I had thought about a lot of aspects of visiting another country. New sights, new smells, new foods.
Speaking of food, I ate rabbit last night. Apologies to the Rabbit Room crowd if that is sacrilegious, but I felt like I needed to have as many new experiences as possible. I couldn’t bring myself to try escargot so I opted for le lapin.
What I hadn’t expected was the traffic.
Traffic may not even be the right word.
The streets are narrow. Many times they are only wide enough for one car.
And the streets aren’t one way.
Picture that in New Jersey. I can hear it in my imagination more than see it. Horns would be blaring. People would be shouting. And gesturing.
In Bayeux, people are patient.
And courteous.
I heard a horn beeping this morning, only the second car horn I’ve heard in France. It turns out that it was a car alarm.
The drivers here show uncommon patience.
I’ll miss it when I get back to New York.
Posting from my phone. Please excuse typos.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
I hope you enjoyed le lapin …. we eat lots of it here. Escargot are generally rubbery and taste only of the huge quantities of garlic butter they are doused in. I would leave them be if I were you 😉 I sit at my desk with two prints from the Bayeux tapestry above it. We bought them when we visited almost 5 years ago. It is a lovely town. Very civilised and I hope you will enjoy all that you experience there. As for French drivers – they have different foibles but driving on the horn and road rage are generally left to our Italian neighbours 🙂
It’s funny, in Haiti the car horns were going constantly, but they were the drivers’ way of communicating and being courteous in the absence of traffic laws: “I see you there, go ahead.” “Thanks for letting me through.” “I’m coming around, please don’t smoosh me.”
Sally, I love reading about your adventures. Such a beautiful and refreshing glimpse of a different place and world. I hope you are having chocolate croissants…
Enjoy the journey.