Car #5: Megan

First thing in the morning, Carlos pulled into our driveway. I really like Carlos, he has a really nice face and a very friendly, gentle way. And he's gone way out of his way for us, no doubt.

I explained to him what happenned, and he tinkered for a second under the Xsara1's hood.

"It's the battery," he said.

I explained how "J" had tried to jumpstart us, unsuccessfully.

"That's not strong enough."

From his shiny red Renault Megane he produced a supercharger, and sort of high-intensity battery unit with jumper cables coming out of it. He hooked it up, he waited a minute, and he started Xsara1 right up. Incredible.

And what's more incredible is that he then said goodbye and drove away in Xsara1, leaving us with the newest in our family of recent vehicles, the shiny red Megane in which he had arrived. What a nice guy.

We call her Megan. And of course Kepler wants to call her Xsara1 again, having suddenly decided that Xsara1 should have been called Xsara2 after all. But I think we're going to be firm on this one: Megan she shall be.

But this episode only serves to reinforce one of our dilemmas right now. I'm growing weary, for reasons already recounted, of the Lodève area. We'd like to expand our search in earnest to some surrounding regions, and even up toward the north of France. But so long as Carlos continues not to find us the car we have requested, we are stuck here. It's been two months now that he's been looking. Everyone is surprised that it's taking so long. And the longer it takes, the more we feel somehow simultaneously despairing of Carlos' efforts, and beholden to him for loaning us cars.

What to do?

So we've told "S" that we need to think about exploring alternatives. We need to drive to the UK in June, and although we'd like to give Carlos our business if possible, if it turns out not to be possible, well... It's just a small world over here in a lot of ways. I don't want to step on any toes.