France stories 2

Another story from the trip:

I have a French driver's license, but I got it by conversion - my US license served as proof of having driving experience, and they just gave me one. So I don't really know any of the rules, and most of the signs are different.

One of the biggest problems I have is the speed limit question - speed limits seem to be an understood thing, outside of cities. Understood by others - not by me. So I was driving along this road, and I'm doing about 100 (kph - about 60 mph), and I look behind me and there's a motorcycle. He's gaining, so I speed up. And up. Finally, we get to a place where the road goes to two lanes, and he passes me, and sure enough, he's a police officer. Specifically, a gendarme, which opens another area I don't understand very well - as there are different police forces with different areas of competance, I wasn't clear if it was his job to bust me. I'm fairly certain he could, but not sure if he ever would. Either way, it provided several moments of good solid adrenaline.

I always say, speed up in the presence of any law enforcement official--regardless of state. In the wise words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side when he sees the big red light behind him... and then he will start apologizing, begging for mercy. This is wrong.....what you want to do is accelerate.