[amolpol]

Let me start by saying, I have always enjoyed being in India all my life even with its quirks and annoyances, crowds and noises, potholes and pollution, religions and racism, festivals and bandhs, but most importantly family and friends. Over the years, we have had such amazing trips across several regions of India and yet we feel there’s so much biodiversity left to be experienced. Somehow we have always felt it’s where we belong, and that’s mainly why we haven’t fancied the great migrations undertaken by a lot of fellow colleagues and friends to other countries in search of a better life. A big part of their better life versions were always the tick-boxes of good infrastructure, safety and air quality, work-life balance etc, which are unquestionably true and yet weren’t enough to convince me to make the jump.



But as in every story, there’s always a turning point, and mine started just a little before the world was consumed by Covid for 2 full years. My career evolution needed me to be closer to the HQ in Paris and it meant either continue to travel every few weeks and have a lot of wasted weekends with collecting bills as a hobby or to decide to move as an expat and try the European way of life for a few years. Before I could even deliberate on the choices, it was the world of lockdowns and we got some breathing space to make the decision because it was clear that there was no added value to work from home in Paris instead of Bangalore. Wave after wave, we hit the “snooze” button on the decision but I found myself against the wall to decide in early 2022 when face masks were recommended but not mandatory anymore.



Over the past several years, I spent a considerable amount of time in Paris for work every year. Contrary to the world view of Paris being the most scenic/romantic of all cities etc, my views remain a bit different. But as a family, we had done a long road trip across France and parts of Spain and Italy and we loved every bit of that. One thing was for sure, Europe has a lot of experiences to offer and the best way to tap into that was to be there!



This felt different, we were neither going to be on a holiday nor a business visit. It was supposed to be a temporary move but it almost needed the same level of commitment like a permanent relocation. The decision making involved several key variables: my career, wife’s career, daughter’s education, our handpicked garage arsenal, our house, families, friends and most importantly our lifestyle. The financial viability of the decision was also important but let’s just say it wasn’t probably the biggest factor. The big motivator for us as a family was the opportunity to absorb a different culture, experience the beauty of Europe as travelers (not as tourists) and try to take advantage of the motorsports culture that the region has to offer.

This thread aims to cover a few aspects of our migration journey to France, the rewards, the sacrifices, the new beginnings, the learnings and of course the return to base to complete the full circle. I like to think of this like a long travelogue, with accounts of experiences that shaped a lot of things in our lives.

[amolpol]

Our choices for the garage were mainly driven by function over form and that meant we preferred several specialized tools vs jack of all trades. The strategy was well supported by the ability to rent multiple secured parking spaces in our residential campus. Each vehicle had its own purpose and couldn’t easily be replaced by another one, made it quite difficult to choose sometimes.



The pandemic had affected everyone in different ways, for us it ignited the motocross journey for my daughter who was just 10 years old at the time. What began as a silly idea in 2020 had taken some interesting turns, she had become a promising talent at the 2022 MRF Supercross National Championship. The move to France was definitely going to put a stop to her racing prospects, but on the flip side it also opened the door to possible training opportunities in France. It probably deserves a separate thread for kids in motorsports especially in India since it’s an emerging trend but let’s keep that for someday later.




Now that 2 out of 3 family members were riders, our garage was strongly influenced by it. I was in love with my R1200 GSA Rallye while the lesser known SWM Superdual 650 mainly helped in accompanying my daughter at the off-road track and nearby trails. My daughter rode the pocket rocket Kawasaki KX100 on dirt and a stripped down Yamaha R15 for her tarmac lessons.



Of course, this meant we needed to have an Isuzu VCross to move around because neither her bikes were road legal nor is she legally allowed to ride for another few years.



A monstrous Landcruiser 80 series equipped with heavy duty off-road kits stood in the garage with magical powers to go anywhere.



The mighty Fortuner in its stock form had served us well over the past years and continued to run like it was bought yesterday.



Last but not least, a Superb TSI which initially felt a bit out of place in a family of 4x4s but had won us over with its sheer comfort and mile-munching capabilities on long highway journeys.



It was a near perfect setup for what we enjoyed as a family: camping, wildlife photography, trails, motocross, and cross-country touring.

[amolpol]

We decided to divide and conquer on the criteria we will use for our decision to move or not and then confer together to make the final decision. Like any loving husband would do, I let my wife tackle most of the tricky topics like career, house, family, finances etc, while I completely focused myself on the most important question for a petrolhead.

“What do we do with our precious garage?”



As you can see, it included a mix of workhorses and keepers for life. This one was a deal-breaker for me, and we needed to be fully convinced that we could and should move away from what was now a perfect arsenal.

Two clear options emerged:

• Option 1: Don’t do anything, just park everything and leave. Keeping in mind that the move was long but temporary, this way we could come back and decide on what we want to do. I already had several parking spots at my disposal so it was already one issue sorted. This was the easiest option, but I just couldn’t convince myself to keep the vehicles standing for 2-3 years without use. For me its super important that I can trust my vehicles because we’ve often done trips where breaking down could have had serious complications especially when we’re traveling alone in remote places. I wasn’t sure I could regain the confidence after such a long downtime. Moreover, it would have also eroded their financial value in those years so it wouldn’t help if we chose to recondition everything and sell it at that time.
• Option 2: Sell everything and rip off the band-aid before we leave. It was the painful option to consider, both financially and emotionally. However, this way we cut our losses and opened the door for new beginnings when we return. This was easier said than done, because it meant finding the right buyers at the right price for several enthusiast type vehicles that won’t all be the fastest moving commodities in the market with the pressure of a clock that was already ticking. It also had to be sequenced right in terms of sale, for example so we couldn’t have sold the Isuzu before the bikes were gone etc.

Armed with enough bullet points to make the for and against arguments, I was now fully confident that this was the most pressing debate topic of all.

Soon it was the day of the joint meeting where we had to make a decision on how we will shape our near future. There were no real debates on the topics that my wife had worked on,

• Family: We both agreed that we were going to be just 11 hours away from the family in Mumbai which was the same time it took for us from Bangalore by car.
• House: A dear friend agreed to rent our fully furnished house and take care of it.
• School: This was the easy part, we explained to our daughter that we firmly believed in her capacity to learn and adapt and that no institution alone can anyway guarantee success.
• Career: This was definitely a hot topic, given that my wife’s career would be put on hold after more than 2 decades of working as a corporate slave. But she agreed to look at it as a forced vacation in Europe to give it a positive spin.
• Friends: This one was tough, we have a lot of friends that are now like family and moving away from them was hard.

So everything else sorted, we were now down to the most important topic – the garage!



We spent hours on what should be done, but it kept becoming increasingly complex to decide if we park or sell everything in the garage. At the end, it came down to a very scientific method for decision making, coin toss! After a few spins, it was decided not to look back and just go ahead with putting things on sale immediately to try and dispose everything before we shut shop in India.

