We are on the very edge of Brittany where we will be for a whole month.
I am greatly enjoying the roads in France which are really among the world's best. When they aren't billiard-table smooth the patches are better applied and better underpinned than the ones in England.
Most of all, slightly to my annoyance, I have discovered the joy of mimsing. Once well on the way here from Calais we used when possible Routes Nationales or Departementales. So little traffic usually that cruise control seems a good idea. Set a whisker over the usual limit of 90kph - 55-60 in our terms - the car has been quiet and decent, when the windows were closed, and has drunk noticeably less than usual hammering about London and the SE.
Every now and then some Dutch so-and-so doing 5 ks under, or some local wonk with a trailer, has aroused a spot of ire. But soon there is usually a place where one can belt past before re-engaging the cruise.
Am I entering my dotage I wonder, or do I just like this country? Both perhaps.
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Are there any Frenchmen about? Not so in '44 I understand!
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>> Are there any Frenchmen about? Not so in '44 I understand!
None at all just round here MD. They are Bretons. But France begins jut a few hundred yards down the road outside this house. Amonf the horrid maize fields, before the dense and huge old forest. There are a lot of wild boar I am told, some behind fences and some gone wild, like deer in England.
I don't buy this anti-Frog polemic though. They aren't the same as us but essentially similar. I wonder what we would have been like under nazi occupation. Essentially similar is my guess, with of course a few twists of our own not necessarily to our credit. Fortunately it's just a guess though. Our good luck so far as a nation shouldn't make us vainglorious even if our local tribal memories stretch back to Spanish naval adventurism and pirates playing bowls when they ought to be on duty... knowImean squire?
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It wont last Sire, once you get back to ole Blighty and the SE, you'll soon be a'cussing and a'cursing again,
My advice would be to stay there and just visit England for one month of the year.
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It's not mimsing you are enjoying AC, it's wafting and there's a big difference.
I waft, but I don't get in anyone's way. Set the cruise, put on some good tunes, recline, elbow on the door and close one eye.
The speed of the cruise is crucial depending on the road. You don't want to be getting under the feet of trucks, you don't want to be continually gaining on someone, you don't want to drop below the limit. Get it right and enjoy a relaxing drive, taking in the scenery.
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>> taking in the scenery.
... is certainly one of the joys of wafting if we must use euphemisms. Going along largely undemanding roads at a legal speed does give the eye a bit of time to wander. Belting down motorways is more like flying, at worst piloting a fighter aircraft. The scenery's at one remove and anyway you can't focus on it. Motorways are classic 'non-places'.
Even rolling acres seem bijou in England. Foreign's got Scale with a capital S. Unless it's some crummy little tropical paradise.... but even there you might get a big sky what with all the surrounding ocean.
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I dont know how, but France is the only place where you can mims, waft, cruise, or make rocket progress and feel happy with your choice. Everyone excepts your chosen pace according to your mood, and accomodates you.
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They've changed all the road numbers to confuse me - Not good when my Sat Nav packed up on my recent bike trip and I had to revert to maps...still enjoyed it though, some very fast arrow straight D roads around Arras thanks to the Romans !
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tap tap
Welcoming to La Bella France Mr Carmala - we thank you gratis oil change with Pierre our `head` mechanique.
Pierre - he feelter ze oil of Auntie Nellie (angle rotte under bellie - wiv ze seized in pluggise) ee as use is underpanten on ze funnel - so guaratee clean oil changen a pi pi.
Here at Enteratu Moteurs - we look forward to your Americano - `luxo barggie angelica` - with ze 2.4 piston schaften driven - ich bein ein energie sparen promanade decken.
Pierre! Stop ze douchen - sprecken ze Frenchie - we is no longer unzer ze reichen - booten.
Sorreee Mseewer Enturatu - i loss my ciggeretten down ze oil filler of Mr Amadillo -
No worry Pierre - it quiten ze tappen tappen of ze upper screwen schaften...
Your bargen ees ready Mr Ludenshaften.
Enteratu - qualeti shaften - of ze Angle moteur- waggen
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.... zut alors mais tu es un mecanicien execrable Rene or whatever your 'andel may be knowImean squire?
Any road, sweetie, whasseruser toppin up the bleedin brake fluid when ce que je reclame a haute voix est d'avoir my roues balanced, comprendy mate damn these greeks. That tremor in the wheel on the peage is the only fly in my mimser ointment, get me?
I mean bumboclaat....
Heh heh. welcome back comrade.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 19:43
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At last, civilisation! I wonder if Pierre could possibly do a plug change on the XJS for me?
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Treize bougies... une douzaine boulanger like innit...
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Hehe! Reminds me of the film 'Carry on Abroad' that I was watching yesterday,
I've cee'n it many times before but it still made me LOL.
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AC,
I'm disappointed with you, you damned turn coat. I thought you were a true defender of the faith, a stalwart, willing to fight the fight...and here you are starting a thread defending mimsing.
Oh how I am disappointed. Oh well, the fight must go on without you, maybe you are suffering from something and you will eventually come back to the fold. I hope so.
Perhaps the electric shock therapy will do it.
;-)
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OO-er... sorry Wp. Not really really mimsing though. A decent whisker over the posted limit as always in our camera-infested isle. And the car purrs along glugging less than usual.
Surprisingly few gung-ho Frogs coming past at a ton though, not like the old days. Just one today.
Anyway I opened nine oysters today with nothing but native wit to help me. A first. Always admired those manly waiters with their little bent knives... now I can pretend to be one myself.
I love it here, Hobbits and all...
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My 2litre Chrysler cruiser has done a whisker under 38.7 mpg over the last 370 miles. In its normal life in London and the SE it has done about 27.5 at worst and about 32.5 at best. That's what it did coming here until first night stop en route. But there had been a lot of England and a lot of peage and dual carriageway here at 70 plus, and then some sometimes.
Despite my boasting I haven't mimsed much, although no one of my age is going to be too sprauncy in unfamiliar surroundings with everything the wrong way round and these rather sharp little roundabouts. I use cruise a lot here, hardly at all on the roads I normally use in England. It makes sense here, very seldom if ever there. I notice the loud pedal going up and down but I'm not sure it really lifts off enough going downhill to get the best out of the throttle shutoff, if my car has it. But it's so much less hassle than doing it myself that it must be worth the half a mile extra per gallon I might be able to get if I really concentrated. When it comes to maintaining speed on upgrades it's probably better than me.
I haven't enjoyed life at a piddling 55-60 so much since my first Skoda Estelle, a zippy 4-speed swing-axle 1200 GLS with an oil cooler. That car was at its best in that speed range and did 50 mpg on French roads. It wasn't nearly as nice as the Chrysler but it was a damn good little motor all the same and I loved it dearly. But all things pass.
I will complain about French tailgating (and yes, mimsing les salopards) later. For the time being, yee-HAH!
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The joy of mimsing - MD
