To the right is where we swim!
Our bag was stolen - and it was right next to me.
Where we swim is off the walkway. We hop down onto the rocks with our gear and swim around. Today we arrived, got ourselves sorted and the boys were in. I was sitting on the rocks with the bag beside me. Loks had brought a cool new snorkling set with some of his birthday money and he was super excited. I moved forward slightly to help Connor with his snorkel and it would appear that this was when the thief or thieves struck!
We took a backpack, which didn't have much in it given the close proximity of the port. Loki had not bothered to put his clothes or jandals in the bag which was quite lucky on this occassion. In the bag we had a towel, my glasses (luckily I have a spare pair), my havaianas (I am upset about these), some tampons (enjoy thieves) an old t-shirt and worst of all - the keys to our apartment! Duh!
The keys to our apartment - this was our problem!
One bonus - I had my dress on! Had I taken it off and been in the water when the bag was stolen I would have had to wander around town in my togs - not good! Small mercies!!!!!!!
Anyway, we headed back to our apartment - a man let us in the main door and as we had seen him a few times before and he spoke some English, we told him of our dilemma and he was great. He made a phone call to see what police station we needed to go do and gave us directions and thankfully it was only about 20 minutes walk away; he gave the boys a drink, lent us a main door key and 20 euros and let us leave our snorkeling gear with him.
He and another family advised that there is no one that holds keys for all the apartments and we would need a locksmith to come out of a Sunday and deal with the door. They advised we were best to make a police statement first and so off we went.
Did I mention that, of course, this happens when Karl is away! Flying to Finland as this all unfold with the other set of keys and not due back for 4 nights! Always the way!
Just like at home, a wait at the police station can be very long - we waited about two hours and then were seen. We wrote our information in English and what could be understood was translated by the policewoman into French. We were given the French version for our records. They, thankfully, then rang and organised for a locksmith to meet us at our apartment. The police were great and I was very appreciative given my lack of French language.
On the way home, got the boys some food and then walked home and waited at the door for our locksmith. He arrived only after about 20 minutes - yay - and had the door sorted within about another 20 minutes with brand new (very expensive) lock installed. Total cost: just over 500 euros - ouch! Our new friend from one floor down came up to help us with translation - and to make sure we were okay.
Anyway, we have insurance which will hopefully cover some of this and we were together, safe and able to sleep in our own beds rather than goodness knows where. We were very lucky that my purse was not in the bag - as we would have had no money to pay the locksmith and with Karl being in a different country we would have had big problems! And if we could not have got a locksmith we probably would have found it difficult to find accommodation with no ID.
After this day, I felt a beer was much deserved! Got the kids relaxed, talked about how lucky we were and got them off to bed!
Emailed Karl that we had had an eventful day and looked forward to talking to him. Turned out that Karl too had an eventful day with him arriving in Finland, but not his bag (actually my bag)!
This was not a good day for the Frasers' in France. He was off to buy some new clothes for his business meetings over the next couple of days........and some new toiletries - hopeful that at some point his bag will arrive!
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