Now that we had made a decision, I quickly got into action with my fingers typing as fast as they could to put the details and pictures on several Whatsapp groups. I must admit that it’s an efficient way to connect with several enthusiast communities and advertise what you’re selling. It is however always the friends of such enthusiasts who get forwarded your messages which starts this cycle of questions for information that were already in your original post. You end up spending hours discussing with people you don’t know and who have no clue on why they should buy or not the vehicle you intend to sell. This can go on to a point where you now start to know these people quite well but still haven’t made a sale.

Victory comes to only those who persevere in this game, and that’s what I kept telling myself to stay motivated through the process. Soon the enquiries started turning into real buying actions, I was closing deals with a strange feeling that we were losing a lot of money in the process, but with a satisfaction that the new owners were indeed going to take good care of our rides. One golden rule I have lived by, is never tally what you spend or lose on your vehicles. Its stupid but it works and has given me a lot of peace in all these years!



The plan was for me to move earlier and my wife and daughter were supposed to arrive a few months later at the end of the school year. By the time I moved, most of the arsenal was either sold or pledged. So it gave me enough time to close all the transactions and get ready to open a chapter in France in parallel.

[amolpol]

Nothing can prepare you enough when you move to a new country. You can do your research on the internet, you can talk to people to get their perspective, have a relocation agency to smoothen the process, and yet you will discover surprises as you go through it.



The priorities were quite clear:

• Get settled with work, the work culture and most importantly the paperwork
• Figure out the garage to re-establish our explorer type lifestyle in France to be equal or better than the one in India
• Find a good school and a nice place to stay that will support the new garage ambitions
• Discover the motocross scene in and around Paris
• Enjoy the moment and don’t focus on saving money to live happily ever after

Now I do realize that most migrating families may have different priorities than the ones I listed above. Also, a big reason why gathering other peoples perspectives doesn’t always give you all the good answers. I won’t get into the details of the migration process by itself because let’s just say even though I was well taken care of by the company, yet there were still a lot of “Welcome to France” administrative nightmares to deal with.

What wasn't a part of my plan, was a silly toe fracture, just couple of weeks before I had to leave! It needed a surgery to fix and couple weeks of rest. So I pushed my tickets until the wires were removed and it was deemed okay to travel.



Meanwhile, the relocation guys were finding it quite difficult to search a house for me in Paris. They hadn't ever gotten constraints on finding an apartment that had to be big enough and with 2 or more parking spaces as a mandatory requirement. It was quite clear that I wouldn't be welcome in the city with that condition because most apartments have maximum one or none parking spaces and I would never park on the street. Moreover it's a nightmare to drive in the city because the mayor hates cars and she's basically shrunk all the roads to avoid cars in the city. I was more than happy to stay in the suburbs as it would also mean the apartments would also be relatively bigger than the wardrobe sized ones in the city.

I could still barely walk for a few minutes with help of the walking stick, so driving or riding a bike was totally out of question for another month or more.
Given that I had moved alone, it was only prudent to avoid any escalation to the injury because I didn’t want to put the French medical system to test, right as I arrived. That didn't stop my relocation guys to insist that I finalize my house quickly because everything else can only be started when you have an address to begin with. So they organized a speed-dating kind ritual to zero down on the house within a day. My new apartment was a cosy place nestled in the nice suburb of Saint Germain-en-Laye which is the HQ for PSG for those who follow "foot". Although, it was far from the office, best part of the place was that it had two spacious parking spots in a secured basement.

The first month or so, I was forced to adapt to the public transportation system for the daily hour long commutes which wasn’t too bad but wasn’t exciting as well. While the train infrastructure and connectivity across the city and suburbs is very nice and efficient on most days, it's the buses that can frustrate you with their 15-20 minute intervals. Given that I couldn't still walk with ease, I had to rely on the buses for what could be a nice 20-25 mins walk otherwise. Using public transport gave me enough time to research and plan on what I needed to get in order to win back my freedom to travel.

The plan was clear, first I needed to get a motorcycle, then a car followed by a helicopter maybe and a Gulfstream to complete . But before that I had to make sure I knew the French system enough and understood my eligibility to own, ride and drive.

[amolpol]

As a tourist, I have even used my ancient book version of the Indian license for renting cars in the past. But as per the law, tourists are required to have a certified French translation available for the IDP or their home country license. This requirement is quite diluted these days with English versions being accepted most places, but you could be refused at times if the rental agency insists on the French translation or if the police insist if/when you are controlled.



This is the official website where you can find information on a lot of things if you're visiting France: https://www.service-public.fr/partic...N19812?lang=en

Cars are left hand steering and the rules are generally quite logical and followed. The French still love the stick shifts mainly for the advantage on mileage over autoboxes. Fuel is generally expensive at about 1.8-2 Eur/Lit and most cars have smaller and frugal engines. The EVs are slowly increasing, mainly since the cars keep running for decades before they see the crusher. The French culture doesn't value cars as a matter of pride/prestige and most cars show off their scratches and dents with no remorse. It doesn't mean the rental guys take it kindly when they find something that can be pinned on you, so best is to be careful and take the full coverage plans when hiring.

Do not panic if you happen to see some of the worst looking cars in France, there are plenty of such samples from the yester years and even recent ones. Not many people discuss their cars or cars in general and talking about high performance and fuel guzzling cars can annoy some folks who will be prompt to explain to you why the world needs less of those.

Paris in general is strongly against cars, and especially for those which are considered an SUV (>1600 kg). Recently the parking charges for such cars in the city was voted to be tripled as compared to the regular charges which already were quite expensive. So an hour on the street side for an SUV could cost you 12 - 18 EUR depending on which zone of the city you park. The city is made up of 20 arrondissements (PIN codes) in a spiral arrangement starting at the center.

Here's what parking an SUV would look like in the city:


As a resident though, things can be more complicated. You are allowed to drive or ride for 1 year from the date of issue of the French residence card using the International Driving Permit issued by the home country for the respective categories. As per the rules, you should carry a certified French translation of the IDP. The expectation is that you should have obtained your French license before the end of the first year. Therefore, after the first year anniversary of your resident card, you have no right to drive/ride in the EU with your home country license or IDP. However, you can only start after being in the country for 6 months so essentially you get only six months to get your license.

The Indian license gives you no opportunity to exchange it for a French one. This means you have to undergo the full training and certification like the 18-year French kids when they get their first permit. The process is long, costly and conducted in French. It can take up to a year and will cost somewhere between a Duke 125 to a Duke 250 for each category of license. There is also a possibility that you will not be able to drive for a period of time if you're not lucky enough to finish before the first year is over.

The French licenses are valid for life, although you have to renew them in 15 years without needing any additional tests etc. Its valid throughout the EU and most countries would accept it for an exchange if/when needed.



Let's start with the Two Wheeler license first - Category A. The license category for 2 wheelers is sub-divided into three categories.

• A1 is for scooters or bikes upto 125cc. Usually these bikes are restricted to below 50kph and are mostly used by youngsters or for really short rides in the city. In the past, A1 was by default included in the car license but now they need some additional course to be done I think.
• A2 allows you to ride motorcycles upto 35KW (47.5 HP). This is the only real way to get into the motorcycling world. It involves three supervised exams that you have to clear and 20 hours of training as pre-requisite.
• A is a dream for which you have to wait 2 years after acquiring your A2 license and then doing an additional 7 hours of training to apply for it. Its designed to make the kids wait till they're 21 before they can ride the litre class superbikes.

