THE POTATO BABE

Roussillon: Steve's $7,000 Phone Bill

I left Paris on the high-speed TGV train and returned to Avignon. I picked up Blue Betty, who has obviously missed me, and drove to meet Steve and Laura. While I was in Paris, Laura’s nephew Evan arrived from New York. He’s an actor and director, and he’s joined us to videotape our adventures. By the time we got back from eating huge bowls of pasta Bolognese for dinner, Evan and I were fast friends. I foresee some misbehaving in our future – it’s been a long time since I had a 20-year-old playmate.

This afternoon Steve got a phone call from his cell phone company (which shall remain nameless but has a three-initial name) about his bill. Which bill is that, you ask? His $7,000 cell phone bill. It turns out, the “unlimited” cell phone and internet plan he got for the trip wasn’t quite what he thought. Unlimited, yes. Unlimited and free, no. So he’s been spending nearly $10 a minute since we’ve been here. As you can imagine he’s pretty excited about it.

On the way back to Oppede for the arrival of our next group of clients, we stopped at a roadside market to load up on fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m guessing our 200€ bill made his day, because the guy working there put on an absolute show for us (or rather, for Evan and the video camera). At one point he deadpanned to the camera, “I don’t speak French. And my English is worse!” He must have thought we were with the Letterman show or something, because he was in full entertainment mode. He even pulled up his jacket to show us his shirt, which said “Let me see your peaches.” I wanted to pack him up and take him with us.

Full-sized dogs on my train: 3
Times I asked Evan if the volume of snoring we heard from Steve and Laura seemed abnormally loud: 2
Times he said yes: 2