Sadly, after 4 fun-filled days, we leave John and Jean and head back to the mountains. Flaine, which is part of our ski resort (Le Grand Massif) opens this weekend. We are actually looking forward to the rest...J&J lead life at a hectic pace. We also think we won't need to eat or drink again until at least Monday next week.
As we mentioned previously France is a surprisingly big and spacious country considering that 61 Million people live here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_France). France also seems to have a wide range of climates, from the high mountains where we live to hot and cold coastlines and even volcanos!! On the way back to Araches we across a high central plateau - about 1000m. The horizon was dotted with dormant volcanoes covered in their winter snow coats.
I have also discussed how well the French Autoroute system operates. But I would like to make some further observations on French Driving habits.
French Observations - Driving
Use (or lack of) Indicators - Moira (our resident advisor on all things French) had advised us that the French were diligent users of their indicators. She assured us that we would always know when they wanted to pass or change lanes . While we are loth to disagree with Moira, (actually, we are only brave enough because we are in cyberspace), our current empirical & scientifically collected observations do not support Moira's contention. In the 1400km journey we undertook to Bergerac and back, we saw people driving in between lanes with their left indicators flashing and erratic swerving back and forth between lanes without any indication at all! And no-one uses their right indicator to show they are moving into the slower lane.
We are the only ones who use our right indicator. We do this mainly as a peace offering to those expensive German cars who are bearing down on us in the fast lane at warp speed. The tactic seems to work! So far our retinas have yet to be scorched when the German autos get testy and blast slow and imputant cars with their high beams.
Which now brings me to our second French observation on driving.
French Use of German Automobiles - It was our very clear impression that those french who drive expensive German Autos, believe that they are driving a miracle machine that will magically keep grip on the road in all conditions and that even if they crash at 200km/hr - no-one will be hurt. That can be the only explanation we can find for the fact that these German autos are so frequently the cars in the fast lane doing 180km/hr +.
So we have come up with our own codes names for these beasties: - Audi = "Agro", BMW = "Blind Manic Wally" Mercedes Benz = "Mad Bugger" & VW ="Vexed Whacko"
Car conversations are now: "Watch out Gra you've got a Mad Bugger on your tail". "Careful, Vexed Whacko coming in fast on your right and an Agro on your left!!" ....you get the drift!
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