For the car license, its category B. It allows you to drive anything upto 3.5 tonnes including a trailer upto 500kgs. For trailers above 500 upto 750kgs, you have some additional trainings to do, or apply for the C1 category that lets you drive anything between 3.5t to 7.5t limits, but this has to renewed with a medical every 5 years or so.

Getting your license is only the first step because the probation period can last 3 years when you eventually will get the maximum of 12 points if you haven't lost any already and you will no longer be following lower speed limits. The probationary period is designed with the youngsters in mind but is non-negotiable even if you're not 18 anymore and not just mistakes but also insurance proves to be quite costly during this phase if you intend to buy a car or bike.

Will put the details of the license process, prep needed and my experience of getting them in separate posts.

[amolpol]

Armed with the information on eligibility, I was now actively looking at options to buy a motorcycle that was going to be compliant with the A2 license regulations. Knowing the license categories information was super critical because it helped me decide to sell my R1200 GSA in India vs putting it on a cargo plane to France. And yes, for those who want to know, it’s quite possible and not super expensive to import bikes into France as long as they’re also homologated here. I didn’t get into all the details because it wasn’t going to help me anyway.



The A2 regulation is basically a ceiling on power to be not more than 35KW (47.5HP) and a minimum weight so that power/weight is not too aggressive, the engine capacity doesn’t have a limit. However, it also has some other clauses like the you cannot restrict a bike to 35KW if the original specification was higher than 2X of that. This is also why a lot of manufacturers have 95HP outputs if they also have a A2 offering for the same model. E.g Tiger 800/900, KTM 790/890.

There are other smaller options that fit the A2 requirements like the KTM 390ADV or the Himalayan which are also on sale here mainly because of this. I wasn't keen on any of these options though.

I started doing some research on the bike options to explore:

• The T700 was the first choice but unfortunately they had discontinued the A2 spec in early 2022. Now the options were to use an aftermarket kit on a new bike to restrict power to 35KW and get a certificate showing the reduced capacity of the bike or buy a used one that was A2. Both were not okay for me since it either meant tinkering with the warranty of a new bike or going into the used market without much awareness of the French market. Cost was the lowest though since the T700 sells the cheapest of all.
• The Tiger900 was available in A2 and priced in and around the others in this category. It was a familiar beast after having owned the Tiger800 but even if it’s better than the T800, it still remains top heavy and therefore had to be put out of the list.
• The BMW 850 GS/A was a much more compelling option because of the discounts on offer but scaling down from the R1200 would always leave it short on expectations. Besides the A2 version would take 4-6 months to get, so this was also struck off.
• The KTM 890 was a strong contender but it didn’t feel as appealing as the others when it came to comfort or the quality of stuff on it. More importantly I could only get the mellowed down road focused version in A2 and not the Adventure or Adventure R versions which made the deal go sour.
• Enter the Desert X, it was newly launched at the time and it looked completely like a work of art. It was a new off-road bike focused from Ducati who had no proven credentials in that area but initial reviews seemed promising. It was and still remains as the most expensive option of all the above ones but given that everything else had fallen off the list, this automatically became a serious consideration.

As soon as I could lose the support bandages for the toe, I put on some shoes and went to the Ducati showroom to test ride the Desert X.

Was love at first sight!


Like most other things in France that I was discovering, nothing works the first time like you imagined it to be. First it’s the language which of course I had no knowledge of at the time, then it was the culture of meeting by appointments only, even when there’s no other soul in the showroom. I was politely turned away saying we don’t do test rides on Saturday and that I could get a booking for Wednesday afternoon at 3pm. Left with no choice, I put my name on their precious calendar and went ahead to clear up my own calendar for that afternoon. As a customer in France, your time seems to have lesser value as against the guys at the showroom and you get reminded of this in almost every place.

Now, the minimum mandatory gear for riding bikes is a certified helmet and gloves in France, everything else is optional. All my riding gear was still in transit so I took the opportunity to buy some nice Klim gear for the test ride.

On Wednesday, I arrived a few minutes before the appointment and thankfully the guys were ready with the bike for me. There were still no traces of any other soul in the shop so I’m guessing I was their only test ride of the day. It was quite apparent that the showroom guys treated me as a novelty because it didn’t seem like they had seen Indian guys coming for test rides often. I put down the deposit on my card, took the bike for a spin on the busy streets of Paris only to be lost after a while. Took me a bit longer than the 30 mins to get back but I had gotten enough feel for the bike to make a decision.

The bike rode like a big dirt bike, it's tall but with the slim profile it makes up for it. Suspension seemed quite good and confidence inspiring, weight was surprisingly low and managing it at lower speeds and when stationary didn't bother at all. Electronics and the handlebar controls seemed top notch. Overall, the bike felt very premium and even with the half powered engine, it had enough low end and eagerness to pick up revs and speed at all times. I came back impressed about how convinced I could feel with just one test ride.

After the test ride, the showroom manager offered coffee and asked me how I felt about the bike via one of his guys acting as a translator. I told him that I've decided to buy and would like to know when he can get me one. He was quite surprised at the beginning since he didn’t expect such a quick decision. A few minutes later he was actually more intrigued by the question on whether he was allowed to sell me one in the first place. We exchanged information about my expat situation in France and how I am authorized to ride with my Indian license for one year etc. A few phone calls later, he confirmed that he could sell me the bike as per law, and that luckily enough he had one A2 spec bike in stock at their yard. The average waiting time for most bikes was anywhere between 4-6 months so when he said it could be available in 3-4 weeks it was music to my ears.

We shook hands, I asked him to keep the deposit I paid for the test ride as the booking amount and reserve that bike in stock. He was going to get the booking documents ready, discuss the price, accessories and possible discounts on the following Saturday. Because of course, they were already tired for the day attending me. So I got myself another “rendezvous” for the weekend.

The weekend came quick, at least it felt that way! The manager and I were now making full use of Google Translate and having philosophical conversations about life . Then came a very embarrassing moment in my life, he handed me the booking contract which was several pages of French gibberish. I was expected to sign it and that’s when I realized how unprepared and uneducated I was at that moment .

Of course I tried to convert some image to text and try to make sense of it, but this was quite a few pages of alien stuff written by some guy in legal. I should have anticipated this and taken someone along, but it didn’t hit me until I was in the situation already. Now if I refused to sign, it meant he couldn’t log the order and it could have delayed the process or worse if they released the bike to another order then I would’ve had to wait even longer. So I did what every logical person would do. I believed his summary of what’s written and relied on my gut feel that he wouldn’t be able to make me sign off on my property on a Ducati letterhead. Anyway, I had nothing on my name in France yet. The gamble turned out okay, as attested by an expert colleague in sourcing at work, it was a standard off-the-mill agreement.



Given that the bike was just launched, there were no accessories by third party companies in the market yet, so I asked the dealership for the sports and off-road package to be installed on the bike which included the engine guard, radiator guard, side protection bars, tail tidy, Termignoni exhaust along with a few other things. Paid up most of the remaining balance, keeping a last bit for the day of delivery.

