Just got my driving license! And it's all in French!

[GoneOffShore]

We moved here in 2018 and started the driving license exchange process in Jan 2019 -Finally after much, much, much worry, our new licenses arrived today!
And they are valid until - wait for it - 2035. I doubt that I'll still be driving then, but hey, 15 years of validity is great.
And I can drive a 125cc motorcycle or scooter with no additional test. Though Mrs GoS would veto that.
So, yay!

So glad we had PA licenses - if we'd had California ones we couldn't have exchanged.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. I'm sure I've asked this before but what region/department are you all in?

I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove France. you are so lucky!

[GoneOffShore]

3. We're in Aix-en-Provence which is very close to Marseille. With no traffic a 30 minute drive.

We can be in St Remy de Provence in an hour, the Luberon in 30 minutes.

The department is Bouches du Rhone.

[CurtEastPoint]

6. Yes, I remember now. What a wonderful area.

I've been all over that area except for Aix!

My gallery of a recent trip: https://curt.pixels.com/collections/france+aquitaine+dordogne+midi+pyrenees+marseille

And Provence, 2014, including Luberon.
https://curt.pixels.com/collections/france+provence

[GoneOffShore]

8. Love the pictures - we've been to all of those villages.

We recently had lunch (before confinement) in Saint Saturnin sur Apt. Love that village.

We go to Lourmarin all the time and Cucuron. Haven't seen Ridley Scott though. He has a house near there and if you've seen 'A Good Year', you'll recognise a good bit of the Provence you've photographed. I do like your shots.
You can see some of my stuff on Instagram - Samgish3.

[CurtEastPoint]

9. Thanks! WIll check out yours!

Such a beautiful part of France but I've not found any areas that are not beautiful!

[GoneOffShore]

15. Not too many pics on there right now. I'm in the beginning of a project and more will appear.

And I've been inspired by Peter Turnley.

[CurtEastPoint]

17. I am just blown away by the variety of your pix!

Great job. You know, here at home I am just not that inspired to shoot, but when i'm over there I take soooooo many photos because there is such a huge selection and so many sights... mostly people and simple pleasures. Well done!

[GoneOffShore]

18. Thank you.

I've been taking photos since I was about 10 and only making photos in the last 15 years. I never really understood the difference.

Right now I'm working on 'Faces In Aix'.

I probably have 25K or more files and keep going back and tweaking them.

It's a process. And it's a new thing for me.

I didn't do a lot of shooting when I lived in Philadelphia and always waited until I was in France.

But then a good friend of mine said: 'Make a picture everyday' and 'Look up. Look down'.

Plus I watched a documentary on Harry Benson entitled 'Shoot First' and it stuck with me. He did photos of The Beatles, RFK, and on and on.
Now I try to make a picture every day. I'm always looking for that thing that Cartier-Bresson called 'the decisive moment'.

[MyOwnPeace]

2. Tres bon!!!!

[GoneOffShore]

4. Very pleased. If they hadn't exchanged we would have had to spend about 1000 each on

driving lessons.
And then after we passed the written and practical test, drive around with a big red A on the back of the car for three years, our insurance rates would have gone up, and we would have been restricted to 90kph on the motorway - no passing trucks, because that's their top speed.

[MyOwnPeace]

5. If it makes you feel any better......

they're doing such a terrible job on the roads here in PA that you don't dare try to pass a truck anyway, the potholes will kill you!

[GoneOffShore]

7. Back in 2015 in Philadelphia we decided to give up our car.

We did without one except for rentals until January 2019 when we had moved here and realized that in order to completely enjoy where we are that we actually needed one.

The driving in the Philadelphia area was getting pretty crazy even before we sold our car there. And as you say, the state of the roads was deteriorating. I only lost two wheels to potholes over the 30 years we lived in Philly, and our cars only suffered two break-ins.

The road system in France is pretty good, though autoroutes are expensive - to take the 'péage' from Aix to Nice 174km is around 23USD one way plus fuel.

Top speed is 130km/h but trucks top out at 90km/h (something that would drive American truckers crazy - ). And if it's raining the speed drops to 110km/h and trucks have to go down to 80. This is only on toll roads. On other roads top speed varies from 80-90 and then in towns can be as low as 20km/h.

