L'Histoire du Pneu Coupé

We arrived home safely at about 2 PM today. This time, neither the weather nor the ferry thwarted our attempts to cross and re-cross the English Channel. We were hoping that the streak of bad luck had ended, but to counteract our safe and fairly uneventful crossings, we were the recipients of a flat tire which makes me think that we need to be prepared for just about anything when traveling.
We awoke on the first morning in France en route to Brittany (we overnighted in Caen) to see that the tire had actually cracked on the side and was unable to be repaired. Luckily, my husband really is the bomb diggity (TY E!) and he had the spare on in less than a half-hour. Three hours later, we were at our place (more details on that next time). Four DAYS and four tire establishments later, we had a new set of rear tires after a full day's search. It turns out that since our car is American, it basically doesn't exist in European terms. Therefore, it has a very special (read: "impossible to find") tire size.
I first went to the local Peugeot dealership on Wednesday right near our rental house. We chatted in my pidgin "tire speak" and he directed me to the next biggest town. On Thursday, we set off with a minimalist idea written on a minimalist post-it note of how to find this tire place. Lo and behold, we took the perfect route and found the place immediately - really amazing! The pidgin "tire speak" ensued, the guy looked up the info and came up with rien, nada, zilch. He also informed us that they (French border patrol/customs) wouldn't allow us to leave France with a spare tire on the car (?!?!?!) and my gut clenched. Then, he recommended we try a Honda dealer. He gave us minimal directions to the next biggest town and we set off, unsure of what we actually understood and just plain old unsure.
Believe it or not, after one wrong turn, WE FOUND THE PLACE! We were welcomed by a mechanic with whom I could actually converse since my "tire speak" was improving with all of the practice. He did not have the size we needed, but he called another tire warehouse place in the next big town and they had two of the correct size. Unbelievable! The next place said they could have the tires delivered by 4:30 that afternoon. The mechanic was very interested to peek at my car because he'd never seen one. He was so extra nice, drew us a map and we were off to scout out the place so I could return solo later that afternoon. We immediately found it - I know, unbelievable, right? We return home get the kids situated and just hang out until it was time for me to go.
I make my way to the last place just fine, park the car, walk in, the mechanic says, "Bonjour, Madame, puis-je vous aider?" (Can I help you?) I open my mouth, say, "Oui", and he says, "Ahhhh, la voiture americaine." No "tire speak" required. A half-hour later and a lot of Euros lighter, I am the proud owner of two new Pirelli tank tires. Now, I just need to order two more from the RAF base for delivery and we will have four new tires because the front two are looking sketchy as well. UK roads are really tough on tires.
As an aside, we have had a flat tire in France two of two times driving there. However, the roads in France are wonderful because they have major tolls on their autoroutes, so my hunch is that the tires get spoiled on those French roads, relax a little and deflate.