Driving with George Costanza and Crazy Joe Davola
The popular 90's sitcom Seinfeld had a couple of great characters and I swear their spiritual descendants are alive and well here on French and Swiss roads!
French drivers are like George Costanza. Apparently normal people most of the time but when they get behind the wheel, boy they're on a mission! Driving like men and women possessed, happily ignoring world class scenery that other people in the world save years to see as they zoom on their way to 'get somewhere'. Charging hard and hanging on your bumper even while climbing up the steepest of mountains, it's like having an Me-109 you can't shake sitting right on your six!
Meanwhile, drivers from the nearby Swiss Canton of Vaud remind me of the 'Crazy Joe Davola's' of this world. These folks just east of Geneva are from the money belt and between you and me I'm not sure they're entirely stable! Maybe that's what comes from being rich and Swiss and getting your way a little too much eh? These folks are just a wee bit too aggressive and should be taking their medication.. Elaine?! 
So whilst your average red-blooded Frenchman or woman is like a tenacious fighter pilot bobbing around in your rear view mirror, anyone sporting license plates with those fateful initials VD (Vaud), always gives me the impression that any minute now they're gonna tie on that rising-sun headband and yell Banzai as their propellor chews off my tail!
I've just come back from five days driving in the South of France and was reminded of a couple of amusing and not so outlandish stereotypes as I shared the highways and byways with the neighbours and the locals.
French drivers are like George Costanza. Apparently normal people most of the time but when they get behind the wheel, boy they're on a mission! Driving like men and women possessed, happily ignoring world class scenery that other people in the world save years to see as they zoom on their way to 'get somewhere'. Charging hard and hanging on your bumper even while climbing up the steepest of mountains, it's like having an Me-109 you can't shake sitting right on your six!
Meanwhile, drivers from the nearby Swiss Canton of Vaud remind me of the 'Crazy Joe Davola's' of this world. These folks just east of Geneva are from the money belt and between you and me I'm not sure they're entirely stable! Maybe that's what comes from being rich and Swiss and getting your way a little too much eh? These folks are just a wee bit too aggressive and should be taking their medication.. Elaine?!
So whilst your average red-blooded Frenchman or woman is like a tenacious fighter pilot bobbing around in your rear view mirror, anyone sporting license plates with those fateful initials VD (Vaud), always gives me the impression that any minute now they're gonna tie on that rising-sun headband and yell Banzai as their propellor chews off my tail!
posted by Captain Nemo at 6:55 pm
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