french driving is a little different than what I’m used to. it’s super aggressive and lanes don't exist so everybody is constantly cutting each other off. people never learn to parallel park because you just bump the cars in front and behind until you’ve made it into the spot. you can park on sidewalks, handicap spaces, lawns, etc. so long as you sprint to your car before the man giving out tickets comes up--most of the cars are so small the sidewalk is ideal. when there is construction that closes one lane and lasts a long distance you don’t have people letting one side of the road go and then the other, you just gun it and hope nobody is coming your way. people to your right have the right away, sometimes. it’s still not exactly clear to me when it’s allowed. I’ve also had to get used to not keeping my keys in my ignition. and best of all, driving insurance only costs 4 euros a month.

I was asked before I came to france if I had a driver’s license and was told that I would be able to take the family’s car if I wanted to drive for a weekend trip nearby. I thought oh hey, that’d be cool and super convenient but I didn’t put much thought towards actually asking them if I could. however, the day after I got here the dad basically threw me the car keys and was like let’s go. the car is stick which they were thrilled that I knew how to drive and I laughed with marie one day asking what she would have done had I not been able to drive, to which she just shrugged her shoulders saying she was planning to have to teach me how to drive it.

it’s been an absolute blast getting to drive the kids around. we live on the top of a hill so I feel like I kind’ve fly down to the bottom for lucy’s school. I have also loved having my same pop songs with french commercials. I found myself singing beyonce’s yo so fuera un chico the other day from the spanish channel. 

today I was feeling pretty confident that I had a grasp of my surroundings and could get myself to the mall to pick up a few things. this consists of getting on a busy highway, which I was fine doing, but the getting back part was a disaster. paris has signs that are arrows and are very unclear as to which is the proper way to turn and you don’t have enough time to choose between the roads. today I chose wrong and was kind’ve panicked but thought I could maybe get off on the next exit and turn around. wrong. french roads don’t work that way so I had made it onto three different highway, miles and miles from home before I saw a sign for paris and could head there. not to mention I cannot read french or understand anything of what any sign says and I was literally laughing uncontrollably the whole time. I eventually found a bus that is the same line that goes past my house so took 3x as long getting home as it should have because I stopped with the bus each time just to make sure I didn’t get lost again. our road trip to versailles this weekend should be an interesting one...

image via bippityboppityboo