208. Lazy teacher gets lost (5/6)

The following day I am prepared. Which means that I stay in bed longer. I also decide that I do not need the GPS as I know the way now. 

It is a lovely morning and I am thoroughly enjoying the scenery. Blue skies reflected onto the still waters of the canal, framed by the deep green of the bushes and the trees. I soon reach the bridge that takes me over the canal and straight into the small town ... and ... and it's market day! ... And the road is closed!!! I sit there for a few seconds wondering what to do until someone - who probably wants to go to the market - beeps his horn loudly, making me nervous. Just to show him it doesn't make me nervous at all I beep my horn back. People are starting to stare. A traffic jam around here is unheard of. I see a yellow diversion sign and drive off quickly. I reach a tiny narrow street and when I get to the end of it I am at a T-junction. But there are no more yellow signs! I decide to trust my sense of direction. I will drive to the right, then along around the market (which is tiny) and then back to the left again and I will see the canal and follow it. I can't go wrong. Then I will use the slip road and reach the motorway. Easy! It is not good to rely on a GPS all the time. One needs to be able to use one's sense of direction, train the eye to notice the features around us and anyway I read somewhere that we have a sort of in-built compass just like animals do but we just don't use it. It is a shame as we will soon lose this ability for ever. Except me.

I am so pleased about that that I drive confidently around the little town, through quiet neighbourhoods where teenagers are cycling while carrying fishing rods and families are walking back to their homes carrying baskets full of vegetables and the ubiquitous French baguettes. 

All this is very bucolic but still no canal and no slip-road. I come to a cross roads and decide to pay attention to the signs. 'La Mairie' is to the right and 'L'école' is to the left. Good. But where is the motorway? Where is the bridge? Where is the market? Why no more yellow signs? I refuse to accept that I am lost. I take a look at the range and I can go 387 km. All is good. Soon I find myself on a tiny road that follows the canal. Wait a minute. The canal? Or a canal? One never knows around here. After all there are more canals than roads.

Still I carry on driving, miles and miles of a road that looks more and more like a narrow track. If it gets any narrower I am going to fall into the canal. It is getting rather bumpy and I am thinking tonight I can tell my husband I started to practice some proper off-road driving. After a while though I have to admit that it is a long way around the market and it becomes obvious I have missed some left turn. It is tool ate now to go back. Anyway the market will still be on. So I drive on. I see a bridge in the distance. Surely this tiny lane will take me onto the bridge and back to some main road. I am about to indicate (just in case the sheep are watching) when ... no left turn onto the bridge! This is a mirage! There is a road to the right - no way I am losing sight of the water now - and my tiny lane that just goes on but no access to the bridge. I am getting a touch worried here and imagine I am going to be in some dead end and end up in an isolated cul-de-sac where a very nasty farmer and his wife are going to chase me off their property. Or worse shoot me with some old rifle used to hunt boars in the autumn. What if they shoot the tyres? I have never ever changed a tyre in my life! It is too late to learn surely. And these are not good conditions to learn a new skill.

Maybe I have missed a life saving junction back there at the bridge. I decide to be reasonable. I will work on my compass skills an other day. I set up the GPS. 

I realise I do have some sense of direction after all as the GPS tells me to go on down that lane. I am so pleased I accelerate a little as it goes on and on. I refuse to let my brain consider the fact that the GPS might be wrong and my inner compass right after all and stick to this itinerary. Anyway now I am definitely late. Even if I take into account the group therapy (wonder what the topic is today) and the waiting around and the drinking the coffee.

Suddenly. Bingo. A bridge. GPS says go over the bridge and then a big road with cars and trucks on it and soon the slip road to the motorway. Such a relief that I might even be looking forward to day 2 of this impossible mission.