Driving a hover car through France

Just as I expected, the whole experience of driving the SL through France in September was like being on a Mercedes-Benz magic carpet. Those roads really are super smooth at their best and just smooth for the most part. Only the very worst roads there seem to equate to our average roads so I took full advantage to hop in and go for a drive, and to always take the long way rather than the short way.

One really weird thing about having this car was the amount of attention we got whilst driving around. It's always been my understanding that the French aren't particularly interested in cars which is why they invariably like zipping around in their little hatchbacks. But everywhere we went we got embarrassingly high levels of attention. One day we were driving around the edge of one of the harbours in Ile de Re where there were a lot of people sitting in the cafes and generally milling around in between the slow moving traffic. When we drove through people were stopping, pointing, and staring at us and the car to such an extent that we couldn't have attracted more attention if we had been driving a hover car covered in flashing neon lights. It was all very odd especially from people who are usually so indifferent about cars.

On the return drive back to Le Havre we spent a bit too long having lunch in Le Mans without being aware of how much further we still had to drive given that we needed to be at the ferry by 16:40.  So when we got back to the car and keyed in the destination we were mortified when it told us that we wouldn't get there until 16:55 and had a two and a half hour drive ahead of us. Against the odds we went for it, as I really did need to get home that evening, but the other overlooked problem was that we only just had enough fuel to make it, and stopping for more would mean that we would definitely not make it. So I could go a bit faster than the speed limit and try to make up time but if I went too fast I'd use too much fuel and we'd have to stop to get more. A major dilemma! So it was a nerve racking balancing act for two and a half hours along the autoroutes and we also needed to be lucky with the traffic lights as we drove through Le Havre. I think I went through every one just as it turned amber, my nerves were so frazzled at this point I wasn't sure what was going on, but we made it to the gate at 16:45.

The lady said OK you're on but you're the last. No sooner we were on the boat than it was off - my hover car had done it.