Angers to Isle de Noirmoutier via Nantes - the journey

Angers to Isle de Noirmoutier via Nantes

 

Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the saints and the guardian angels....!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think they were all with me today as I survived the toughest initiation into driving in France...

The day started off beautifully with a glorious sunrise (late sunrise here - about 7.45am)

Caught the train to Nantes - no problems. Much quieter today, in fact the train was quite empty.

Found the Avis Office OK... and signed up as usual

Then the fun began.....

The first thing that made life difficult was it started to bucket down with rain... not just your average shower, but really strong rain. But hey, I've done rain before.

I  have to admit I was a little bit terrified, and I was so busy thinking keep right, keep right, that I hit the kerb a few times. Fortunately nothing else though...

But the worst was yet to come. The car I have hired (can't even remember what sort it is) had it's own inbuillt GPS but I could not work out how to use it and the instructions were in French. So I decided to use my own with the Australian voice. Good move.... but...

First of all I couldn't assemble it to put on the dashboard because I couldn't get all the bits together, and then secondly, the volume was really soft and with the rain belting down I couldn't really hear it.

Soooo... I couldn't hear ir and I couldn't see it and I couldn't pull in anywhere and I stuffed up completely... I ended up going all the way through Nantes... had no idea where I was. It kept telling me to go to the next roundabout etc and I think I spent nearly an hour just going round and round in strange car in a strange place. It's a wonder you couldn't hear the expletives from Australia...

Anyway, I was praying fiercely, and I think someone was protecting me, because I found somewhere I could pull off the road and start again...

So i turned the volume up to full blast, then I  organised my handbag so the GPS lent against it and I could see, and I started again. I still managed to go around the block a few times, but eventually I saw a sign that said Noirmoutier, and my heart said Hallelujah.... and thank you Jesus Mary Joseph and all the saints and guardian angels. Actually I think I have a thing going with St Marie Euphrasie, because I'm staying in her house!

So, at least I'm on the right road now, and Gaby Garmin Mk 2 is kicking in at last and we did pretty Ok after that. Still missed a few turns and went around the block a few times, but we made it here....

Now, I'm thinking to myself... what on earth made me think I could drive in France...????? But if today is the worst, then it can only get better - actually it has now stopped raining and is quite pleasant

The car is actually quite nice, and the gears are sweet.... I think there are about 8 of them, but I only use 4 then go straight to overdrive. I was driving pretty slowly today anyway, especially with that weather. In my big dramas going around Nantes, I also kept forgetting to change gears, so it was quite an experience. But we survived - thank you Jesus!

Think I might start a new post about where I'm staying etc..... I'm still feeling traumatised after describing the journey....

Managed to find a supermarket and get a bottle of red.... having a couple just to calm the nerves....

Stayed tuned and in the next post I will describe what happened once I finally managed to arrive here.