Things were looking really good at the moment, so I had a small celebration dinner on my way back!

[amolpol]

With the bike booked, it was now time to get cracking on the car. This one was not supposed to be too intense since I was supposed to get a company car. Given that I was on expat assignment, it wasn’t going to be a new car which was good because the new car orders had a waiting of 6-9 months on an average. Instead, they had to look for something that would fit my needs of a petrol powered SUV from one of the 3 German brands that could become available from the early returns.

Buying a new car can be quite complicated with the emission tax and weight tax which is applied as a combination. The maximum combined tax that can be applied is 70000 EUR and it may not be only for the most expensive Porsche, G-Wagen and Ford Raptors that fall in this category, but for example an Octavia RS or even the Toyota GR Yaris.

Imagine the GR Yaris with 260hp costing a little over INR 1.1 crore!

Image source: Internet

• As of now, the emission rate with zero tax is at 113g/km of CO2 which is quite an unlikely number to reach for any simple fossil fuel powered car. At 136g/km you're already looking at about 1000 EUR and then it just grows exponentially to be capped at 70000 EUR for anything that is around 200g/km or more. The hybrids and electrics are exempt from this emission tax because they're always lower than the 113 which is what drives the limit for most company car policies. Basically, it's pushing everyone to move to the PHEV or EV even though the prices are significantly higher and the incentives have been withdrawn. One of the reasons why the emission taxes were raised were to narrow the pricing gap between petrol/diesel cars vs electrics but what it has done is pushed the price for all cars higher than before.
• For the weight tax, it starts at the magic number of 1600kg and they have slabs or 2000kg where you pay a certain rate per kg. So something at about 2 tonnes, would have about 5-10kE of excess to be paid in addition to the emission tax as long as the total remains below 70KE.

I wasn't a big fan of the EVs because it just wouldn't suit our lifestyle of taking off to remote places without detailed planning. Even though the EV charging infrastructure is quite evolved here, it's far from being perfect. Vacation times are a nightmare to find charging stations and sometimes even the guys with fuel tanks are blocked because the guys with EVs are just stuck on the narrow pathways as you exit the highways for the rest stop. The PHEVs are a decent compromise but with the smaller tanks and less than 50-60km range on EV, it's just feels useless to have a hybrid on longish drives.

The initial idea was to have the company car for regular use and get a Toyota Hilux to do track duty with the bike(s) when we got the track and everything else figured out. The other option was to look for the cargo vans which had 3 seats in the front and enough space to fit a bike and with all the gear etc and double up as a good camping companion when needed. There were some other options of a 5 seater van with cargo space which were also in my radar. But the bigger topic was to get the license sorted out before I put money on the second car.

While I did my research on what could be the potential options for the second car, I got a call to confirm that they had found a petrol driven Audi Q3 that I could use for the next 2 years. This was good because now it seemed like I was going to be spoilt for choices to go to work with the bike and car both in the garage!



The Q3 had nothing to be excited about but it still was perfect. Like most cars in France it was built to be frugal and did almost 1000kms on a full tank. It was a simple 1.5 DCT putting out 150 horses, didn’t make a fuss about anything. It felt strangely familiar because most of the infotainment options were similar to the Superb and everything was just in the right place. Reminded me of the "simply clever" tagline from Skoda!

The car had previously done about 17k kms in over 2 years, it was mechanically perfect but badly needed an interior detailing since it was standing for a while and still had stuff that wasn't cleared on time. So after a nice wash and detailing, everything was looking brand new.

[amolpol]

A couple of weeks after I had booked the bike and was still waiting for the update on the car situation, I got an email from the Ducati showroom that the bike had arrived and will be ready for delivery on the following weekend with all the accessories fitted. But there was a slight hiccup!

The insurance guys that the dealer used had refused my proposal stating that they weren’t able to insure a foreign license holder. It was probably the first time even the store manager had seen such a rejection, so he politely told me to look for some alternative options directly. That's when the fun started, of being rejected by every possible insurance company in France. Pretty much everyone I knew were now aware of my desperate situation and my colleagues at work were now actively helping me find insurance options. Some even called their own insurance companies and tried their influence to help. Nothing worked, and after 10 days of being repeatedly rejected, my hopes of bringing the Desert X were starting to dwindle.

For the first time in life, I was facing rejection from insurance companies who are otherwise dying to get your business in India. But this is quite normal in France to be ill treated by the banks and other financial institutions. In these years so far, I haven't seen any real effort from my banks to promote anything they would like to sell. It's as if there is no need for them to sell, because they know you will come to them anyway when you need. I tried to understand how this works from my friends and colleagues, and it's just how things are where the consumer is always the one making the effort. In fact, the private banks here are worse than some of the PSU banks in India and there's been quite a few incidents to support that observation. In general, the customer doesn't seem to be king in France and customer service has been dead since a while!

I put on my law research hat and started scouring the French internet for ways to overcome this. The French law actually doesn’t block the sale of vehicles to foreigners as long as they have the authorization to drive, which was the case here. However, the insurance companies can refuse to cover the individual and therefore block the sale. Normally, its supposed to be a game of risk profiling and it could drive the premiums higher than usual for something like this situation, but apparently the French companies just didn't want to play that game.

The Ducati dealership was quite supportive through this time, he knew that life can be tough in France and told me that if it doesn’t work out he would give me a full refund and I could come back anytime once I had my French license. I had decided to visit the showroom on Saturday that week and cancel my booking but then life took another turn just 2 days before the weekend.

I answered a random phone call from an insurance agent who got my number from a web enquiry I had posted earlier in the week. It was a British lady (Helen) who knew exactly what I needed and how to get it done. What seemed like an impossible task was solved in 15 minutes of conversation in English, what more could I have asked for. She also told me, I could even use the no-claims history for the R1200 GSA that I owned in India to get the maximum 50% discount that a French license holder would normally get after about 10 years of having no claims.

This was nothing short of a miracle, nobody had a clue that such an option existed for expats to get insurance. Helen worked for the international division of the same insurance company that had refused me three times in the past 10 days. Apparently, the most used phrase in the French customer service (if one exists) is “non” which simply means no, it can’t be done. And they don’t hesitate to use it even when they don’t know the answer or don’t understand the question, its just simple that way. These two weeks of my life easily topped the list of worst weeks, it was the sheer frustration of being pushed to accept “no” as an answer to a situation that had never existed before.

I got the insurance agent in India to send me a report for the GSA over the weekend and told the Ducati guys to hold on with my booking for another week. The following Monday, I submitted the documents, made the payment and let the insurance guys talk to the dealership on the paperwork that's needed to be done to get the bike registration complete. The plan was back on track, albeit with a 2 week delay but it didn't matter anymore!

That's me and Dominique (manager at Ducati Paris) on the delivery day!

[amolpol]

After getting the bike and car delivered, I was enjoying my logistical freedom. Even the weather started to improve after winter and I could do more weekend trips than before. The family was to join me in spring so I was already scouting for places in and around for when they come. Meanwhile, I tried to sign up for my French driving license course because I was told it takes 6 months or more to complete the process. But just like how a regular French system works (or not), I was denied.

