If This Is Friday, It Must Be What? <i> Sacre Bleu! </i> Not New Hampshire?

Three French tourists ended their vacation Friday in the right city, but the wrong country.

The women were looking forward to autumn scenes in Portsmouth, N.H.

The city seemed like a convenient vacation spot, just an eight-hour boat ride from the French port of Le Havre.

But as soon as they landed last week, they ran into trouble.

Their cab driver couldn’t find the hotel where they had made reservations. Police were equally baffled.

“They were adamant they had booked into the Sheraton in Portsmouth,” Police Constable David Crouch said. They handed him a hotel brochure as proof.

“I spotted the word Portsmouth, then saw that it was in New Hampshire, U.S.A.,” Crouch said.

“I didn’t know if they were going to laugh or cry when, in broken English, they asked, ‘Are we in the wrong country?’ ” Crouch said. “Fortunately, they burst out laughing and saw the funny side of it.”

At the Sheraton Portsmouth Hotel in New Hampshire, marketing director Shari Young said the hotel was checking to see if it had a reservation or room deposit from the lost travelers.

She said the hotel would invite them to visit.

“Maybe we’ll send them a map,” she joked.