A new car

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We pick up our new car today! Instead of hiring a car for three and a half months, it was much cheaper to lease it on the tourist scheme. Basically, you get a brand new car (ours had 8.7km on the odometer) and it includes insurance which is what inflates the cost of a rental so much. We lugged our suitcase and bags over to the pick-up office and found our new Renault Captur in black and orange. It has plenty of space for our luggage and us although fitting adults in the back would not be very comfortable. Also, the indications for how much luggage capacity it has relate to fairly small suitcases not the large Aussie ones we are used to, so one large case and a couple of small bags is about the limit if you want to see out the back window

Anyhow, we set the GPS and set off… O.M.G. Talk about TERRIFYING!! A maze of one way streets, insane traffic and tiny spaces had me well rattled I can tell you. Mel helped keep me calm and we made it out of Paris without trading any paint. Phew! A little while later, the adrenaline had eased off and we were cruising through the countryside. Europeans love their roundabouts so most minor intersections are of this type rather than traffic lights. I had thought that roundabouts were going to be more confusing but it is the traffic lights that are a bigger problem. Stop for a red light, then when you get to the other side there may be another red light for pedestrians crossing so you just sit in the middle of the intersection and wait for the next green light. We discovered there are a few strange rules though, like a side road entering from the right with no give way signs has right of way. So if I’m driving down the straight road and another road enters from the right, I have to stop. On bigger roads, the side roads have a give way sign though so you have to be on the ball.

Thanks Mark for the “find alternate route” tip. We stayed off the major highways and although it takes quite a bit longer, you get to see the country instead of a concrete sound wall along the motorway. Driving through the tiny French villages, you can see how much poorer regional France is. The buildings are still old but in most cases the only one that is well maintained is the large church. And every village has one. There may only be a couple of rows of broken down houses but there will be a church with its belltower in the middle.



After a lovely drive, we eventually came to our hotel for the night… definitely a highway motel. They are basically 3 storeys of dongas. A double bed which takes up almost the whole room and a single bunk over the top for Em with a miniscule bathroom in the corner. The hosts are lovely though and we were comfortable for the night. Since the restaurants around here don’t open until 7pm, we went for a drive and found a lovely little park along the bank of a river. Em had fun running around and picking flowers and then we went for tea before retiring.

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