Eurotrip Day 1

A rather boring day today, just powering down the motorway. As expected sleep was low quality the night before so the stop-over was a good idea. The Z4 is holding up brilliantly, and the new tyres were an extremely wise move - they're particularly good in the wet which has been just as well. Most of the journey today has been in the rain, with the last 60 miles or so in torrential rain - I haven't seen rain this hard in the UK without accompanying thunder and/or lightening. Luckily it's all been caught on the video camera, including my straddling the hard shoulder and slip-road because I couldn't see the markings. Also shamefully captured is me changing lane without realising it, clearly I wasn't following the white lines. Europe really needs to adopt the cats eyes the UK has on all major roads - in poor weather the lane markings are near invisible.

French drivers are probably bonkers, the speed limit is not so much a limit as a 'guideline'. Roundabouts are attacked with particular gusto - I really didn't know super-minis were capable of such grip, especially in the wet. On the plus side their haphazard approach to driving means my random movements as I try to navigate around appear to be 'native'. Driving on the right has been easy this time, but keeping to the speed limits is much harder. As mentioned the French exceed them anyway so you get carried away - but also this time I don't have a digital speedo. It's much harder to gauge your exact speed, and it's easy to be out by 10km/h.

Unfortunately the video camera didn't capture my brief excursion to an ATM. It's a shame since French residential areas are particularly interesting - the houses aren't depressing and oppressive like in the UK. I'm not sure if I like the architecture or not, but at least it's different. It was when navigating the one-way system of the residential estate that I came across the most humorous incident so far. Two cats were just sat in the middle of the road, and watched as I drove past. Not a single fuck was given.

I really wish I had caught them on camera, it would have been great to share.

On the plus side, the French seem to really like the Z4. It's similar to the reaction I got with the Civic, but to a larger degree. I haven't seen either car in France so far, so they must appear quite different to the typical cars you see around. I have seen a 370Z though! Sounded great... also wasn't caught on the camera since it was on the way back from the ATM.