It is not possible to enroll for the driving course until you receive the resident card which can take several months. And because I was such a special guest of France, they took nearly 5 months to deliver a beautifully hand-crafted piece of plastic after it was fully approved. So it wasn’t really until a little over 6 months of my 1 year exemption period that was I able to enroll for the license process, made life interesting that way!

The minimum age is 18 years but kids can start to learn as early as 15 with accompanied driving options in order to receive their license at 18. For a car, the license category is Permis B which allows you to drive a 4 wheeler upto a max gross weight of less than 3.5t. It could potentially allow you to drive some of the bigger vans as long as they meet the weight criteria as mentioned on the registration document. If the total weight is below 3.5t, you’re allowed an unbraked trailer upto 500kgs, but anything more and you will need another category of the Permis B for it to be legal. Anything more than 3.5t and then you start entering into specialized categories which we will not discuss here.

The first step is to create what is called the NEPH number, basically its your registration number. But before you get there, you need a driving school to enroll you and get the NEPH linked to them. You need to submit basic documents for identity and residence proof and then wait a couple of months for this to be generated, don’t ask me why! Once the NEPH is generated, you’re now eligible to appear for the theoretical exam “Code de la route” when you’re fully prepared.



The Code de la Route has 40 situational questions in French and you need to score a minimum 35 to pass. The exam can be done directly by registering at one of the several testing centers where you’re given roughly 30 mins to answer the questions on a tablet. The results are posted with a delay of 1 day usually so you won’t know immediately if you did well or not. At first, it seems easy, but as a foreigner, it’s a mountain to climb because you would normally need about a B1/B2 level of proficiency in French and a sound understanding of the rules to clear it. The exam has no straightforward questions about the rules, everything is situation based and application of rules can be subject to interpretation. There are practice tests available online for a fee but since everything is in French, you would soon find yourself frustrated trying to translate everything and learning that some of the translations don’t make any sense.

Soon, you understand that the online self-learning isn’t going to help because the language and sentence structure used in the code is complicated French. It’s hard to understand the intent of the sentences even for the native French speakers who will entertain you with their interpretations and arguments on the situations if you happen to ask for help from your colleagues or friends. Believe me, most of the colleagues that tried to help me were also astounded by the questions and confessed that they’re also trying hard to get their children to pass the test. The test has a defined mix of questions about various topics which could include, sciences, first-aid, driving rules, road signs, best practices, and statistics.



Once you pass the code, you can now train with the car to complete the hours needed for the driving exam. The exam is designed to force you to apply the theoretical learning of the code in the real world where most things don’t exactly fit but you need to still try. You’re judged by an inspector who sits next to you and if you don’t make any eliminatory mistakes, you need 20 of the 31 possible points on their scoresheet to pass. Also, to make matters interesting, the inspectors only communicate with you in French and you are also expected to answer in French.

You would normally expect that being a well-educated foreigner holding a driving license from India for years should help, but then you’re hit with the hard reality of the French system or any non-English western European system for that matter. The French system I’m told is one of the harshest amongst the EU to get a driving license especially if you don’t know the language to begin with. You can apply for your license as an independent candidate or through the driving schools known as “auto/moto ecole”. It is more than highly recommended to go through the driving schools since otherwise you will quickly start feeling like “Abhimanyu” caught in a downward spiral (don’t do this to yourself!).

Now the choice of driving school forces you to the doors of one of the two schools in Paris (Zipee and Fehrehbach) that are able to conduct the learning courses in English for expats. Although the primary language for the code exam is French, these two schools are able to organize a special session with a court approved translator who will read the question in French and make a literal translation in English for you to answer. You do this at the prefecture in presence of the inspector who can depending on his/her mood decide to act tough or nice through the exam, especially when someone is asking to repeat the question etc. These two schools are your best bet to get a detailed understanding of the rules and be able to clear the exam without getting your verbal French proficiency to B2 or higher first.

There are other environmental variables to consider as well, for example which department would you want to use for your driving exam, the time of the year, the fees for the driving school etc. Some departments could be easier to find exam appointments or have better results in general but let’s not get into those statistics. Depending on where you’re staying, life could be different since both these schools are in Paris and they usually have the exams scheduled at the prefectures nearby. So if you’re staying further away from Paris, you may have to consider traveling in and out for the classes etc.

So once all the stars aligned, I had my application filed through the school and started attending their online classes for the code. At the beginning, it didn’t seem like too much of work, but soon after a couple of practice tests it was clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy one to crack. The situational analysis had to be done with a French brain and it wasn’t just the language but the mindset. Your level of preparation is first judged by the school before they let you go for the exam and they’re usually tougher to please because they have to ensure good pass rates in order to maintain their rating as a premier school. So after a couple of months of slow learning, I had to commit myself to being regular on the classes and the mock tests to convince my trainer that I was ready. Once it’s determined that you’re ready, it’s time to wait for your spot in the next schedule which could take a month or two, or more if you’re in the holiday periods. The in-person exams are usually only one day per month since it needs alignment with the prefecture and the translator etc.

On the day of the exam, you do get a “board exam” feeling with people around you still trying to revise stuff from the book and discussing topics that they have doubts about. Its funny coz eventually the questions will anyway be completely different from what you’ve seen so far. One thing is for sure, the preparation and the internal evaluation process was quite thorough, only one of the 6 people that attended with me failed although 2 of them were on their second attempt. I was just happy to get one step closer to goal and there was hope that I could get my French license before I get prohibited to drive.

Scheduling the driving classes was another game I had to learn, because mostly the slots are proposed in the middle of your work day because of course it is France and you work as per the school’s convenience. After the first couple of times, I learnt that no matter who you are otherwise, you’re a student and that you will have to oblige with the school and not the other way round. So I mastered the technique of re-arranging my work diary to fit my driving lessons. Now the typical requirement for the learning hours is 13h for automatic gearbox and 20h for a manual gearbox, but of course the school recommends that you choose the automatic gearbox because it reduces the complexity of scoring in the final exam. Unlike the US, the French are very mileage conscious and a good majority of cars are manual and the inspector expects you to have mastered the French technique for manual gearbox. The best workaround is to get a license with automatic gear and then do a 7 hour course with the school later to upgrade your license for manual shift without a test, takes more time but improves your chances of success. I didn’t see myself with a manual car anytime soon, so this was a no brainer.

Now, I was already driving everyday so these classes were more of a reminder of what classic questions they will ask or traps that you need to avoid, or behaviors you need to show explicitly to remind the inspector that you’re thorough. A couple months later, I already had a date for the exam and I was happy since it all seemed to be working out well. I was going to get my French license with a few weeks to spare.

[amolpol]

A day before the exam, the school setup a final revision class. This was to prepare me for day of the exam and clarify any last minute questions. There wasn't much to be said or done, the instructor was pretty confident I was ready, and having driven more than 10k kms in the EU by then, I was ready!

