14 February 2015

My second short road trip

I went for my second drive in my new car yesterday. By the way, we need a new word in English. Or maybe I 'm just not thinking of a word that I should remember. In French, when I say « ma nouvelle voiture », I'm not conveying any information about whether I am the vehicle's first owner, or its second or third owner.

If the car is brand new and has never had a previous owner, then « c'est une voiture neuve ». A brand new car. Neuf and nouveau are only partial synonyms. My "new" car is not a "new" car. Oh well. It drives and looks like a voiture neuve. On my first drive in it, I was not enthusiastic. I hadn't yet got it all set up to my tastes and driving style. Yesterday's drive was a totally different experience. A fine one.

How do you like that speedometer (le compteur de vitesse) up on top of the dashboard (le tableau de bord)? What you see through the steering wheel (le volant) is the tachometer (le compte-tours). And no, I wasn't going 90 mph, but 90 kph.

I drove through the middle of Saint-Aignan — that takes about three minutes! — and south past SuperU and the Zooparc de Beauval on the very curvy road that runs down toward the village called Nouans-les-Fontaines, population 800. The road becomes as straight as a board about half way down, where I took the photo above. I know, driving and taking photos at the same time is not too smart, but as you can see, there wasn't much traffic to worry about.


At Nouans (where there is a famous 15th century painting in the church that was "discovered" less than 100 years ago), I turned left toward Luçay-le-Mâle (pop. 1,500), where there is a château that I've never been able to find, and on toward Valençay (pop. 2,600), where there is a famous château that I've visited many times. There, I turned north toward Selles-sur-Cher (pop. 4,600), where there is also a château and where I had an errand to run. From there, it's a straight shot west back to Saint-Aignan (pop. 3,000).


In all, I drove about 80 kilometers — that's 50 miles — and fiddled with the car's cruise control (le régulateur de vitesse), which I'm glad to have again; the heater and air conditioner; and the radio and CD player, when I was on open highway with no traffic (a lot of the time). The Peugeot is old enough to have neither cruise control or a CD player. I like the way the Citroën feels and drives, but it is bigger than the Peugeot 206 and that takes some getting used to.


Almost back home, I stopped in Noyers-sur-Cher, where there is no château but where there is a pretty 12th century chapel, and took a photo of the car with the chapel as a backdrop. I also took a photo of the interior, which I'm posting in black and white because I didn't like how the colors came out in the day's bright sunshine. The interior is all gray anyway. When I got home, I put the Citroën in the garage for the first time. The garage has a narrow door and I wasn't sure the Citroën would fit through it. It did. I didn't even have to fold back the side mirrors. Whew!

36 comments:

  1. That sounds like a really nice drive. Have you ever been inside the theatre at the chateau of Valencay? Lucky there were no deer leaping across the road just as you were taking photographs :-)

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    1. It was a very nice drive. I don't remember the theatre in the chateau at Valençay. Are you talking about the room in the older building where the run the video about the history of the chateau?

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    2. No, there's an early 19th century private theatre. It hasn't been open to the public long, and it's by guided tour on Sundays only. I've never been but I thought you might have since you are a bit closer.

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    3. I haven't been inside the château de Valençay recently. Et malheureusement, j'ai horreur des visites guidées.

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    4. " j'ai horreur des visites guidées"....

      Us as well... we had a guided tour of Azay le Ferron...
      you could only have the guided tour...
      at the third description....
      of how the third door, too, had been assembled in oak, using handmade nails...
      I felt ready to throttle the guy!
      As for the really interesting things... he brushed over them...
      and he went berserk on the description of a filthy dirty... almost black... miniature...
      that he was standing beside and we couldn't get near...
      We couldn't go back the way we'd come and escape...
      each door was locked behind us....
      and each door in front of us was then unlocked to let us into the next torture chamber...
      sorry, room with special, preshusss objects in...
      worst was the room with the big tapestry...
      younger than the one in the Logis Royal...
      it had been hung in the light too long and a lot of the colour had faded...
      or what we could see...
      they were trying to save what was left by only illuminating the room with a 40W bulb!
      In places it looked as if it had been used as a carpet....
      no, never again... terrible experience.

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  2. The first time I had a lift in a C4 I was impressed by the comfort....
    and that heads-up speedo...
    I tend to drive by engine note once I know a car...
    at the moment I am finding it a bit tricky as I have my usual winter catargh...
    so every time I blow my schnozzle I become almost deaf in one ear or the other...
    sometimes both... until the pressures even back out...
    at times like these I would love a heads-up display!!
    It is a nice looking car...
    and I saw a C3 in the same colour yesterday...

