Yeah, we can laugh about it now! Let me see, we have a choice of excursions at this port: Excursion #1 A visit to the Hopital Centre d' Perpignan or Excursion #2 Tour of Provence with Catherine? The #1 excursion was quite exciting, but I think the wine and the scenery would have been much better on the Tour with Catherine! LOL

I should have gotten some pictures of that place. It looked like some prison compound in a third world country, but I will say that they took exceptional care of Diana, and that was all that really mattered.

Here are some of the funny things that happened. The nurses hardly spoke any English and we spoke even less French. So we communicated for the most part in Spanish, since we were so close to the Spanish border. It was especially funny when Diana asked, "Hay cualquier otros Americanos aqui?" (Are there any other Americans here?) When they started laughing, Diana pointed to herself and asked, "Un solamente?" (I'm the only one?) To which they answered, "Si!" Probably the only American that they had ever seen was J.R. Ewing on Dallas.

The hospital room windows had bars on them and no glass. There was a roll down metal shutter to use if you wanted to keep the light out, or bugs out for that matter. She did have a view of the Pyrennes though. I think it was an upgrade though for her Room with a View! LOL

The toilets had no seats on them and you had to go to a special room to take a shower. In there they gave you a sheet (no towel) to dry off with, and an instruction placard (in French of course) on the proper way to bathe. :eek:

When we went to check out of the hospital it was, here are your medical records and au revoir. No check out desk, no place to pay, no nothing. Probably didn't even know what to do with us, since it is socialized medicine there. Several, and I mean several months later, we get a bill (in French of course) from the Hopital Centre d' Perpignan for payment of something like 1032 Euros for everything including her two night stay. Come to think of it, that was probably just the upgrade charge for the Room with a View! LOL

What an experience!