The day of my flight back to England for my job interview I had an early start. I had to get all the way into town with my suitcase. It was before the buses were running so I would have to drag my suitcase through the snow. I had pre-booked an airport transfer from Meribel to Geneva airport and as I was the only person going from Meribel to Geneva that day they had put on a taxi to take me down the mountain to the coach station.
I was just brushing my teeth and starting to think about the walk when my phone started to ring and there was a very shouty French taxi driver on the line. After a few seconds he realised that my French wasn't up to much and in stunted English told me he didn't want to pick me in Meribel centre, as it was a bit far for him to go and asked me where I lived so he could pick me up there. I liked this idea as it meant much less suitcase dragging for me and I told him where I lived. However it did strike me as odd that a taxi driver had called me up because he didn't want to meet where we had arranged.
The only problem was he was actually a taxi driver in Courcheval and had no idea where I lived and it took us some time to agree a meeting point that we both knew (Morel ski lift if anyone is interested).
When he picked me up he seemed friendly enough, he took my ticket and lifted by suitcase into the back of his car for me. After a few minutes he struck up a conversation and asked my name, 'Catherine' I said,
'Ah, that's my wife's name', he replied, 'we have been married 26 years'
'Wow that's a long time' I said, not quite sure what else to say,
'Yes very long, too long' he grumbled and seemed quite upset at the length of time he had been with this woman with whom I share a name.
I laughed and said 'time to find someone new?'
He looked at me horrified! 'No No No! Sex is important in but it is not the only thing in life'.
I looked at the back of his head as he was driving mortified, but he continued.
'Yes sex is important, very important and I could go out and have sex with beautiful young women but that would impact on my family'. What is happening, I thought, how did we get onto extra marital affairs at this time in the morning? But unfortunately he continued 'There are many things important in life, money, skiing, work, family, sex, but they all have to balance'. I was momentarily distracted from his rant by the fact that he had put skiing as more important that family. But I put it down to the fact he lived in the mountains and the continuous cold over the years had got to him.
The taxi suddenly felt like a very uncomfortable place to be. Being ranted at about sex at 7.30 in the morning by a French taxi driver was not what I envisaged the day before my job interview and I sat in the back of the taxi as silent as possible. After his rant had finished he paused for a few minutes and then said 'do you speak French' (he said this is French), 'Only a little' (I replied also in French)
'You should learn' he said in English, 'It is important'.
And this was the last thing he said to me for some while and all that was left for me to do was cling on to the seat as he hurtled down the mountain at ridiculous speeds, driving in the middle of the road all the way unless he met traffic coming the other way when he would quickly swing to one side, before moving back into the middle of the road.
When we got the bottom of the mountain and I was openly relieved that I was still alive, he stopped the taxi to have a little chat with a friend of his he had seen walking home from the bakery. He even introduced me to his friend. I was glad his mood had improved somewhat.
When we got to the coach station he told me the best place to get a coffee while waiting for the coach. I thanked him and walked away fast.
I am never getting into conversations about taxi driver's families ever again.
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