[MyOwnPeace]

11. Wow - you've lost it already!

What's with this "174km" and "23USD" stuff? And the "130km/h" - what's THAT all about?

Don't you speak "American" anymore?!?!?

OK - looks like the "Trumpster Brain" has set in!

Seriously, VERY happy for you guys - what a great experience - and we're counting on you to NOT perpetuate the "Ugly American" image - besides, there's NO POSSIBLE WAY to explain IQ45 to any "thinking/reasonable" human!

bonne chance!!!

[GoneOffShore]

14. Merci! This is not my first time at the rodeo however.

I lived in the UK from 1971 to 1981, had a stamp in my passport and ID card that said: 'Given leave to enter the United Kingdom for an unlimited period of time. Not required to register with the police.' That particular visa also gave me the right to work and, if necessary, collect benefits.

We've now hit the trifecta here - Carte Vitale (national health card - 25€ for GP visits, 65€ specialists, 45€ dentist - but we get a percentage of that back), Permis de Conduire - Driving license, Titre de Séjour - right to live in France, but not to work nor to collect state benefits. We're paying 'Fonciere', which are local taxes. Our 'Tax d'habitation' - basically income tax - was 138€ this year, because we don't have any taxable income in France. That 138€ covers our television license fees similar to the UK TV license.

In two years we'll be able to apply for French nationality, and might just do it for the exercise(Pro-tip: dealing with French bureaucracy is like going to the gym. When an official here accepts your 'dossier' and puts an official stamp on it, there's a definite endorphin rush).

We're not going to renounce our American citizenship because we will continue to vote from abroad. Plus it's too fecking expensive to renounce. I can deal with FBAR every year and filing American tax returns even though it costs me about 1200USD annually. That's one month of Social Security, so it's ok.

[DFW]

10. The State-by-State acceptance in Europe is weird.

They wouldn't accept Texas in Germany (one daughter), but did accept Hawaii (the other daughter), probably because they had never seen anyone try to get a German license with a Hawaii license before. For that matter, she once got carded in Massachusetts when she was younger, and even the guy on Cape Cod had never seen a Hawaii license before.

By the time I moved here and tried to get my German license with my Texas license, they accepted it without a whimper. Go figure. Maybe they did a statistical check, and found that Germans had caused far more accidents in Texas than Texans had caused in Germany.

[MyOwnPeace]

12. Just "think" about it............

I have NO idea about the names of the local regions of ANY country in Europe (hell, if I were in the tRump administration, I would probably be stumped to name 3 countries in Europe!) - and to think that a "local" official has to make a determination on a driver's license from a "state" in the United States? You would think that they would have a "GOOGLE" app worked into their systems!

It almost looks like a "good-luck-when-you-show-up" kinda' thing - do they want to "inquire" or push a button, get the money, and move on.........

[GoneOffShore]

13. I suspect it has to do with the fact that the US has no national driving standards

and no US driving license. Which accounts for the crap driving that one encounters as one drives from state to state. And the crap driving one encounters driving across Europe.

[MyOwnPeace]

16. Ha! Great point!!!!

In "auto-interest" circles there is a perpetual discussion/debate about "impressions" regarding drivers from "other" states. For example, being born and raised in Pennsylvania I always heard my Dad complaining about "those idiots" from New York or "those wackos" from Ohio.
Spending the past several years traveling throughout the US I've found that every state has its own "recognition" regarding drivers from adjacent states! If "you're from **** you're a f**king lunatic! - and if you're from **** you're a retarded a**hole!"

And we're hoping to have a simple understanding and acceptance from ANY foreign country?

[GoneOffShore]

19. Ah and driving in Europe?

The Swiss stick to the rules.
The Germans go very quickly - unless they're towing caravans though sometimes not.
The Dutch are the Dutch.
Italians? Get out of the way.
Spaniards? Dents everywhere.
The English? Well, the steering wheel is on the wrong side, so what do you expect?

And in France, you look at the number plate to see if that idiot is from Marseille, Paris, or Nice.

[MyOwnPeace]

20. So there ARE some UNIVERSAL truths!

[GoneOffShore]

21. Indeed there are. Try driving in England.

It's the same.

People from Lincolnshire and Norfolk never use their indicators.
People in the Home Counties take their cars for walks.
And so it goes.