I Have Succumbed!!

It had to happen.  Sooner or later.  I succumbed, I yielded, I gave up looking for the Toyota Dealership in Alençon (which is another story in itself) and finally relented and headed into the nearest seller of SatNavs.  The first place only had expensive ones and none of the maps included Britain (if I buying one I may as well have one to include the UK).  So I drove around Alençon and found a supermarket, which had a suitable SatNav and bought it.

This time I was lost on my own account - well nearly.  The Alençon Toyota dealership is, according to their website, on the Route du Paris, Alençon, but in real life it is not in Alençon itself but an adjacent suburb and there is no Route du Paris.  I couldn't even find a signpost to Paris and have now discovered that in fact the garage is on the Avenue Francis Cagnard! 

A phone call to Rosie helped solve the location problem of the garage whereabouts.  They did have a map attached to there website and she eventually found some clues which I could enter into the SatNav and upon entering these clues I hopefully had found the place. Fortunately the thing took me straight to where I wanted to go - yes 100 metres from the first shop I looked in for a SatNav!

Now I said 'this time I was lost on my own account' but in the main, over here in France, I have found the giving of directions seems to be a forgotten art.  And I not talking about the French, I talking about us Brits! Take the third turning on the right has led me up a farm track only to have to ask the farmer the whereabouts of the place I want to go.  Then I'm told I need to go back to the main road and take the 2nd on the right. Now making the turning the 5th on the right. When I ask 'why did you say 3rd on the right' I get a reply of 'well the other two are no through roads'! Well how am I suppose to know that?

The other day the directions I received was to pass the station as you leave the town of yyyy, go into the village of xxxx, pass the church and take the first right and we are the first house on the left.  I actually found the correct village, went past the church and straight past the right turn which was hidden by a wall (as I found out later).  As I hadn't passed a station I decided I must be in the wrong place.  So I eventually went back to the town, drove passed the station, drove on a while, asked a farmer and was told to turn first left and there was the place I needed.  So if I had been told correctly go into the village of 'xxxx' pass the church and turn right, be careful as the turning is not easy to see and although we are in the first house on the right please do bear in mind that there are in fact two other farm houses before ours on the right, I might of actually found the place.  And where the station came into I really don't know.

Anyway enough was enough and I succumbed.  Now I have assigned another part of my brain out to pasture (no comments please) with the part of my brain that used to store all the telephone numbers I required - the map reading part is now closely following.  So I'll now be driving along totally oblivious to where I am and reach where I want to go by a voice saying 'you have reached your destination'.

Or have I?

I decided to test the SatNav all the way home from Alençon and sure enough it got it wrong.  I came up the lane to our house and it told me to turn left up to our place.  Well even though I was in a 4x4 I did not want to go up a narrow dirt track, take a sharp right into the back entrance of our place, but that's where it told me to go. I didn't - but beware!

And have I told you about Rosie's friend who came to visit.  Their ferry took them into Le Harve and on the route to us they decided the SatNav was wrong.  So instead of going right they turned left back towards Calais. Over two hours late, they arrived here.  I thought it was a great title for a book 'Three Women and a SatNav'! - sort of based on 'Three men in a boat'!