Driver’s License Update

It’s not over yet. Just to give a little update on the agony of my work to get a driver’s license in France. Yesterday, I took the actual driver part of the test. Of course, they don’t tell you right away if you passed or not. The only way you would know if you failed is if the inspector hits the extra brake in the car. The good news is that he didn’t have to use his extra brake.

I did do something that didn’t make him happy. There was a “roundabout” type of intersection that I kind of hesitated when exiting. The problem with this intersection was that it wasn’t a normal exit. The inspectors like to use this type of intersection to trick you. Luckily I had already done this type of intersection a couple of times before so I knew what to expect but when I exited I hesitated a little too long and a car arrived behind me and I kind of slowed him down. It wasn’t really bad but the inspector told me that I had caused the driver to slow down and that I shouldn’t have hesitated so long.

Besides that issue, at one point the inspector told me I was going to slow and should drive normally. Otherwise, I successfully answered all the questions he asked me and I successfully navigated the “French right-hand priorities”. So now I am awaiting the results. Unfortunately, even though these were not big errors it could cause me to fail the test. Obviously, I am a bit stressed out about it. I should receive the results in a couple of days and then I will know whether I have to take the test again in a couple of months or I am officially a French driver.

French Drivers License

Well, after 4 years of driving in France, it is time to get a real French drivers license. Unfortunately, that means devoting a lot of time and money to the cause. Getting a drivers license in France is not easy. First off, the success rate for the test is below 70% and we are talking about French people taking the test. Second, the test comes in one language, FRENCH; meaning foreigners are at a disadvantage with the language barrier. The test is 40 questions in which you can only miss 5 and to make matters worse they place trick questions on the test. You really have to pay attention to every little detail in the picture to answer the question. On top of that each question may have 2 parts and there maybe more than one correct answer but never all correct answers. So tell me this doesn’t sound stressful. Well, if not I haven’t even begun to discuss the cost which is a bit cheaper for me since I already have an American drivers license. The minimum cost is around 600 Euros and each time you fail a test you have to pay an additional 80 Euros and wait a month before you can take it again! Well, with a success rate of less than 70% imagine how many people are paying additional costs. I have talked to many French people who paid over 1000 Euros for their drivers license.

A little note: Valerie renewed her California drivers license in May. She failed 2 times on the same day and passed the 3^rd time all at a cost of $20???? Why can’t it be that easy here?

So, when I first started taking practice tests I was missing 20 on each test. As of a few weeks back I was hovering right around 5 mistakes. Some days I would miss 2 other days I would miss 8 or 9. I decided it was time to take the real test so I signed up to take the test last Monday. Anyway, last Wednesday I took a practice test at the school and missed 11. CRAP, this got me really stressed out. The thought of failing and having to pay another 80 Euros was killing me. So every night I came home and took practice tests on a software program I downloaded. It got better until Saturday when I took 5 practice tests in a row and failed all of them. Once again, more stress. Really has to do with my state of mind. So Sunday, I spent another couple of hours taking tests with better results.

Come Monday morning, I was really stressed out. I had to meet at the school at 9am and a bus transported us to the testing center. No one said a word on the way over. The driver tried to assure us that it would be ok but nobody was buying it. At the center we waited almost an hour. Of course, this only compounded my stress. Once we were checked in and seated they handed us a remote control to answer each question that flashed up on the movie screen. The test took about 20 minutes. Overall, I felt it there were some difficult questions but most I had seen before on one practice test or another. Finally, the moment of reckoning came. They called my name I went up to the front of the room "in front of everyone" and they handed me a piece of paper. I took the paper and walked out the backdoor. The Driver immediately asked, well? I said I don’t know I haven’t looked. He took the paper and looked and said, YOU PASSED!!They only tell you how many you missed if you fail so I have no idea how close I was.

Out of the 9 students who went 6 of us passed. HAPPINESS, I never have to take the stupid test again, unless they take my license away…

At this point, I have spent 450 Euros with no additional costs needed but I still have to take the actual driving test. I took a course recently with an instructor and they said I have a lot of bad habits that need to be fixed before taking the test. Hopefully, I can fix them soon so I don’t have to continue shelling out 60 Euros per driving course.

A little update

We went up to Metz 2 weeks ago to celebrate the 80^th birthday of Valerie’s uncle. On the way up there as we passed the toll booth just outside of Metz, the temperature registered 10 degrees. “Welcome to the Arctic”. Yes, it was cold, fricken cold! Metz is a beautiful city but I have trouble understanding how people can endure winter there. I know it doesn’t get as cold as the midwest of the US (especially recent temps in the Midwest) but come on how do you live in this weather. I guess California weather is ingrained in me.

We didn’t spend much time outside since it was so cold but we did manage to get out and buy a few things since January in France is “Les Soldes” meaning “Sale time”. Valerie and I both managed to find a couple of things to buy plus everything is generally cheaper in Metz than in Lyon which makes it easier to find good bargains.

News from Mathieu

Mathieu is starting to talk. He is blabbing about everything saying mama and papa for the most part to the right person and he is saying “doudou” which is the French term for “preferred stuffed animal”. When he arrives at daycare in the morning he runs over to the “doudou” wall, finds his doudou and says “doudou”. He even says “toutou” which is the slang term for dog.

He is really easygoing. We can take him anywhere and he just seems to get along with whoever is there. Last night we went to dinner with some friends and we left him down at the end of the table in a high chair. He was having a blast with throwing his arms up in the air with our friend Irvin for half the night.

Anyway, we were up in the mountains last weekend with friends but we didn’t get to go boarding but we are heading back up this weekend to board. We did take Mathieu out on the sled. I will post some pics in the next few days. He is not sure about the whole sled and snow thing yet. I think we are going to have to wait until next year.