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| This is our groovy and zippy car - me posing at the drivers side - this was as close as I got to driving!!! You see lots of cars over here with no wing mirrors and we now know why! |
Karl did really well - it is pretty stressful driving on the other side of the road; some of the narrow roads that we had to travel on to get to the small villages were a mission. Also the thousands of roundabouts that had to be negotiated - remembering to look left at the roundabouts (which is where the cars are coming from) we realised is quite important - only forgot this once or twice!
The main times that we drove on the wrong side were when we were first taking off - it is just instinct to drive straight to the left side - which Karl did a couple of times until I said "wrong side" - there was however no traffic at the time..............we only drove into oncoming traffic once! Pretty good I would say! - and this was when we were looking for a park, late at night, in a place with no parks and lots of traffic and a tired family!!!!
Having a small car is important over here as some of the road are very narrow - and they seem to like either putting concrete fences right beside you or a big ditch so if you go over too far you are in trouble - the French, of course, are used to these roads, and drive pretty fast even when the roads are super skinny. By day two Karl was a lot more comfortable and felt he had the size of the car and space needed worked out - wahoo!
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| Yes, this is a road that people drive on! This is in Gordes. |
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| Yep this is a road too - the strip down the middle is for the water to drain down........a road in Roussillon. |
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| Down to the left is a road also - this is in Roussillon - a beautiful place with amazing colour. |
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| Not all roads were narrow and crazy - this type of road was also common. There are also motorways that give you 3 lanes each way - however these are not very scenic........or adventurous - and adventure is what we are after!!!! If you are going from big town to big town it is much easier and quicker to take trains - however to go to the villages you need your own car - |
Karl blames the navigator for everything - I had wanted to buy a road map, but he says lets wing it - Karl is not a "winging it kind of driver/guy" - (after 13 years of marriage you would think I would remember this and just got a map anyway! But no - let just see if he has changed with all the travel he has done over recent years - NOPE!) - it is wierd when the signs are directing to different towns but you don't know what direction those towns are even in and there is not enough time to consult the map before you need to decide...........and there are all these random exits that may or may not be the right ones. Those that know me well know that map reading and sense of direction are not my strong points (yes Gill nothing has changed since our OE over 20 years ago) - however I feel that this adds to the adventure and experience and you end up seeing things you would not have seen if following the right route - however Karl does not have this same view!!! You know when someone has this face that "this is all your fault" - every time!!!!!! I just keep saying "oh this is new; who would have thought that we would see this - wonder where will will end up - it will definitely be somewhere new...........hehe,
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| This is Nimes - not a planned destination but look at what we would have missed had we not driven through trying to get to Arles.......a huge arena and some amazing architecture - we might have to come back here for an event one day! |
Not far out of Marseille I was requested to get the navigator on my phone - this worked well until my phone decided this was hard work and crapped out on us - however by then we had visited a few little towns and were headed to the main centre of Avignon. Unbeknown to us there was a heavy mental/multiple band concert on called INSANE - (apparently I should have know this) and there was a heap of traffic trying to get into the venue and we were just trying to get past it - so us in a traffic jam for a couple of hours was unexpected and it was only near the end of this that we worked out what the jam was all about - initially we had thought it was an accident (which I think may have been part of the problem given there was a ambulance with lights on at one point) - anyway we weren't in a hurry to get anywhere and traffic is traffic so we just had to wait it out - we had water, ended up getting the ipad out and playing some games - not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but did mean we could have done another little village and entered Avignon a different way! Bugger! But we got there in the end, found a park and a restaurant and booked our accommodation!
Parking!!!!! Parking in France is crazy - in Marseille people park absolutely anywhere - on traffic islands, footpaths and other such random ways - I will make it my objective to take some photos and put them on the blog!!! We have never seen anything like it. Avignon is not quite so "park anywhere crazy" but there are just no parks. Our accommodation had parking - yay - NO - they did have a couple of spots but there were booked out months ago - you just have to find a park - great - everyone already tired and having to search for a park just in a walled city known for parking issues. Eventually found one just at the point where me and the boys were going to head to our hotel and leave Karl out there looking for a park or sleeping in the car - our carpark was found because I approached and managed to converse in broken French/English with a couple who had a car parked around the area and I walked with them while Karl followed in the car! Yay - park found, hotel here we come!
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| The view from our hotel room - looking out at the ancient walls of the city of Avignon........this walled city is very cool - check out my post on Avignon. |
Loki says we had a crazy zippy little car. The roads were quite bumpy at times. Loki says he felt comfortable knowing that dad was driving - would have been scared if I was driving - however I don't know why he would say that!!!! Karl did not list me as a driver - I was quite pleased with this........although don't know why he would not want to share the stress!
Although a brand new car the boys were surprised they had wind down windows (oh the effort required!!!) Connor noticed that every time dad hoped in the car he went to grab the seat belt from the wrong side; also would go to put his elbow on the window, but not on the window side!!! Being on the other side of the car takes away all your normal "do without thinking" driving bits.
Anyway we survived our first hire car experience and we are all keen to do it again either next weekend or the weekend after - weather dependent - as we also want to get out on the water and explore some islands................bring it on we say!
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