Lost in France-lation
3:11 PM
Until today France has been simple. We've gotten used to taking the trains and getting off at the right stops, checking in and out of hotels, even getting coffees from local cafes. So it was a breeze arriving at our new hosts cottage in Pouzolles, France on Sunday evening. Our host, Kerry, wild at heart and a traveller in her own right, had bought a house across town that badly needed renovation so every day we've been walking across town and stripping wallpaper or scraping up floors. Kerry was sweet enough to offer her us her cottage to stay in while we're here as she sleeps at a friends place nearby. We got used to a nice little routine of walking through the village, doing our work and coming home. Everything was simple, so when Kerry offered us use of her car to see the beach, I said, "Why not!"
This is the story of how we got lost driving around the south of France to a beach that was more sandstorm than sunshine. Later, when we found our way, Zach would tell me "You know, last night I was super hesitant to do this but thank you for speaking up and saying yes."
You'll understand why I asked him if he was being sarcastic.
It's been a bit rainy here so we declared ourselves lucky waking up to sunshine. We'll confess we had too much wine last night, though we ended up passing out around 11pm. So we were slow to wake up but quick enough to realize we had absolutely nothing ready. The drive was supposed to be simple, 30 minutes from Pouzolles down to Serignas Plage, puppies in tow for a sun filled day laying about the sand (did I mention we've been looking after Kerry's dog Oscar?).
So I scrambled to print off the directions from Google while reminiscing about Mapquest and Zach took screenshots of the map from his phone. We spent most of our morning doing this, though we ended up with only Zach's text directions since mine wouldn't print. Kerry arrived to pick us up and bring us to the house where she would be working for the day in a village nearby. We would take off from there to the beach and return to pick her up around 4pm. This was the plan.
Things started out rocky as Zach reaquainted himself with the manual transmission and I nervously scrolled through the text directions on his phone. French road rules aren't too different and their roads only more narrow, but every sign for that first hour seemed to be gibberish and every turn I announced we had to make was quickly followed by "... I think?"
You know what happens when you're lost, you eventually just start following one road becase it seems familiar. Though whether it's familiar from your directions or because you just saw three signs for it remains unclear. We found ourselves on a highway and eventually going through a toll before we gave up on Zach's phone altogether. It was no help to us without its fancy GPS signals and turn by turn directions. So I dug through the pockets of Kerry's car to eventually find our saving glory: A map. But not just any map, a detailed map of our region with the beach clearly marked. We did some turning around, we went through another toll, and suddenly I could see where we were on the map. I called out directions without qualifiers. We cheered when we took a correct turn! Sometimes we took the roundabout for a full loop before we decided, but damn it we did it!
We pulled up to the beach in good spirits that were battered by the wind the moment we stepped out of the car. It was no wonder there was only one other car parked on the hilly side of a half submerged parking lot (it had been raining the last few days). It was winter and it was cold. We grimaced at each other but agreed, we had come so far and we were going to see the ocean. The dogs piled out of the car and start running around the sand dunes, excited to be outside again. They raced each other across the muddy plain, then over the sand, and finally into the ocean where Winry was slapped in the face by a wave. Still, they loved the 20 minutes we spent there and their energy made it feel worth it.
Zach snapped a few misleading pictures and we turned to go back, both feeling extremely hungry from the stressful morning. So know that we weren't completely in our right minds when we saw the signs pointing us in its direction, but we were feeling bold about getting there and for the first time since I was 7, cheered when we pulled into the McDonald's parking lot. I attempted ordering in French but the workers answered me in English and I still somehow managed to mess up the order and only get Zach's food. He was polite enough to share since I was too nervous to reorder.
The trip back to the house was uneventful, which was a welcome relief from the morning, and we made it home safely. The day slowly turned into a "take a nap and set up the jacuzzi" day, so while far from what we originally planned it still involved water!
Best wishes from illegal* drivers,
H W Z
*We weren't technically supposed to driving without an International Drivers License, a paper that translates your American Drivers License into a bunch of other languages for overseas police. Oops...
2 comments
Another host, another adventure! I forget you guys don't normally have stick shift. Column shift would freak me right out so I sympathise!
ReplyDeleteWe had to look up column shift on Google just now, so I guess us too :)
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