We have been persuaded to share a gîte with some relatives later this summer. Apart from the weird experience of not driving our car on the right side of the road, or more correctly, driving on the right side of the road, navigation will be a chore. It was time to bite the satnav bullet.

Even spending all of my pay for the last 18 months for writing this blog for uncle Felix, it went barely a quarter of the way to getting a lowly Garmin with full European coverage. Actually, most of the pay went towards Express Delivery because, in the futile effort to get new work, we had an appointment to visit a new publisher yesterday and wanted to find our way without the aid of a bulky map book.

As Burns said, “the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley“. Our Garmin plans got royally ganged agley because it arrived with only one lead, that for a car cigarette lighter socket to recharge it. Short of leaving the satnav overnight, recharging in the car – which would mean leaving the ignition turned on – we had no way to access the Garmin. Even turning it on led to a dead end because the set-up and registration required a live Internet link and USB connection between computer and Garmin. The dual recharge/USB socket being one of those rare mini ‘D’ type. Rare enough to be on our Sony camera whose lead luckily worked fine to get the Garmin up and running on the delivery charge in its cells.

Why Garmin (and Sony come to that) cannot recharge via the USB port is beyond us. The power needed is a miniscule 5.6v/380ma, well within the specs of the USB circuit. It was obvious that a mains adapter was needed but the OEM plug cost nearly a third of the price of the satnav. Or, at nearly a tenth of that price from Discount Satellite Navigation, an Amazon supplier. Hmmm, which should we buy? It was delivered the next day while we were publisher-visiting and the postman helpfully left the package under our doormat.

One lead to bind us
This one-lead mentality Garmin have is, thankfully, not typical in the computer world. New toys such as scanners and printers arrive with a box of leads and lately some have special plug adapter that will fit any socket in the world. Apple, typically, are particularly clever at this and supply a proprietary solution that is neat and sexy in a way only an Apple plug could be. Also to be thanked are the accessory suppliers who are keen to undercut Garmin and supply a solution at 85% less.

As far as satellite navigation goes, so far it has taken us safely to the local shops and back. Although Stevie (I think her name is) was a bit miffed when I didn’t go the route she was telling me and kept “recalculating” trying to get me to turn around.

Next I’ve got to brush up my French. “Je ne parle pas français. Je suis un idiot.” I find that gets me along just about everywhere and the French seem to appreciate my attempt to communicate in their language.

I wonder what it means.