Author: Rick Funkhouser

Driving on the left side of the road from what we think of as the ‘shotgun seat’ has taken some getting used to. Rick Steves suggests in his travel guide that it takes a few hours to get acclimated. I wish!  Actually the driving, and even the roundabouts, is fairly easy to adjust to. You are fed into the roundabouts angled in the proper direction. The difficulty for me has been judging where the front left wheel of our small Vauxhall is tracking. I adjusted the passenger (left) side mirror downward so that I could see the white line or curb–with which I’ve become well acquainted, both visually and tactilely.  Another benefit of this mirror position is that it gives Kathy something to look at (before she gasps) when she perceives me to be too close on the left.

I even taped a one square inch piece of paper to the dash, positioned so that when it reflected onto the windshield I could line up that reflection with the center line on the road! Then I was centered on the narrow roads we were negotiating.  It was four or five days before I was confident (at least somewhat) that I could judge the position of the car on the road.

A totally new experience is driving for extended periods on single lane two way roads.  Yep, that’s not a typo.  The ‘single track’ roads are interspaced with turnouts, usually fairly often but not always, allowing one car (hope it’s  not a bus) to  pull over while the other passes.  (“Kathy, you can open your eyes now.”)

About the time I became totally comfortable with the small Vauxhall, we flew to Dublin and when leaving, picked up not the expected VW Golf, but the considerably larger Passat for touring Ireland.  Thus, a whole new acclimation period.  Thankfully, the roads in Ireland are an upgrade from those in Scotland–even some divided highways, and very few single lane roads.

I’m thinking that I might have adapted more quickly to driving on the left thirty or forty years ago, but I am glad that we (and the cars) escaped unscathed.  Now arriving in Paris for two+ weeks, I’ll have a chance to reset my driving instincts to driving on the right side of the road before we head to the Dordogne.

 

It’s Rick here again. We’re back in France for a few days on our way from Tuscany to Barcelona so a good time to publish these comments. We love the wines in France and the availability of good wines at surprisingly low prices is wonderful.  But the wine service in restaurants deserves a special shout out.  It puts service at home to shame.  From the corner cafe to a fine restaurant, the stemware is exemplary–nice thin rims equal to a Riedel stem. I should also mention that every Airbnb has also provided decent wine glasses for our use at home.

In Alsace, wine is served in the typical little Alsatian glasses…maybe not our favorite, but appropriate for the region.

An ice bucket is always presented with plenty of water in it, as well as ice, to chill the wine, unlike at home when we routinely have to dump our water glasses into the bucket to actually get it to cool down the wine.

And the wine lists – cartes du vins – are quite reasonably priced–most wines under 25€!  Tony Forman would be wise to note that not one sommelier has tried to taste our wine before we were offered a taste!!

One other noticeable difference – and not an altogether unwelcome one – is that, once the wine is served – except in really upscale restaurants – it is usually left on the table for you to pour for yourself…with no need to feel apologetic about it.

Drinking wines from every region has been one of the joys of this adventure.

Rick here…Kathy has done most of the writing so far, but I have some comments about our car and driving in France.  We’ve now logged almost 3000 km, about 1900 miles.  As Kathy said in an earlier post, we leased a car through the Peugeot Open Europe program. What we have is a 308…one step up from the entry level 200 series.  We were upgraded to “Select” from basic because that’s what was available.  We were told that the difference was a sun roof. We can always spot our car because it’s the only one we’ve seen in three months that has a red license plate!  We’re told that this indicates that we’re not European and hopefully locals would exercise restraint on their horns and  middle fingers!

The car is equipped with a user friendly GPS in English (a nice British female voice who doesn’t sound scolding, even when she’s saying, “At the next opportunity, make a U-turn.”).  It has front and rear proximity sensors which display on the monitor, but also four corner sensors which have proven quite helpful on the narrow streets and tight parking spaces that we encounter quite frequently.  We opted for the higher fuel mileage stick shift diesel (45 mpg) which is quiet and plenty powerful.  It handles surprisingly well–fairly tight steering, short throw shifter, good brakes and no torque steer from the front wheel drive.  The cruise control will even slow you down if you approach another car too closely!   The dashboard digital display shows the posted speed limit beside our actual speed in either mpg or kmpg as does the GPS screen.  For the automotively challenged, the car will suggest that you shift up or down when it determines you should–actually helpful since the car is so quiet that we don’t get the usual auditory signal to shift gears.  Our four carry-on size bags fit neatly into the trunk.

In much of Europe, traffic circles or ’round-abouts,’ as they are called here, occur at many intersections instead of traffic lights.  They facilitate a smoother flow of traffic once you learn how to navigate them.  Except in ‘Centre Ville’ most or round-abouts are two lane affairs.  If you are exiting at the first opportunity,  you enter in the right lane with your right turn signal on.  If you are going further around, enter into the inside lane with your left turn signal on.  Then flip your turn signal to the right as you approach your exit.  Once in the circle you have the right of way.  Being alert and using the turn signals ensures smooth sailing.

I’ve been doing the bulk of the driving as Kathy tends to freak out on the narrow streets of towns and she’s not crazy about the roundabouts, either.  She’s not a bad navigator, though…helped, of course, by our trusty GPS gal.