my name is mwd

When in France earlier this year, in addition to my boulangerie addiction, I developed a particular fondness for this road sign, which was scattered liberally throughout the region (accurately, one might add):

We were stuck with this terrible Polo 1.2 hire car, which had zero power in it, which required you to drop from 5th gear if you encountered a hill, and the rare occasions you thought you might try and overtake something (for example, a carrier bag being blown along the road, or a wounded cardboard box) then dropping two gears was advisable. It became something of a challenge to get the car to seem like a normal car, so the above sign just seemed to add to the general madness of driving about. I do admire the attitude that is “oui, la route est baisée, mais hé ho” and then just litter the region with signs. Certainly it’s better than complaining and doing nothing, which is what seems to be the British way.

(note, I did ask google to translate for me there – my level of French just about allows me to purchase croissants and cakes with some liberal amount of gesticulating vaguely, but no more. I hated languages at school, so dropped them as soon as possible (I was in the last school year in Scotland that could avoid taking a foreign language to exam level) and now I really regret it. mais hé ho indeed)