Driving in Paris - underlines not added by me - don't click on them - take you to ads

First of all, I want to apologize for it being so long since I wrote the last post! Jerome has had more time off since it's been August, and we've been traveling a lot on week-ends, so I have also kind of been on vacation from the blog!

In these last few weeks, I have been gradually getting used to driving in Paris - something I thought I would never even attempt, let alone be able to do it!

I started out being absolutely terrified, but Jerome kept encouraging me to do it and kept offering me his car saying he trusts me!  A couple of times he just pulled over, saying I should drive! The other day, he left me his car for the day, and I tried driving around the streets near us, and the rest of the time parallel parking (super difficult in these narrow streets, trying to fit into tiny spaces - with a stick shift).

Last Saturday, I drove on the Peripherique (the ring road that goes through Paris) and got us home from La Villette, where we went to escape the heat (wasn't really possible) on the canals and at the movies. I still made lots of mistakes, mostly from not understanding what the GPS was trying to tell me to do. 

A week ago, Jerome left me the car again, and I actually drove by myself out to my school, through tunnels, and even around the big circle that's just like the one down the road at the Arc de Triomphe. Then I drove to pick him up from work! At that point, I had finally lost my absolute terror, and was just mildly scared! Huge improvement!

 Last summer, I drove for two weeks in the south of France and got used to it (pretty much, anyway!), but even all

 the windy, narrow roads and superfast autoroutes don't compare to driving in Paris! It's like there's no rules whatsoever, and several choices of roads for every turn (and I always make the wrong choice!), and it's never clear which tiny narrow roads are one-way, or which way, and on bigger roads, lanes are non-existent (just go wherever you want), and the idea of using indicator lights doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone!

Then, on Wednesday, I had the car to myself for two hours in Colombe (to the west of us) and I just kept driving around. I even found how to get to a parking lot at La Defense, but I knew the stores were closed. Yesterday, I drove us for the last 45 minutes on the highway and all the way to our building in Paris, and I wasn't scared (well, just a little), and I didn't make any mistakes! 

I really think I can drive in Paris, now, but I don't think I'll ever actually enjoy doing it!