Driving!

The good thing is that France drives on the same side as US. As for everything else, it takes some getting used to. In all my travels, I have avoided driving in foreign countries because there are nuances that I may not pick up and end up in a predicament. But now I am forced to drive, and it hasn’t been all that bad. The key is to pay attention…the intersections can be tricky. There are traffic lights 100 feet from each other and some apply to you some apply to a turn lane that magically appears and some have nothing to do with you. Two roads intersect right before another two roads or 5 roads from different directions intersect all at once and to determine which stoplight pertains to you. And of course there are the round-abouts; what I have determined is to just go and if there is anyone coming they will have to adjust their speed for you. Can’t quite get the hang of that yet.

Most of the cars take diesel, in the US green is the color of the pump for diesel; in France green is for gas. We learned this the hard way. I have a rental car for the first month, we went to fill up the car with the green pump and within ½ mile realized our mistake. Gas does not work in a diesel car (just in case you were wondering). It moved, but sputtered. Fortunately, we had insurance on the car. Hertz towed it away the same day. Getting another car was another problem. It was a holiday weekend, and finding another car big enough for 5 people was not easy. After a day of trying, they found one in Lyon. So I took a bus to Lyon airport and picked it up. The Hertz people at the counter told me it was a diesel car and not to fill it up with gas. I thanked them and went on my way.

The interesting thing about the cars is that when you’re stopped for more than 2 seconds, the car turns off. When you let off the brake the car starts by itself. I think you can turn the option off, but I think the purpose is to help the environment and conserve fuel.

I can’t imagine what it was like before GPS! I turn when the car tells me to and have faith that the navigation system is 100% correct. There are so many one-ways and I can’t hardly tell what street I’m on because the signs are very difficult to see. Most street signs are just posted on the side of a building and they are not very big and some blend in with the color of the building. So, I just turn when my car tells me. After 2 weeks of driving, I can get to work from the apartment and from the apartment to our house without the GPS! I think that deserves a celebration! Although I did drive in a bus only lane because the other lanes were one-way going the other directions…fortunately nobody was on the road.

Another interesting thing about driving is that people are courteous. They stop when the light turns yellow (instead of speeding through the intersection); they stop at crosswalks when someone wants to cross. Neither of these are practiced in the US (at least where I’ve lived). It’s nice.

The fun part will be a year from now. We can use our Utah licenses for one year. After that we have to take the French driving test (in French), this consists of a written test, a driving test, and new this year they will require a car test where I have to know parts of the car and what to do in emergency situation. I will be allowed an interpreter but the tests are timed and I won’t be given extra time. Yet another reason to learn French as soon as possible.

We decided to take a road trip to Italy, what we didn’t realize is the number and amount of tolls between Grenoble and Torino. Holy mackerel! I think all told, there and back, we paid almost 150 Euro. One toll was 44 Euro for a tunnel that went under the Alps for 12km…TWELVE KILOMETERS! Once I realized how long the tunnel was, I didn’t mind paying 44 Euro.  And that’s what all the other tolls paid for as well…tunnels. The kids were excited to go in the first few tunnels but after about a dozen, it got old.