The weather next morning was quite interesting, it was one of the “cold wave” weeks with a bit of snow in the previous days. It was a dull and rainy morning and traffic in the area was quite held up and busy. The inspector for my evaluation though, was colder than the weather and probably hated my guts from the time we said "bonjour". What followed were seemingly the worst 35 minutes of my life with this annoyed and frustrated French lady officer screaming at me while also having a loud and animated discussions with one of the driving school instructors sitting on the backseat. The last time someone's yelled at me was probably back in school/college maybe, which was a few decades ago, so I was a bit unsettled with it. But it was the hand gestures along with the yelling that got me I think, and of course I made a critical error on the famous “priorite a droite” rule to add thunder to the lightning.

So after being humiliated in a language I didn’t understand, it was time to leave all the optimism of “I know how to drive” and sign up for a follow-up test which unfortunately was going to put me in a 2 month ban on driving. On our way back from the failed test, my instructor confirmed that the inspector does indeed have a "reputation" of her own, but the mistake was made and there was no going back from it.

Now this is something people should know about being in France. There are rules which you can learn, but there are also exceptions that you need to know and sometimes there are more exceptions than rules. The "priorite a droite" (right priority) is one such example where sometimes it’s quite tricky to determine who has the right of way when you’re on a bigger/main road and there’s a smaller street intersecting from the right which can have priority over you. It would have been easier if this were true for most roads, because then you would always watch your right before crossing these intersections. But life would have been so boring, which is why the French decided to mix things up. It leaves you guessing and calculating the priority at each intersection to check who has priority depending on the signs and markings on the road or absence thereof. Sometimes, they also have a warning sign indicating the next junction will have priority to the right, but its not mandatory to have such signs everywhere. And then of course, there are smaller towns that could choose to follow this rule as a general principle and too bad if you hadn’t noticed it at the time of entering the town because it won’t be indicated anywhere else.



Similarly, all roundabouts have priority to the left to those who are already in, but then of course there are a few that can have a right priority. The Arc de Triomphe is a classic example of the right priority on roundabouts, its apparently the craziest roundabout in the world and can get very tricky for newbies to enter and exit at the correct lane because it has like a dozen exits.

Anyway, back to the topic of my exam. After spending another few weeks with public transportation, I had enough motivation packed inside to pass the test without mistakes. Preparing for the follow-up exam was nothing special on the driving technique except that it involved a lot of praying that I don’t encounter the same inspector again .

The second exam was a much nicer experience, not just because I passed but also because the inspector was courteous and there was no yelling or loud talking in the car. As per the rules, they’re not obliged to speak in French, but acknowledging answers in broken French is a good enough gesture. I got a near perfect score this time, but all that I was interested in was to get the letter that authorizes you to drive until the card is shipped to your home address which takes a few weeks.

So after 8 months of my initial registration, I was now an Apprentice driver in France. Unlike the one month learning license period in India, there’s three years of sticking an “A” behind your car to show off your newly acquired license. You have reduced speed limits during these 3 years and also stricter rules on the points as compared to a regular driver. Let’s just say, the system is designed to take away your license far more quickly than the time you took to earn it. This is good because it’s done considering 18 year olds in mind but they don’t have anything specific for someone who has had a few decades of experience in another country. Anyway, being able to drive again was more than enough to overlook on all these other negative aspects.

[amolpol]

Now that I was wiser and a Permis B holder in the country, I decided it was time to sign up for the next misery of my life – the Permis A2. The problem was that there is no possibility of the translated version of the code for the motorcycle, I couldn’t find any school offering this. I enquired at a couple of motorcycle riding schools and then got referred to one of the schools by my car driving school.

It’s a similar routine as the car but with an extra step, you enroll and wait a couple of months for the NEPH, then do the code, then there's a closed circuit riding skill exam (plateau) and a road test (circulation) to get to the finish line. The biggest challenge for me was the code which will now be at the automated test centers and in French only. The riding school told me that they had some classes on a few days for the code but it would be in French, which was useless for me. They expected that the students managed the code on their own and come back only for the riding lessons and the exams thereafter.


Image Source: Internet

Now I was well versed with the rules, but the moto code is applied differently because the rules are interpreted from a motorcyclist perspective. So the questions looked quite different than the ones we practiced for the car. I bought a book in French which was quite useless because I never really read it. I got the online practice portal which was okay but wasn’t very confidence inspiring and needed a lot of time to do on a PC. After spending a couple of months trying to make progress, I wasn’t feeling that I had accomplished much. Then one day I found a “moto-code” game for the Nintendo Switch and that was a magic bullet. Of course, I was also improving my vocabulary in French but this game helped in doing a lot more practice and more regularly than before. Then one weekend in June, I just sat and finished the game all the way to the end. It was now time to test if the game had done its job and so I scheduled a test that week. Was a super nice experience to do the test at one the post offices with appointments available without delays, but sad part was that I failed. But then it wasn’t that bad actually because I had scored 33/40, the preparation was enough, I just needed another try. So I booked myself for another round in the next couple of days and this time it was success!


Image Source: Internet

After a small celebration for this achievement, I reached out to the school to start my riding lessons and sent them the result of the code. The joy was somewhat short-lived, they came back explaining how it would be very difficult for them to schedule any classes for the next 2 months because it was summer and then of course the Olympics were also happening in Paris. So I had to wait until life returns back to normal in September for the lessons to begin. Now this is something that hits you hard when you think of your life in India all this time and the life in Europe where everything comes to a standstill to enjoy the sun. Its amazing how business opportunities are just put on hold because people want to enjoy the holidays. So while I was thinking I could make the best use of the lean summer period at work to finish my training and get my license so I could do some rides during fall season, everyone else had already made plans their plans too. I decided to go with the flow and enjoyed some time off during summer and waited for September to arrive.

September came and went but no signs of my lessons because apparently they were all booked, I was busy with work too so I didn’t push for it. But now it was already October and fall had started, so my hopes of any rides before the winter were fading. When you’re a non-French speaker in France, you realize it sooner or later that calling anyone doesn’t work that well, it’s best to land up in person because otherwise you are not going to be heard. After a few failed attempts to book my class on the phone, I finally showed up and asked them to show me the availabilities. My first riding class was booked and I was happy that the strategy worked. But again, the happiness was short-lived. The class was in the middle of my work day and so I had to wrap up a few things before and push some things to after the class. But in this jugglery and the public transportation, I reached the school 10 mins late and found out the guys had already left without me. Once again, the schedule for the next class was hanging and I had to get serious to straighten this out.

It took another visit and a few translated messages explaining how I would like to get my money back if they don’t seem to have time for me, which put me back on track. I don’t think they would have cared about losing business if I hadn’t already subscribed, but someone asking to give back the money is what seems to have triggered the guys to fix my case once and for all. So now I had dates lined up and my assistant was tasked to find how my days can be rearranged because this was an absolute priority. With that sorted, it was time for my first lesson and I was excited like a child. It was going to be my first ride since I put my bike in storage 10 months ago.

