Dispelling a myth

St Gildas

Before I get going, I want to have a moan about Masterchef. Last night's was very good and three ladies were head to head in the final part. IMHO the best girl won. An 18 year old with good ideas and lots of potential. The two runners up were extremely ungracious in their defeat, unlike all the other rounds so far where the runners up have been very supportive and congratulated the winner. It makes you almost ashamed to be a woman. Almost, I said!

Now, I want to dispel a myth.

It may come as a shock to you there in Brownland but French drivers are not all maniacs.

Having driven over here every year since 1981 I would agree that, yes, in the past there was some frightening, hair-raising driving to be seen on any road you care to mention, but in recent years we have really noticed a difference.

Driving back from town this lunch-time (I only really went shopping to escape the paint fumes for a while), I followed Mr Slow at a steady 70 kilometres per hour for about twenty minutes of twisty, turny roads which gave me a little time to reflect.

Speed on the motorways used to be quite terrifying. The limit here is 130 kilometres per hour, reducing to 120 in poor visibility or rain. In days gone by we would drive the 700 kilometres from Calais, almost all on the motorway at a steady 130 kph only to be overtaken time and time again. More recently it is very rare to be overtaken at that speed.

Just a second. You're asking if we really did stick to the speed limit ourselves - yes you are, I can hear you. The truth is ... well, mostly. Without cruise control it's difficult to stick to the same speed but I would say that we averaged 130 most of the time. Jon will probably say that he did and I didn't but I think it would average out that way.

If you are overtaken these days on a minor road, it is most likely to be by a young person, music blaring, often doing silly-kilometres-per-hour and just before a bend. It makes you slow down more yourself. But that's youth for you, they all have to be somewhere yesterday.

A few years after we first bought our house we were surprised on one visit to find black cut out silhouettes of people here and there along the side of the road. These were meant to represent people who were killed at a particular point. There were three just at the bottom of our driveway. It's a good job we don't believe in ghosts or we might live in fear of being haunted.

The black shapes disappeared in winter only to be replaced the following summer but they haven't been around for a few years now.

Recently the local paper published the number of road traffic accidents in our department for 2007. So many killed, so many fatally injured and so on. It does make you stop and think. In fact the local paper which is published daily always reports any injury or fatal road accident. Can you imagine if that happened in the UK - there would have to be a newspaper just for RTAs.

Anyway. I just wanted to say. Not all French people drive like madmen. And by the way, I said that Mr Slow (elderly gent in a hat, big dog on the back seat, cigarette hanging out of his mouth - the man not the dog), kept at a steady 70 kph. That included through a couple of villages where the speed limit is 50 kph - maybe he does have a cruise control!