Learning to drive....in France?

Greetings to all of our loyal and lovable followers,

 Team Manrin has decided to share with you their most interesting tale of the weekend. It began after Erin and Manny were both presented with employment at an English school in Freiburg. Since the job requires some travel on the part of the teacher, the school coordinator asked if Erin and I would be confident to drive. Of course we both nodded and agreed at our own interviews but did not reflect until afterward that neither of us had driven a manual transmission vehicle. This may not sound difficult to some, but having driven only automatic vehicles as is quite common in Canada, we tend to be.... at a loss when presented with this situation.

As a safety precaution and a means of practice, not at all an excuse to travel, Erin and I decided to rent a car for the weekend and travel to the neighbouring nation of France. We were fortunate to walk into the rental office a half hour after closing and be able to get service. Our vehicle, a lovely pale blue Opal with a complete sunroof, was the automobile of choice. We prepared ourselves strapping in seat belts and slowly walking ourselves through the process of driving stick. And so began the most painful driving Freiburg has seen in decades. Ninety year old persons would have put us to shame.  Manny, having had a quick lesson from a friend before traveling overseas, began the driving experience. His attempts weren't terrible, but he did manage to stall the car at least two dozen times in the first half hour. The many honking horns, questionable looks from pedestrians and missing a streetcar by 3 inches were only a few of the reasons we thought we should simply return the vehicle. Erin was having no more success than Manny either, we just couldn't get it going. As we sat parked in a small alcove next to a construction site, trying desperately to stay positive but finding little success, a light bulb went off in Manny's head "I think we've been trying to start the car in 3rd gear". Needless to say, the driving became significantly smoother thereafter.

That does not mean it was easy by any means. France is notorious for roundabouts and tightly compressed roads that have vehicles brushing past one another like shoppers during Christmas season. That, and the faulty GPS (aka Helga) made the 3 hour journey become a 5 hour journey. Couple that with angry Frenchmen whose living room Manny accidentally shone the headlights into while desperately searching a map and you've got yourself a 6 hour journey in the dark on mountain slopes.

Yes, it was stressful and difficult, but on the bright side our hotel had a fantastic spread of many foods and desserts for dinner and breakfast. Fresh bread, fruit, cheeses and meats of our choosing, a variety of salads, cold cuts and a few things that I'm not sure what they were (I think one was asparagus except it was white and strange tasting). Desserts of ice cream, mousse (chocolate, strawberry, lemon) figs, dates, apricots, banana pie, coconut pie, something that may have been chocolate cake... among other things (can you tell I'm a connoisseur of food?). The return trip was a visual masterpiece. Erin departed from our hotel in Lon-le-Saunier amid 15 degree weather onto a canvas of sunny blue skies,  alpine mountains coated with deciduous trees, valleys absolutely filled with vineyards and the occasional castle still standing proudly upon its high peak in the mountains. Small villages and towns  occupied valleys creating quaint picturesque scenery which made the previous days disaster worth the drive back. We took what pictures we could and hope you enjoy them. They should be available on facebook for all of you interested.

Until the next journey

Manrin