France and England on $98 a Day - Our GPS

I have an unerring sense of direction. My instincts are always correct and never fail me. If I know deep in my bones, without a shadow of doubt, and beyond deliberation that I should turn right, then the only sensible thing to do is turn left.

It's uncanny how I can be so accurate, yet David seems unwilling to trust my directional proclivities on this trip driving the back roads of France. He seems to think we need additional verification that we're on the right routes to get us from Vernon to Dinan and on to Calais.

So, to satisfy him, we have investigated global positioning system, GPS, devices. Unfortunately, most of the rental offices in the little town in Vernon near Giverny, home of Monet's water lily gardens, do not carry cars equipped with GPS. EuropCar does offer it for $178.13, but we'd rather get lost than pay that amount.

We called our rental company, Avis, and inquired. A spokesperson today assured us they offer the service, but another agent two months ago just as confidently promised us they did not. I guess we won't find out who's right until we get there.

We also thought about downloading the European maps to one of our United States GPS devices, but according to advice on travel forums, that may or may not be successful.  Spending $79 to find out is too high a price to pay.

David isn't taking any chances. He's used mappy and viamichelin.com (European mapping services similar to Mapquest here in the USA.) to plot our routes, we've received instructions from our hosts on how to reach our accommodations, and I bought several detailed Michelin road maps at the library used-bookstore. And if all else fails, he can simply ask me which way to turn and then go the opposite way.