Thursday, September 29 we had what we thought would be an easy day traveling to France. We allowed plenty of time to get from our hotel to Gatwick airport, located south of London. We took the Underground from the station just 2 minutes from our hotel to Victoria Station and bought train tickets to Gatwick. I got the tickets from a machine and realized they weren’t for the express train. Oh well, no big deal. We got off the train at the airport and decided to have a late lunch before going through security. We were to arrive in Bordeaux at 7:00 p.m. and needed to pick up our car, so no time for dinner after we arrive. Lunch was good, especially considering it was at an airport. Going through security didn’t take too long and we found it was too early to know what gate we needed to go to. They have lounge areas for people in that situation, so we found a couple of seats and waited. We went to Gate 5 when they announced it and waited. And waited. And waited. The flight was delayed. The reasons given were they were waiting for the crew, then it was mechanical problems, then on the Easy Jet app it told me it was strikes in France. Eventually we were told to leave the gate and to watch the board in the lounge area. Okay, more waiting there. Oh, go back to Gate 5. Okay, off we went. Then the pilot made an announcement that there had been a bird strike with the plane but it was fine now. And we waited. Oh, there isn’t anyone to load the luggage. More waiting. By this time I knew the car rental location would be closed before we arrived. Our friend Betsy, who lives in France, was trying to call them for me and never was able to speak to a person. Europcar had our flight information if they really wanted to know what was happening. We arrived in Bordeaux at 10:00 p.m., 3 hours later than we should have. We had to go through immigration and get our luggage, which was fairly fast, then take a taxi to our hotel, which was only 2 miles away. We were exhausted by then, but happy to be in France.