I woke up early today because we’re taking our mini trip outside of Paris. I was quite thrilled because well, I’ll be traveling around France. The TGV was cool, very smooth ride and very nice inside. Pardon me for my ‘promdiness’, but I’ve never taken a bullet train before. So all is well, nice view, la la la.. until we get to Tours. We have a car rental reservation with ADA. It was a bit off the train station but we thought it’s ok because we got a cheaper deal. We actually did a very, very intensive research on this 8 days trip of ours. When we finally found our way to ADA office at Avenue Maginot, where we had to take a short bus ride from the station, and had to walk a few blocks, lugging our carryon suitcases, the office was close! and no single car in the garage! and when I tried calling their number, it was not in service! It was totally a twilight zone moment!
I had to pull out the email confirmation I printed out to prove my competence to Claire, as car rental was my responsibility! Good thing she had her Lonely Planet France and we tried to contact another car rental office.
We found Ecoto. Funny with Ecoto, since they have the cheapest deal in
Loire Valley, I tried to reserve with them through email before, but I never got any reply. Fortunately, they answer the phone when we called this time. I fumbled with my French which I hadn’t really had the chance to practice, and not that I was totally fluent to begin with you know. I understood though that he had a car available, that it is for 77euro, which is cheaper than
ADA, and that they close at 12h.
I look at my watch, it was 1130h.
We had some time though we still have to find where they are located, so I just had to tell him that:
S’il vous plait, vous doivent nous attendre. Nous sommes des Étrangers et nous sommes perdus!!
So we got our car at 12h. He gave us a map and we’re on our way to Mer, where our hotel, Le Clos, is located.
I like our hotel even if it’s in the middle of nowhere. No, actually it’s between Orléan and Blois along Highway 152. The hotel is an old, big house, renovated to be a B&B. It has 6 guest rooms and car garage. It’s not fancy but it’s very cozy and looks lived in. You can tell that their furniture, china, paintings, and other décor were acquired over the years. That many have lived there and that it has witnessed many events. It’s very clean and well maintained. The owner M. Claude is a really pleasant man who’s warm and friendly. When serving breakfast, he would stay a bit and chat with us in (slow) French knowing that we’re French language students, and also because he doesn’t really speak good English, he says. Breakfast would consists of freshly made croissant au beurre (mmmmmmmm, unfortunately only 1 each), orange juice, and café au lait.
Facade
Hallway
same hallway
If you are ever searching for a car rental around Loire Valley and your search brings you to ADA, run! It's the most undependable car rental company. I received an email confirmation and yet they were not there on the said time and date.
Go to Ecoto instead. Cheapest in the region. They may not reply your email because one guy run the whole office, seriously he answers the phone, take your payment, prepare the contracts, park the cars, but he is kind and helpful when you call them - probably more to female tourists in distress. :p
ECOTO
www.ecoto.fr
8 rue M. Tribut, Tours
Tél. : 02 47 66 75 00
Fax : 02 47 64 79 00
