France has it out for me

It's funny how much we take language for granted. Since I've been here, so many annoying things have happened that would have been so easily overcome if I only spoke French. As our dear friend Greg so kindly said, "I suck at France."  Not to complain: That which does not kill me makes me stronger. After it frustrates the brendanawicz out of me. Anyway, I thought I would put these stories out there so that you could have a few laughs at my expense.

1. Second day of class, feeling great about being out and about in Paris on my own, still high off my newly acquired manual transmission driving skills. I get back to Fontainebleau station and put my parking ticket in the machine to pay and validate the ticket. No dice.

No matter what way I stick the ticket into the machine, it will not work.  The ticket has been de-magnetized at some point during the day. Since it is too late at night, there is no one working at the parking booth. I will have to rely on the machine's call button. The dreaded call button. No arm gestures, no facial expressions.  Spoken language only.  F*ck! (pardon my French, but I need to be true to how I was feeling at the time). I try several times to communicate through the tinny speaker, but have no luck. I still don't know if they were hanging up on me out of frustration with my less than adequate French, or if they were telling me to go to the gate and they would let me out. I'll just assume the latter to make myself feel better. That's what ended happening when Ian's friend very kindly drove him to my aid - after I was trapped in the parking garage for an hour.
France-1, Lauren-0.

2. Mardi, le 22 septembre. I'm heading back from another time-sucking grocery shop at Carrefour. You know it's too big when the employees wear roller skates to get around and it makes Ikea seem like a reasonable, easy shopping trip. I have a backseat full of temperature sensitive groceries when I discover that all of the roads leading into my village are closed for a construction project consisting of a hole in the sidewalk about 10 feet long by 5 feet wide.

Yes, makes complete sense. Let's close miles and miles of roads that aren't even heavily travelled for this minor project. Oh, France. After 40 minutes of driving and trying three different roads I just drove through the fourth roadblock. It felt good :)
France-2, Lauren-1.  I'm giving each of us a point for that one.

3. Aujourd'hui.  I arrive at the train station to catch my train for class. There are construction vehicles blocking the entrance to the parking garage. I park in the 5 minute lot and manage to scrawl the note below and stick it under the windshield wiper in time to sprint to the train. I hope the car is still there when I get back! Fingers crossed. I'll update the score later: if the car is there, me and France will be tied!
France-?, Lauren-?

EDIT: The car was still there!  France-2, Lauren-2.  I'm back in the game!