Expat 101 Lesson Six – How To Exit A Parking Lot

Before our move, this was obvious.  Drive. Pay the person.  They will lift the gate for you.  

He is in the midst of a masterful parking job, or just turning around like Austin Powers in a 400 point turn.

Land is expensive here and people want to make lots of money off of their nice parking lots.   Labor here is a bit more expensive than in the US.  Therefore, there is no attendant.   How are they going to rake in the big bucks?  

Machines.  You take the card you received when you arrived to one of these machines.  Insert cash (be careful to bring Euros with you if you go to France because they don’t always take credit).  Your ticket will be spit back out.  At the exit, insert ticket into a second machine.  It will raise the bar for you.

Under no circumstances should you tarry.  Do not under any circumstances stop to change the world’s stinkiest diaper on before putting that baby in the enclosed space of the car.  If too much time passes between when you paid, the bar will not raise.  Worse still, the machine will eat your ticket!  You will be stuck trying to explain (in a foreign language) the problem.  Trust me on this one!!!!