French Grills are rubbish-not the meat serving type but those that guard the drains in car parks. Not any old car park but the one in Plaisirs, outside L'Isle de France, and specifically the car park of Toys R Us (apparently untranslatable into French, like Disneyland) (Les Bagatelles sommes nous?)
Tip l'Un. Do not park beside the Grill in Toys R Us.
Having completed an exhausting shop for Mr P (six tomorrow) we rejoined our car. The senior son in law, hands numb from carrying heavyweight packages let the car keys slip from nerveless fingers onto Le Grill; they bounced once and dove from sight into the cavern below.
Tip deuxieme. Fasten your keys into something bulky like a small piano to prevent grill slippage.
Oh Dear.
Que Faire? Well, fortunately the grill was removable. But how deep-watery leaves glinted up at us. The nice man from TRU produced a long metal pole. Poking ascertained that the uncovered drain had only 8cms of water. So the SSIL bravely desocked, rolled up his designer jeans and lowered himself into the drain-(actually mostly underneath the car parked beside us) After twenty minutes tramping on thick leaves the keys were finally located and recovered. The nice guy from TRU produced a towel and a bucket of water to allow basic toiletry and personally escorted the SSIL to les toilettes to complete the ablutions.
Tip le trois. If you must lose keys down a grill-go to Les Plaisirs.France. Don't try this at home and don't attempt it at, say, Sir Morrisons. Any help might be grudging and if you are French with no English,
l'oubliez.
