later, they had hooked up the red car to the back. Charmaine said - I bet they're about to tow our car next!!! So she hurries and gets some shoes on and grabs the car keys to run downstairs and outside.
I am watching from our window and taking pictures of everything. Charmaine gets down there and quickly talks to the police officer. He directs her over to our car and she gets in (on the wrong side - because why not? It's the middle of the night and we're all out of sorts. We're in FRANCE!!) He walks in front of the car and leads her on foot out of my sight, down the street and around the corner. Inside I want to freak out, but I'm strangely comforted because it's a police officer. Thanks, Ryan, (my brother) for being a good example of what police officers ought to be like.
She comes back a few minutes later and all is well. She had found a new parking place around the corner and down the block. We remarked over and over today what a miracle it was that we didn't get our car towed in the middle of the night!! It was the BOOM that woke us up. Still don't know what it was.
The reason why everything got towed and cleared on all the streets? I woke up around 7 am to lots of voices and talking below our window again. It was a mass Flea Market that went on ALL DAY LONG. I don't know if they do it every Sunday, but this weekend was a Bank Holiday, so it may have been because of that. Either way, street vendors were all packed on both sides of the streets. Like a giant yard sale.
We definitely have someone looking out for us here and we are very grateful. If we had lost our car in the middle of the night, in a foreign country where we don't even speak the language, that could have been disastrous. But it all turned out okay.
Just thought we'd share that and thank you for your prayers in our behalf. We are very thankful and love you all very much!
Here are the pictures we took.
1 - Our blue Hyundai is the only car not being loaded up
2 - Charmaine is pulling out to follow the police officer - you can see him walking in front of her
3 - The empty streets - this all took place in about 5 minutes at 5:00 am
4 - Street vendors early this morning - more vendors came later in the morning after I took this picture
Love,
Michele
Comments
Post a Comment