Tomtom

Our recent trip to IKEA (Toulouse) for bathroom items gave us a good opportunity to use a Tomtom we are trialling. Tomtom is one brand of a satnav (or navigation by satellite) apparatus. I left the programming up to Wouter. The apparatus belongs to a friend of ours, so we only had to set the route. The instruction booklets for these things are as long as your arm, but Wouter did a good job with no previous knowledge.

The voice is 'Brendan', a bloke with a lovely Irish lilt. There is no 'top of the morning to you' when you turn it on, or 'begorra' if you make a mistake. He's quite clear with his instructions, like:
"in 400 meters, cross the roundabout, take the second exit"

The satnav shows you the current speed limit and your current speed. When your speed exceeds the current limit by more than 5km, there is a 'moo' to remind you to slow down. We had only been through 2 villages and already had 4 moos! I wasn't driving.

Wouter had set the route to go from home via Mirepoix - this was a mistake as we were only skirting the town and not going into the town centre. We found out if we didn't follow Brendan's instructions, for the next 20 minutes or so, he kept trying to get us to turn around, turn right or left, but he just wanted us to go back and via the centre of Mirepoix at every possible opportunity. A trap for young players. Now we know we must find a very small village to travel 'via' as you drive through the centre when travelling on the main road and that will keep Brendan happy.

So some more programming needed to get out of this cycle and stop Brendan complaining and give us directions for our desired route. This meant I had to try and figure it out as we drove and I had never looked at one of these before. I managed to programme in 'Toulouse, avoiding motorways', even though we would not go to the centre of Toulouse, but it would be enough to get us to where we were going.

Happy enough we were getting good instructions, the mooing continued so I just looked at Wouter who had the grace to laugh a little (finally caught and he can't argue with the computer). A little further on we were behind another vehicle and both cars driving at a good rate when suddenly speedy gonzales came up from behind and overtook the both of us with incredible speed. Wouter started mooing like mad. It was hilarious. Obviously that guy did not have a mooing satnav and I had no idea Wouter could do such impressive barnyard noises!

We decided to use it again on the way home - it was dark and foggy and was also the end of rush hour - and it did help us find our way out of the city rabbit warren. Once you know what you are doing with the satnav, how to programme it with accuracy, how to drive to the comments, how to read the screen, it makes driving in unknown territory much less stressful.

Driving Test

On Friday we sat our theory exam for driving. It's been an interesting experience to go through all of this, but I must say it has helped understand how the French drive, even though I get the feeling noone actually follows the letter of the law - maybe that's why they have so many laws and red tape here - if there is enough of it, one of these days someone is bound to follow the rules. We've also met quite a few new people and some new contacts.

Three times a week we went into Limoux to the driving school to do practice tests like they would be in the exam, and be frustrated beyond belief at the logic behind some of the answers. However, after a few times we feel we have come to understand how the French drive and think when driving. One interesting thing we found out is that smoking and eating while driving is 'interdit' - forbidden - because it means you must take your hands off the steering wheel to do it. Also, using the cellphone is interdit - every second car here you see someone talking on a cell phone or smoking a cigarette.... It doesn't help if you do the online tests and then find out that some of the answers are wrong, like this one (we chose the correct answers by the way):
Here are some sample questions - the question is read to you and then you have around 12 seconds to enter your answer, there may be more than one correct response to a question, and there is always at least one incorrect option amongst the options:

On 13th month, after the sign, I may:
make a stop - yes.... A no....B
park - yes....A no....B

I may:
- park before the sign......A
- park after the sign............B
- stop before of the sign.....C
- stop after the sign............D

On a new vehicle, the tyres installed on the front axle and also those installed on the rear axle must be:
- of an indentical structure
yes......A no........B
- of an indentical type
yes.....C no........D
I am well positioned for:
- turning right...................A
- continuing straight ahead....B
- turning left.....................C
- making a u-turn................D

Answers:
Q24 = A D Q3 = B C D Q19 = A C Q23 = C D

The test itself was another story. We did a practice exam at the school and then went down to Rue Blanquerie where we used to live. There is a huge building there, and we always wondered what was inside. Now we know - a lovely courtyard with lovely flowers and exotic plants and a big hall like the old NZ school halls with a stage and big windows. All the different driving schools turned up with their pupils who were all nervous (including us) and hoping to pass (ditto). Then you had to queue up for your turn, as they put the papers in a certain order so you have to go in by the order of the papers - sounds something like trouping the colour... Anyway, we were outside and Wouter thought this is a good thing because even though it was hot and sticky, sitting inside a hall with no air con for half an hour is awful before an exam. We felt better - slightly. Butterflies continued finding their way around my stomach and we wished each other luck. Handsets were given out and then the instructor said a lot of things which we neither heard nor understood due to lack of volume and speed of speech. But we managed to put in our security codes correctly before the exam started. The first few questions were all a blur as I realised this is it - we're really doing the test - all those weeks of reading, trying to do our internet tests (this is another story), going to classes, it's now or never. The end of the exam - phew, sigh, relief. Each person went up to the desk of the softly spoken man in exactly the same order as entering the room. The man tells you once you have given in your handset whether or not youv'e passed - in front of everyone. So there was another advantage to enter the hall almost last....... Poor people who didn't pass - no privacy to say BUGGER! Wouter's turn - PASS, a few more people, my turn - PASS. Excitement and happiness follow and we are both really pleased we passed. Of course now we are not allowed to drive until we have had our practical exam and (hopefully) passed that too.

We still think there is something wrong with a system which will allow the exchange of driving licences from countries such as Nigeria and Liberia, Vanuatu and other little dots of islands that not many people have heard of. But rules are rules, and NZ licences do not qualify to exchange for a French one. We could have gotten around it several ways - had we known in time what was required. One way was to go to Britain and become resident for 3 months, and then 3 months before the expiry of our international licence, apply for a British one, come back here and exchange it for a French (EU) one. Another way was to visit Vanuatu before leaving NZ and get a licence there. A straight swap would have been done in that case. Another way was to contact some guys over the 'net and "buy" an EU licence, but both of us didn't like the look of them - they reminded us of used car salesmen and we wondered how far our money would go if we attempted to buy another licence in cyberspace.