"You Go 1, 2, 3 and 4...It's Easy."

Fingers crossed this doesn't happen

I made this my title because these were my only instructions for driving a manual car for the first time ever. Oh, and by myself in France, where I don't understand street signs and don't really know where to go on the windy one-car roads full of potholes. The look I gave Brigitte after she, "told me how to drive the car," must have been a look of pure terror. But, I said okay, grabbed my international drivers license, (which I got by showing my US drivers license, nothing more) and was headed to try my French out in the bakery. After it took me a solid few minutes to start the car, I was shocked to be moving and went with it. I never got out of second gear though, too scared for my life. I just waved everyone around me and ignored the dirty looks. Hopefully they thought I was a French teenager or something and not a twenty-something dumb American that can't drive a car. The sweating came on when I realized I was coming to a stop sign...and.....I killed it. In the intersection. During country "rush hour." I just didn't look up and tried not to listen to anyone yelling and put my concentration on starting my tin can back up. With a solid jerk, I was back on the road and had managed to keep my pants dry. On the way back, just my luck, some over-sized wood hauling truck is coming down the hill and taking up the entire road. I wait and wait for it to reverse allllll the way back up the hill since I don't know short cuts and I just keep on killing the damn Peugeot every inch I tried to crawl forward. If that car wasn't ready for a new clutch by now, it will be in the next couple days. 

A solid investment for my time out here

This was yesterday and yet again today, Brigitte needed her cigs and some petrol, so out I go again, ugh. Poor Brigitte had to see my attempt at reversing around the repair truck in the driveway. After she saw that I was going nowhere fast, she reversed it for me and still wanted me to get in and drive. If I were her, I would have punched me in the face and told me not to come in 10 feet of the car, but we handle things differently. I watched a few youtube videos on driving a manual today and hopefully that will suffice for my manual driving lesson. Oy Vey! I need a bottle of wine and a nap after all this.