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    1. I do like the speedometer display so far, though I notice its reflection in the windshield (not the display but the structure of the thing). I think I saw a C3 or DS3 in the same color of Iridis on the lot at the Citroën dealership over in Noyers near Intermarché.

      Anyway, having the régulateur de vitesse is something I appreciate, since I have such a heavy foot. I always missed having cruise control in the little Peugeot 206, which in many ways (bigger engine, automatic climate control, etc.) a more luxurious car than the C4. I'm glad we are able to keep the Peugeot — it has been and is a great car.

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  3. Black and white photos, that's one way to solve the color debate, then everything is... well you know... black and white! Heh heh

    -craig-

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  4. Interesting question that of the doublet neuf and nouveau. Obviously neuf is much more ancient than nouveau. It's a wonder that English being such a rich language doesn't have the same shade of meaning for "new". All these words, English and French, originate in the Latin novus.

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    1. They have always said that French is more precise...

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  5. Looking at your photo, I got that new-car smell. No joke.

    I'm glad you're bonding with the car, and I do envy you that road trip.

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    1. It was a very short road trip. Morehead to New Bern and back, minus 25 miles! Everything here is on such a small scale compared to over there.

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  6. A wonderful place to take a nice drive. Four year's ago I rented a Citron Picasso for a week, it had cruise control and a device to set a maximum speed, it took me a 100 miles or so to figure out the two and how to set the cruise control. It was a nice car, very comfortable.

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    1. Nearly 12 years ago, when we left California and moved our lives to Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, Ireally wanted to buy a Citroën Picasso. Circumstances of all kinds intervened, and I ended up buying a Peugeot 206. It's been a great car, but now I finally have my Citroën too. The cruise control seems to work fine, but I really have to push hard on the Set+ or Set- button to adjust it.

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  7. It's fun getting to know a new car. Thanks for the map of your trip. You are surrounded by beauty.

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    1. Have we all gone to Valençay together? I remember going there once with Marie, and once with MA... Next time?

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    2. Next time for sure- Valencay!

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  8. Oh boy :) This is really fun, knowing how much you are enjoying your new purchase, and all of the experiences related to it :)

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  9. I love that black-and-white picture. It looks like something out of a 1950s brochure. Brilliant. Pauline

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  10. I know this isn't exactly the same, but in English anything that has never been used can be called "brand new." The online definition is " conspicuously new and unused" lol

    Cruise control is a wonderful thing to have for long drives. It really helps your legs....

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    1. I also don't do many long drives. France is about the size of Texas, and I hardly ever drive across the whole country. Four or five hours is about my maximum time behind the wheel. And that happens once or twice a year.

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  11. the car looks, and "sounds", great. You may find that the speedometer makes a reflection in the windshield during night driving -- I turn the backlighting way down behind it then (Prius with a similar set-up).

    What model year is this car? You may have said, but if so I've missed it.

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    1. I don't do much night driving...

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    2. The Citroën C4 was first registered on Dec. 27, 2007. That makes it a 2008 model in U.S. terms. It has fewer than 50k miles on it, and it's a diesel, so the lifespan of the engine is much longer than the lifespan of a gasoline engine. It is amazingly clean, inside and out. The 14-year-old Peugeot 206 now has 120k miles on it and is going strong. It should go to 250k miles, with regular maintenance. Since neither car will be driven more than two or three thousand miles a year, we should be fine for quite a while. The C4 is a bigger car with more modern features -- that was the attraction. Plus the fact that I've wanted to be a Citroën owner for many years now. Wish me luck.

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  12. I haven't driven a car with a clutch in about 20 years. I wonder if I still can!? I guess it would be like riding a bicycle. I know I sure loved driving a straight stick, but these days there is just too much traffic. Nice car. I don't remember ever seeing but one many years ago. What do you call that color? It looks like a grayish purple color.

    It's been mighty cold here in coastal NC. I don't mind the cold so much, but the wind has been awful.

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    1. I read a while back that while only 6% of the cars in America have manual transmissions, only 6% of the cars in France have automatic transmissions. Worlds apart...

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  13. I think your last car was diesel. I assume this one is too?

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    1. Yes, both diesel. Two-thirds of the cars on the road here in France have diesel engines.

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  14. Paris sounded like it was 100% clattering diesel. Here I would guess about 5% are diesel, including SUVs. Maybe a little more than that run on gas, but we seem to quite wedded to petrol here. While we know diesel is superior and cheaper (but not for the initial purchase price) , it is rather like knowing Mac is better than Windows, yet so many of us stick with Windows.

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?