Jen Drives Stick-shift: Take 1

Today I took the car out all by myself! Yayyy! And I didn't die or kill anyone, although I did stall out waiting to get on the round-about once or twice and people honked their horns at me.

I actually had my first experience driving my cute little Renault Clio 2 yesterday, but only 2km to the bank and back. And not by myself, but with my highly concerned host family.

So, today I thought I would discover the town a bit, go shopping, and learn to drive my car. Sadly, it started out kind of tragically when I stalled out 3 times in the driveway because I forgot to undo the hand break. Whoops. Jerome, my host dad, looked extremely worried that I was not going to make it there or back.

"N'inquiette pas" I said ("don't worry"). He laughed nervously and replied "OK, bon courage!" (roughly speaking, "stay strong/good luck").

I made it out of the neighborhood with the help of the GPS navigation device that Jerome put in my car for me, programmed with "Home" and the shopping center I was looking for. Sadly, it is in French, and meters don't mean a lot to me, so when it says "Tournez a gauche en 160meters" it really doesn't help me much. So, I turned it off, turned on the radio and went driving around.

I spent the first 2 hours looking for the shopping center that apparently I had driven past in the first 5 minutes. But the good news is now I know how to find the beach, the McDonald's, and the highway- in both directions. And I know how to find my way back to the main round-about in my town. I found it from every direction, I think!

When I finally ended up at the Carrefour- I was covered in sweat from driving through all of the traffic, learning my new car, and trying to figure out the damn rules for the round-about. I decided to treat myself to a Coke at the McDonald's inside the shopping center to calm my nerves, and it worked.


I looked around some of the shops and ended up buying myself a new bag for my handball stuff, so I can carry both my handball stuff, my shower things, and a change of clothes. Should be useful. I also tried on some clothes I didn't buy, but now I know how to find everything so if I have some time next week I can go back and shop around.


Yayyy! I'm learning how to drive in France! I will try to go out again tomorrow so that I'm ready for anything starting Monday. Like driving myself to practice? Hmmm, that should be interesting!