Driving in rural France at night is not for the feint of heart, even on the paved main roads. Yesterday, we had the nerve-wracking experience of driving 100K in pitch-black conditions, mostly along narrow, winding lanes all because we were slaves to Natalie, our sat nav. Don’t get me wrong, the sat nav can be a very useful device; it was instrumental in getting us to Spain and back with flying colours. Last night, however, we discovered it doesn’t always know best.
How did we end up in this predicament, you may ask? It starts with Sharon’s current car, a Mercedes M-class (4×4) which is falling apart and requires a lot of work to make it runnable. It’s also a gas-guzzler in the truest sense of the term. I drove it for a week while Sharon was away and you can almost watch the fuel gauge drop as you drive. So, she was in the market for a cheap run-around to use until she works out what to do with the old beast. She found a perfect candidate: a Citroen Xantia, diesel sedan on sale for next to nothing. It was being sold by an English couple who live east of Sarlat, about 100K to the SE of us. So we decided to combine getting the car with some sightseeing in the southern Dordogne area.
We left around 10 and after a brief errand, hit the town of Limeuil around midday. Limeuil has been designated one of “Les plus beaux villages de France (The prettiest villages in France)” and we had planned to visit it on our last trip to this area but skipped it because of the weather (see here for details). It sits at the junction of the Vézère and Dordogne rivers and is built up a hill with a fortress at the top. We had lunch there at a cute little restaurant which sat alongside the Vézère river (veggie soup + fish for Sharon and I, goats cheese salad and duck breast for Will). The entrees and mains were good, not great, but we all had creme brulée for desert and all agreed it was the best we’d ever had.
From Limeuil, we headed to Domme, a medieval bastide town perched high above the south bank of Dordogne river. It too is one of the “prettiest villages” and it’s very easy to see why. In addition to the spectacular views, the town itself has many old buildings and impressive architecture. We came across a group of kids in costume who were having some sort of event. As we got closer, we saw they were putting out the fire of a burning cross which they had all gathered around. Our first thought was that they started their children down the path of prejudice early in France; then we realised that it must have something to do with Lent since it started a few days earlier and they weren’t dressed in white-hooded robes.
Next stop was Sarlat, one of our favourite cities in the region. Will and I had been a number of times but it was Sharon’s first visit. We strolled around for 30 min just to give Sharon a quick tour and I think she too was impressed. From there, we drove to the car seller’s place which was about a 30 min drive. After a quick test drive, Sharon bought the car and we started on our way home. We were using Natalie (the sat nav) to get us home and normally, her directions are faultless. I knew the drive involved some small country roads since I’d done the drive before during the day. It didn’t occur to me that Natalie wouldn’t know the difference between day and night driving so I made no adjustment to the normal option of “use quickest route home”.
Now, driving in rural France during the day is generally fine. Although the roads are narrow and often wind up and down hills, they are mostly fine to drive and seemingly hardly ever used by anyone. At night, however, they become rather treacherous since there is no lighting whatsoever and unless you’ve driven them many times before, the turns and hills seem to leap out at you without warning. So we headed off at dusk and were doing ok until darkness descended. Natalie failed to mention a turn (she lapses on rare occasion) so instructed us to drive down a dirt backroad for 5K to get back to correct road. Later, she decided that in order to save 2K, we should drive down a similar dirt track for about 10K. This was all because Natalie was set to use the “quickest way” mode (now designated by Will as “sadistic” mode) instead of the saner “use main roads only” mode. Eventually, both we and Sharon made it home in one piece but we were all in need of a stiff drink or two to calm the nerves.
All in all, it was a successful trip and we all enjoyed ourselves despite the harrowing trip home. I’ve also learned a valuable lesson regarding the use of the sat nav for night-time country driving.