Daniel was our primary driver for most of our vacation. One night after a fabulous dinner in Avignon, I agreed to drive home. It was a new route, a bit longer, but had highways with less rotaries to go through. The night was pitch black. It was a bit stressful as we kept seeing signs for deer, and having seen boars the night before, we were nervous about running over les animaux. Seemingly, in the middle of nowhere, a red light appeared. A slammed on my breaks in time to realize we were right in front of a train crossing. I looked to my right and saw the black and white guard bar coming down, about to hit us. Everyone in the car was screaming GO BACK GO BACK!! I put the car into reverse, but it went into first. I inched forwards instead of backwards. BACK BACK BACK screamed everyone hysterically. I calmly got into the correct gear and inched backward just behind the bar. Just then, the train, probably a TGV–judging by its speed–whooshed by. We would have been dead.
I decided to let Daniel drive for the rest of the vacation.
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