Take one Canadian girl in les Alpes.
Add the ups & downs of living in France.
Cover with melted cheese...
Et voilà !

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Nasty French driving theory test = 0. Moi = 1.

I passed! I passed! I passed! 

image via this website, which also explains the procedure for getting a French driver's license if you're interested and/or completely crazy like me
Yesterday I took the theory part of my French driver's test.
It was a bit nerve-wracking.
You see, it's been a long while 
since I've been in an exam-type situation.

It sure reminded me of my student days.

I was surrounded by other nervous people 
{ok, most of them a good 15 years younger than me, but whatever...}
It was quite fun observing them as we all stood around 
waiting for things to begin.

You had the "cool worrier",
listening to his iPod, trying hard to look blasé.
{He didn't fool me.}
Then there was the "nervous-energy worrier"
biting his nails & pacing back & forth.
{Take a Valium, will you?}
A few girls were in the "last-minute panic" category,
looking at the road signs in their exercise book 
until the last possible moment.
{Too little, too late.}

As for me?
I had a stomach-ache, but otherwise I was ok.

After a lot of waiting around,
we finally went into the test room, which was a small lecture-hall
with a big screen at one end.

We all lined up to have our ID cards checked
& to be given the remote-control you use to answer 
the multiple-choice questions during the test.
Each person was also given a particular seat in the auditorium.
I was very relieved to be placed in the second row.
{What?  I'm short... & easily distracted!}

Then it was the moment of truth.

And you know what?
The exam actually seemed to be easier than the ones on the DVDs 
I'd been obsessively doing allllll weekend to prepare.

Thank goodness.

There were 40 questions & just 2 or 3 that stumped me.
{Good thing, because the maximum number of mistakes?  Only 5.}

So I felt pretty confident, but I was still beyond relieved  
when {after lining up again} the examiner took my remote-control,
placed it in some fancy-dancy box thingy, 
waited for a label to be printed out,
stuck that onto my file,
handed me my paperwork
& {finally!} said,
"C'est bon." 

***

Now all I have to do is learn how to drive standard (yikes),
handle roundabouts (double yikes) 
& deal with crazy French drivers (triple yikes!)

But let's not think about all that just yet...

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations, this is HUGE!! I passed in 2007 and finally got all of my points a little over a year ago, and it is a major relief!

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  2. Way to go! Now you'll have to take me for a drive when I come to visit you one day ;-)

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  3. Congratulations! I hated the theory part of the test the most here in England too but I don't envy you having to learn to handle French drivers now though! Europeans all seem to drive like maniacs - then again us English aren't much better at times!
    Anyway, huge, huge congrats!
    xx

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  4. Good job, Em! Don't worry about standard transmissions and roundabouts. They both give you something to pay attention to while driving instead of dozing out as sometimes happens with auto transmissions and no roundabouts.

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  5. Thanks for the congratulations! Am so relieved. Actual driving lessons start at the end of August. I'll keep you posted...

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