Driving experiences

Driving in Britain is never going to fully prepare you for the French roads.

I do not have much experience driving in the north of the country but I am pretty sure that the further south you go and the closer you get to marseille (and possibly Paris) the more of a challenge it becomes.

I spent my first year in France driving British vehicles, so I did not have to get used to the new layout of the car. I only found it a struggle overtaking, I had previously been driving for 8 years and I found it surprising that changing from one side of the road to the other was pretty simple. Only on quite roads, it can become confusing, trying to remember which side of the road I should be on.

The bigger struggle is arriving back in the UK and getting a bit freaked out when approaching roundabouts, wanting to drive on the right. It is not too much of a problem though and I only get nervous when it is someone else driving. "YOU'RE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!"
As an archaeologist, I was mostly driving vans and we thought it would be fun to show the French that, being a white van man, you need to have a copy of the sun on the dashboard.

After the first year the company started renting French vehicles.
My first experience driving a French car, it was a Ford actually, was a little bizarre. Even before setting off I knew I had forgotten something, sat there for a few minutes I realised I needed to take off the handbrake, job done.
Next test, changing gear, easy really but i would occasionally hit the drivers door with my hand, instinctively going for the gear stick and I would usually drive rather close to the pavement, I did clip it a couple of times.
My first journey was about 2 hours, mostly on the autoroute. After that it was just as easy as driving a UK car. switching back was confusing, but after a few switched it became second nature.

I consider myself a good driver. I indicated and try to keep a safe distance from the car in front etc.

Driving in France I have discovered a few things that I get annoyed with when it comes to French drivers:

• No indicating
• Wrong use of the indicators i.e. signaling to early, late, the wrong direction
• The need to drive up your arse and try and overtake at any possible opportunity, even if you are going over the speed limit.
• The shrug, if they cut you up and you decide to use your horn, you will usually get a shrug, "I did nothing wrong" (careful with the beeping though, one overtook me on a dangerous part of the road, crossing a solid white line. I beeped at him, he decided to stop the car and was getting out. I do not like dealing with psychos so I drove on, around the idiot, who was standing in the road. He proceeded to drive up my arse for most of the journey home. He looked a right idiot with his pink, fluffy dice.
• Those terrible little cars that only do 40mph, AIXAM, I think they are. I do not think that you need a license to drive them, very noisy and slow. It is quite funny that they have produced a sporty version
  
• If it is not the Aixam, then most teens choose to drive a scooter, thats fine, but the noise they make it horrendous, especially when you are sat in the garden and you get a convoy of 3, usually boys, revving their tits off to impress the girl that they have on the back

I will post again on the intricacies of changing over the plats of a British car, turning it into a French licensed one

Struggling to get by

This post isn't necessarily about money problems.
I suppose most Brits, living abroad are well off, middle-class or over and, of course the famous, erasmus student.
For me, I was arriving in France on an archaeologist wage, not great.
At first I found that buying food in the supermarket was pretty cheap, but that was when the exchange rate was quite favourable. When I arrived, in 2007, I was getting around 1.5 Euros for every pound (today my money does not go as far but I am now used to Franch prices)

Unusual pricetags....

There are many annoyances in price differences between UK and French retailers etc.

To buy a pint in a French pub or bar you are now forking out around 6-7 Euros and this is more or less 5-6 pounds. Irish bars are the worst offenders, 7.50 for a Guinness. The best advice is to head out during happy hour or to stock up on some booze from the supermarket, rather like uni days.

I consider myself a bit of a gamer and film addict. This is where we can also find big differences. Buying a new dvd in France? 20Euros. New game? 70Euros. Do not get me started on BluRays.

Thankfully the internet delivers. amazon.co.uk is a lifesaver. Most new items are bought over the internet for me. Clothes are something I will never buy in France, the styles and sizes are unappealing and the lack of colour all put me off. Not to mention overinflated prices.

I run the gauntlet, with fingers crossed, hoping that my new items of clothing will fit.

Language barrier...

When I arrived in France I was not really socialising with French people and the ones that I was socialising with, all spoke English so there was never a need for speaking French. This has meant that my French has come on slowly but I can say that after 6 years it is pretty good.

I owe alot to the late Michel Thomas. His language course is the only tool that I have found useful in conquering speaking French. Although I was speaking most of my French with a German accent, I was able to ask questions and be understood, most of the time. I still find it amazing that some French waiters make out that they do not understand you. It is frustrating repeating a word like merlot, that is pronounced the same in English and French, this wine bar waiter was probably just displaying his disgust of my choice of wine.

Michel Thomas was great for speaking but not so much for listening. Ask a question, great they understood, they fire back a response at 100KM an hour and I was left scratching my head and ultimately waiting for their English response. Most French people will try to show off that they can speak English, unless you make no effort in speaking French to them. I even hear teens throwing in the odd American phrases and words with their friends.

Nowadays speaking French is something that I have to do, as the archaeology company is now French and most of the Brits ave gone back. One thing I try to avoid is speaking on the phone, especially to my French mechanic, he has a strong accent and has resorted to talking to me as if I were a chile. This suits me and somewhat cushions the blow of car repair prices.

The French administration system is another thing that is a right struggle at the start and I feel I could have a whole separate section on that, one that I will create very soon...

If anyone is reading then I am sorry for any spelling and grammar mistakes. My spellchecker is American, my H key is dodger and I write whatever is coming into my mind at the time, you are really reading the first draft that has, possibly been edited after some helpful advice

About me

Before i get into it, here is little introduction about me.

I was born and raised in Wales and went to uni in England.
After leaving uni with a Classics and Classical Archaeology degree, I decided to go into archaeology.

Three years of digging and coping with OTT health and safety regulations,  I was starting to get a little bored and this is when the opportunity arose for me to work for my employer, Oxford Archaeology, in France. A three week trial has transformed into me living in France for around six years.

What i knew about France came from school, i learned French up until year 9, so until about 14. Most of the French i studied was long lost in the past. Other sources f my knowledge included French cinema, notably: Amelie, La Haine, the Crimson Rivers, Taxi and Angel-A
Of course, a few family holidays can be added to this list, mainly consisting of camping in the south of France and trips to northern France, places like Etretet and Paris, with Eurodisney thrown in for good measure.

So, my French was non existent and my destination was a place called Montpellier. I knew they had a football team and, after looking at a map, i discovered it was on the south coast, to the West of Marseille a city i "knew" well from those Taxi films.

The rest of this blog will be about what i have learned about France, the French and what they seem to think about the British and the rest of the world and their views in general