The riding school had Suzuki 650s which is a decent machine for the purpose. They were quite beat up naturally with all the falls and slides it would have endured, but it worked. We took off for our first lesson and after a bit of riding we were now at this closed parking lot to practice what is called the “plateau”. It’s a series of exercises to demonstrate your sense of balance and mastery on the controls. There are several sections and each one has it’s own significance and rules. The scoring is based on timings, speed thresholds, foot dabs, crashes, navigational mistakes etc. My trainer was a bit shocked to see that I could finish the course already on my first run. He did ask me to correct on some technicalities such as entry speeds in certain sections etc, but there wasn’t much to learn. Later he told me that we probably will need another 2 classes just to make sure I have memorized the track layouts to avoid making navigation errors and get a feel of the bike to know the entry speeds and braking routines. This was good because I didn’t need all the classes that my assistant was trying to manage on my calendar.

The remaining classes had the same schedule, ride out to this parking lot and do the exercises. While it was still fun to do, I wasn’t sure when we will shift focus on the road riding tips which the second part of the exam. I was now already waiting to get a date for my exam. At the end of the third lesson, my trainer told me that he had gotten a date for my exam in 2 weeks. I asked him when would we practice the details of the on-road riding for the exam. he said that’s another exam after the plateau and we will have enough time in between to practice. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry at that answer. Now I knew that the practical test for motorcycle license has two parts, one for the closed circuit called plateau and the other for on-road riding called the circulation test. What I didn’t know was they were conducted on two separate days and needed separate appointments to be booked. The plateau is a pre-requisite for the circulation test so you basically have to write off a day of your life to appear for a 3 minute riding test. This helped me confirm why efficiency and French were never meant to be friends and in fact even the use of those two words in a single sentence is quite impossible. The system is by design supposed to be inefficient at multiple levels, it fuels a feeling of accomplishment for even the simplest of tasks that you complete in the 35 working hours per week, and makes the 4 week summer vacation seem well deserved. Of course, there’s also other vacations through the year to keep the morale running high, who am I kidding!


Image Source: Internet

For most newbies the plateau is quite a daunting stage to cross. I had been warned about the low pass rates for this exam because these exams are opportunities to discourage people for riding motorcycles. The motorcyclists are less than 20% of the traffic but about 80% of the overall accident related mortalities followed by the electric scooter guys and cyclists, basically confirming that 4 wheels are better than 2.

Now there are several technical rules in the plateau, which if you start to pay attention, you can’t focus on keeping a flow and eventually you make mistakes. The first section involves slow speed turning maneuvers and you have to take a minimum of 14secs to complete, if you do more than 16s you get some sort of bonus. If you do less than 14s, you have to skip to your second and final attempt before they ask you to come back again. On my first day of training, I remember doing 15.98s and my trainer was like “dude, you just need to do a bit more” and I was wondering why on earth would 0.02s matter in this stupid exercise. Anyway, the subsequent attempts were more than 22s and now he was now telling me it was probably too much. So I just let it go and stopped trying to meet these numbers and focused on the rhythm instead. It worked better that way, I passed in the first attempt on the day of the exam.

So after more than 9 months since my enrollment, the waiting game continued for the next exam date which of course could not be done quickly because it was soon Christmas and the government machinery slows down because people have to spend time with family to celebrate. It was only going to be late January or February that I could possibly find my next date for the exam. And rightly so, I got the date in the first week of February. The road circulation test for motorcycles is more stricter than the car, you need 21 of 27 possible points to pass. The pass rates are also usually lower to discourage more people from riding bikes in general.


Image Source: Internet

The exam lasts roughly 40 mins and you are taken through a mix of roads to make sure that you’re comfortable in all conditions. The inspector follows you in the driving school’s car with the instructor at the wheel. You’re given a cheap earpiece to put in one ear inside your helmet which is connected to a walkie talkie radio, that’s how you get the instructions from the inspector on which way to go. You’re expected to ride dynamically, which basically means at the threshold of the speed limits depending on the road you’re on. If the inspector has to ask you to overtake another vehicle, it usually means “come back another time”. Similarly, if you’re faster than the limits, you’re automatically eliminated. Your position within the lane is also important especially when taking curves. So basically, there’s a lot of places to make mistakes. And to top it all, the inspector only speaks to you in French and you can nod your head in affirmation if its okay or negative if you want him to repeat. Overall, it was a very interesting experience and I must say the inspector took note of my limited French situation and made sure he gave his instructions slowly and clearly. My instructor on the other hand was very happy at the end of my turn, he told me I will probably get a perfect score, it was that good. And true enough, I did get the full 27, took almost a full year more than what I wanted but it’s done. My bike was finally out of the slumber and ready to ride after a full service!

[amolpol]

Even before my wife and daughter arrived, I had been doing extensive research on the motocross tracks around Paris in order to find a way to organize ourselves for her training. I had now a directory of 4-5 tracks that I had found, but finding a way to communicate with them was proving to be quite challenging. First, you could never get anyone on the landline phone listed and when you did get someone, they didn’t speak any English. And finding the track was barely a step towards being able to train because I still had to figure out the bike, transportation for the bike, membership to the club, the French federation license, a trainer who was willing to teach and knew English.

So once they both were here, we took upon us to go every weekend to the tracks to find out information in person. We did manage to get the contact info for one of the clubs and I got one of my colleagues to call on my behalf and talk to the track owner. The owner is a very nice gentleman, he shared with me the basics of what I needed to get her started. His track is open alternate Saturday or Sunday every weekend so just about 4-5 days/month which is somewhat of a pattern with most clubs. I could now get her license enrolment done online with his club reference and that would mean that will be her “home” club on her training license that’s valid across all of France. The license allows you to enter the tracks but you will have to pay at each track that you visit outside of the home track. This was a good start, to at least get her license initiated. She was actually the first one among us to get her French riding license.



We also got a reference for another track that was run by Yamaha which had a provision for renting bikes for the sessions. So we went there one of the weekends and were able to get her some seat time in one of the sessions. They even had a couple of trainers at this facility and although it wasn’t a full fledged motocross track, it was enough equipped to help with the training. So we did a couple more sessions until we were informed that they were going to shut down for 3 months since it was going to be summer soon and everyone would be on holidays. This was quite interesting for me, the school was going to shut down so they can enjoy the holidays when the kids who are also on holiday are probably more inclined to train during this time. Anyway, this proved to be a very short-lived engagement and we needed to find something more permanent.

After the harrowing experience on the motorbike insurance, I didn’t want to take a chance on buying a car until my car license was done. This meant we had to wait a few more months for the Hilux plan to be executed which would then enable the bike purchase. Meanwhile, we moved to another house in the summer and the parking space was much bigger than the previous place. Fitting a couple of cars with a couple of bikes seemed like no big deal. It was early 2024 when I got my license done and I immediately started looking for the pickup, only to hit another bump. The exemption for twin cab pickups for the emission and weight tax was removed in 2024, which meant the hilux was now 60000 EUR more expensive. I was not going to pay INR 1 crore for that pickup even if I love it. Going the used route was not working out because either the used prices were quite jacked up or the cars were quite extensively used. Either way, this was not working out!

I didn’t want to get a van simply because I couldn’t see myself driving that to work some day. So now the options were to be re-evaluated and the trailer became a very practical choice. I could just get a simple trailer that fitted within the license category with a single bike rail and that would work. But this meant I needed a trailer hitch on the car, which the Q3 didn’t have at the time. I needed to get permission from the company to install it since this was a leased car. While fitting it was not an issue, we also realized that the car was at the end of it’s lease period and had to be returned. I was supposed to get another one and hopefully something that already had a tow hook. This meant another wait, and this time it took about 2 months to get the replacement car. Good news was that it was a GLC 300de with a retractable towhook, which meant that I didn’t have to do anything to make it trailer worthy.



