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Careful driving

Yesterday was a long day.  I was picked up by Marie-Helene at 8am to take me to our walking group.  As French drivers go Marie-Helene is a careful driver, not tail-gating and not overtaking recklessly.  She doesn't keep to the speed limits but then I have yet to find one who does.  She is a dithering driver, however, someone who can get lost on a straight road.  So when I said take the first exit off  the roundabout  Marie-Helene drove straight past it and said 'shall we take this exit?' heading for the second one.  Well no actually go all the way round the roundabout and take the first exit..  This continued all the way until we reached La Fleche.  Our instructions said to head for the town centre.  Take the first exit, I said.  'Shall we take this one?' she asked indicating the sign that said Angers.  I remained calm and suggested that she take the exit that says town centre.  'Oh alright' sounding disappointing that we weren't heading off to find the autoroute.

By the time she dropped me off at my house it was nearly 5pm and I was being picked up by Caroline  at 6pm to go to tennis.   After tennis we were all going to share a meal together, having all brought something.  After Caroline's two aperitifs and her third glass of wine I felt like reminding her that she had to take me home again.   Eventually we left at 10.30pm.  If I felt exhausted from concentrating on French all day it didn't last long.  We exited the town at high speed and took to the twisted country roads that go to my house.  I hung on tight as we careened round bends on completely dark and unmarked roads I tried to concentrate on what she was saying whilst remembering to be grateful to all these kind souls for giving me rides while my car is in the garage.  As we screamed into my hamlet at high speed and came to a juddering halt outside my house, Caroline said, '10 minutes that must be a record.'  I wouldn't argue with that.


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