We stayed in Paris one day longer than planned out of sheer necessity for relaxation, after which we picked up our little, tiny, race car of a Peugeot 207 and fumbled our way through the first day as novice stick shift drivers. Michael did an amazing job maneuvering the stressful Paris traffic, and after driving down prostitute lane* we could finally be on our way.
Our first day of driving was a little shaky. We made our way from Paris to Bordeaux without much ease, but we made it anyway. My guy is a rockstar. We took a roundabout way, heeding the advice of Helene's boyfriend Alex, to take in some small towns and chateaus along the road. We stopped through Tours and Saumur, two incredibly beautiful cities, and passed plenty of french countryside towns as we drove. And if you're wondering why the car looks to be smaller than Michael, it's because it is.
Unfortunately, once we got to Bordeaux we had a lot of organizational and monetary issues to sort out (aren't we on vacation??) and we were outside the city, so we stayed in for the night. Before getting to sleep, we had realized that spending much time in Bordeaux wasn't an option for us this time around, and we settled on a plan to leave for Spain in the morning. Needless to say, this post is all about the drive...
*Prostitute lane, as I've named it, is actually a road through the beautiful Bois de Boulogne park outside Paris. It is a peaceful place with gorgeous flowers and trees everywhere. While driving through, we started to notice a very conspicuous prostitute standing just about exactly every 100 feet (this was 5 o'clock in the afternoon mind you, and it doesn't get dark in Paris til around 11:00), dressed in tight skirts, hot pink bras, barely there tops, fishnets, go-go boots, you name it. They had vans every so often marked with pink boas hanging out the windows where they would take their clients. It was one of the more amazing things I've ever seen in broad daylight, and I will probably never forget it.
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