So while we waited for the replacement car to arrive, we decided to zero down on the options for my daughter’s bike and keep all the ground work ready. The KTM SX125 was a natural choice for her since it was the only one in it’s category that came with self-starter and fuel-injection. We found the one we wanted to buy at a KTM dealership outside the city, on the way to the track. The trailer was also researched and finalized on which one to buy.



Finally the car arrived and it ticked all the right boxes, except one. It didn’t have Carplay enabled and it was a subscription to buy. At more than 400 EUR, it was a bit shocking to see that it only used half the screen for the carplay while the rest of the screen is available but can’t be used because the MBUX needs to display the AC temperatures in that section. Anyway, this was a necessity to play music and have navigation more than anything else, so we made peace with it.



In the end, we now had a working setup to transport the bike to and from the track!



And now that we had a home track, we could plan a few weekends to go there and practice.

[amolpol]

While I was busy with my bike license, my wife had also started on her journey to get her car license. She was enrolled in the same driving school (Fehrenbach) as me and had managed to pass the “code de la route” exam in her first attempt. Then of course, things were just stuck for a good 4-5 months in France due to summer and Olympics so she had to basically wait for her practical exam dates until early October.

Meanwhile we were already checking out the Fiat 500 that she wanted to buy. I was also quite kicked about her choice of car and was lobbying for the Abarth version which was now discontinued but was available in the used market. The regular petrol automatic was just too sluggish I felt, whereas the Abarth was rejected because my wife didn’t want a loud car. This is when we started looking at the electric version which seemed quite zippy to drive and didn’t have the sweet sounding exhausts of the Abarth. So with the intent of buying it just before her driving test, we landed at a Fiat dealership in the city. Now this was end of summer so technically people were mostly back from vacations and business was normal. But at the dealership we went, it seemed otherwise. They had just two people at the dealership and even though we were the only customers, none of the two bothered to attend to us properly. Appalled by this poor display of customer engagement, I decided to move away from Fiat and look for something else.



On the way back home, we crossed the Mini showroom and decided to stop by and check. The idea was to buy a small car and the Mini was fitting the description. So after being so convinced about the Fiat 500, it was the Mini dealership that won the battle. Now we knew that we were going to be in France for another year approximately so I wasn’t ready to spend on a new one and lose a big share when/if we have to sell it again. So it made sense if we bought something that was “new to us” and the Mini electric had all the right notes. It took away the maintenance risks of the 3 potter engine while retaining the exact interior feel like that of a petrol car. Both of us were in love with the green Mini Electric at the BMW pre-owned showroom and we ended up bringing it home a couple of weeks later.



My wife’s license exam hadn’t worked out as expected, again it was a case of bad luck more than anything else. But again, a mistake was made and there was no denying that. The bigger problem was that the next date for the exam was only possible in February which was 5 months away. This was not acceptable and we needed to find an alternative solution. So while discussing this with a friend of mine, he suggested we re-enrol her at a school further away from the city since there could be earlier open slots available over there. After discussing with the school, they confirmed we could do it in the next 2 months. The guys had to make money for themselves, so basically they got her to redo her lessons for another 10-12 hours before letting her attend the exam. This time she made it and it was time for her to enjoy her ride!

By now, the Mini had won me over. I was using it as a daily drive to the office and the GLC was more for the weekends. The electric works really nice and with just under 200 hp on that motor for a car that size, its more than what is needed at any point in time. Moreover, the service interval is 2 years for the electric, so basically there is zero running cost except for the few times I charge outside the office. The range is definitely its weak point with just about 160-180kms on a charge, it’s not really convenient for any highway drives even if its 200-250 kms one way. But in the city, it’s a pleasure to zip around in it and enjoy the awesome music on the Harmon Kardon system with wireless carplay.

Our garage has grown quite differently over the past 2 years and it now hosts the GLC for all road trips and track duty, the Mini Cooper S for city and fun, the SX125 for my daughter, the Desert X for some good scenic rides, a couple of Segway e-scooters that we extensively used in 2023/24, a few bicycles to complete the arsenal for the park/forest rides.

And even though it doesn't match what we had in India, it feels complete.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[amolpol]

Since early times, we were always focused on road trips for exploration. Back-packing trips weren’t our style and planned vacations weren’t our forte. The road trips meant freedom more than anything else, freedom to go anywhere, freedom to go anytime, freedom to carry everything we want and also freedom to stop at any place and soak it in. It will be impossible for me to build travelogues for each trip we did over the past 2-3 years but let’s just say we have had several wonderful experiences across Europe and just once we took the train/flight internally.

We’re not big fans of cities in general, so in our version of EU we don’t really have those things on our travel maps. European cities in general are rich in well maintained historic monuments, museums, parks and public transportation, but they all have the same/similar theme and if you’ve seen a couple, you’ve pretty much seen all. Unless of course, you are a art or history buff, which unfortunately none of us have taken a liking.

Outside the cities is where the big differentiators are, the landscapes, the villages, the people and their culture! Almost all of our trips have been to smaller towns or villages across various countries with most of our stays in Airbnbs rather than hotels. Again, the hotels in EU are best described as “cute and small”, because they are just that! So instead of squeezing yourself through the narrow channels around the bed and walking out on a crowded street, the better way is to experience life in beautiful houses nestled in scenic locations, away from everybody!



My first road trip with the bike was to Chamonix which is near the base of Mont Blanc. It was the first week of getting the bike delivered and maybe that’s what had gotten me convinced to ride through temperatures ranging between -2 to -13 degC during a “cold wave” week of early December. The plan was to accompany a couple of friends visiting from India until Chamonix and return back to Paris. They were going to continue their road trip to the mountains and beyond, albeit in a car with heated seats while I had opted for the Ducati instead of taking the Q3. Let’s just say, I was a novelty on the highway rest stops because I didn’t see anyone else on a bike throughout the trip.



And just because I did the trip to the mountains with the Ducati, I took the Q3 to the wetland bird reserve on the southern coast of France later that month to get some sunshine on the Xmas break.



Was a good week spent with the migrating flamingos which are a highlight of the season just a bit away from the small city of Arles where I learnt that being out on Xmas evening is like walking in a ghost town.







Had a quick trip to Vienna a couple of months later, except this was a business trip with one late night sightseeing opportunity. Like I said, the cities are great architecture but similar stuff everywhere, although I must say this remains to be my favorite European city given the way its built with enough space around things. People seemed nice and it felt completely safe even while walking around at midnight, not always the feeling in some other places.





Weather had improved a bit and it meant I could do another bike trip before the family arrived. This time it was the volcanic mountains in the centre of France known as Massif Central in the Auvergne region. Not super high mountains, but really beautiful scenery and even more beautiful winding roads for a motorbike ride.

There’s always a beautiful church everywhere


But there’s also a lot of this


And some more beautiful rest stops along the way