S34.E08: La Ville Rose

[Whimsy]

Quote

Teams drive to Toulouse, France, known as the “Pink City,” where they must run, tackle, and kick their way through a roadblock while training with a champion pro rugby team

Original airdate 11/9/22

[Guest]

Ah, that's a bummer. I wish we had seen more of Quinton and Mattie - they seemed like a lot of fun ("2 beds!"). Too bad they had such trouble navigating.

Speaking of navigating, Marcus and Michael can apparently only do it well on alternate days.

Still speaking of navigating, Aubrey and David after switching driving/navigating roles: "Why didn't we do this sooner?" Everyone watching: "Yeah, why didn't you???"

Have to appreciate the loose attitude toward working together this season. Luis, after comparing notes with Derek/Claire on the route to the detour: "If we finish the detour before you, we ain't waitin' for your ass! HAHAHA" 😆 

It's such a breath of fresh air to watch this show right after watching the increasingly grim slog that this season of Survivor is becoming.

[Lantern7]

Here’s where my mind went during the French poetry Detour.

Quinton & Mattie were a nice team. Hell, they all are. Minimum, none of them give me agita like the dopes on the other shows I watch.

Seriously, Expedia needs a mascot like the Travelocity Gnome.

I should look up the differences behind an American football and a rugby ball. Also, was the proper way to kick was to do it from the drop, or let it bounce off the ground first?

[chaifan]

Sorry to see Quinton & Mattie go, but I am so glad that TAR has brought back self navigation!  It all but disappeared pre-Covid, so if there's one silver lining to pandemic-era reality TV, the return of self navigation is it.   I much prefer to a team being eliminated due to their own navigation issues than for it to be bad cab driver luck. 

I really enjoyed this episode.  The rugby challenge was fun.  I thought the two detour tasks were well balanced.  It was hard to tell which would be quicker. 

I am so rooting for the twins.  I really hope Molly doesn't do lasting damage to her leg.  (It is Molly with the leg/knee brace, right?) 

[mertensia]

I would just not do well at the French poem choice. Rote memorization skills? Poor! Pronouncing French correctly? Nope! Off to the bricks I'd go.

The rugby players looked like they were having fun.

[aradia22]

Yeah, a little underwhelmed by this episode. I think they tried a bit with the rugby but only Marcus and Molly seemed to struggle (it's possible they cut more of Audrey struggling) and it wasn't dynamic to watch them fail to kick a ball upwards.

No one who chose the bricks seemed to struggle that much, and also they shot it from a distance. And the poem had some running around but you were mainly looking at the people in costume and we've had so many memorization tasks already. I was bored. Also, I really felt the absence of other teams, but without the drama of racing for first. 

If they could figure out the turns ahead of time, it made sense for Claire to pass Derek notes while driving. I'm glad Aubrey also committed to "speaking nicely" and that they switched drivers early on. I haven't paid much attention to which partner does the driving but yeah, switch if one person is better at navigation... especially since they don't seem to be sending them on very long drives except for the Megaleg.

I wonder how tricky it was to stay on the route/find the exit. Marcus and Michael obviously struggled and got stuck in traffic but other teams also seemed to be driving in circles, seeing the stadium but not sure how to get there.

I feel like Marcus was not connecting with the ball and also not kicking it up. I'm not coordinated or athletic in the least but Quinton seemed to get it when he realized you could drop the ball slowly. Loved seeing him show off some athleticism besides dancing. They seemed to be pretty great at tasks... just terrible at navigation. I'm sorry to see them go.

Took note of Claire trying to talk about her friends getting her to play rugby and Derek immediately needing to cut her down. This is what I mean about him undermining her. 

I don't think it's really KF but Marcus and Michael seem to be burning out a little. Dumb mistakes last leg (even though they still managed to win) and taking 7 attempts to kick a ball this time when the only other racers who struggled were women with short legs. 

I'm worried about Emily's knee. I hope someone actually looked at it and she's not doing damage to it by running around. 

Neither the bricks nor the poetry seemed that difficult. I would have been good at poetry. I also took French in high school and unlike Derek, my accent doesn't suck. 

They tried to make it dramatic but I don't think the last two teams were close to each other. I'm going to miss them. We saw so little of them in comparison but in what we did see, they were strong racers (finishing tasks quickly when they were at the back of the pack due to poor navigation) and pretty charming unlike the try hards who get cast. They felt like people in entertainment, not wannabe influencers.

[KeithJ]

We know they are but Phil didn’t tell Quinton & Mattie “you have both been eliminated from the race.”

[Haleth]

What a gorgeous city!  I know covid protocols are keeping the race largely in Europe (Jordan was a nice surprise) and it will be more fun when they can race around the world again, but at least the race designers are finding new places that are beautiful and interesting.

Sorry to see Mattie and Quinton go, but at this point I am sad to see any of the teams go.  Yeah, I'm sure they were way behind Aubrey and David.  M&Q flew through the tasks so they must have really gotten lost early on.  (Weren't they the ones who were in the wrong country in the second episode?)

[kassandra8286]

2 hours ago, Haleth said:

M&Q flew through the tasks so they must have really gotten lost early on. 

I noticed that at the start of the leg, when they were all looking at the maps and discussing their routes, that D & C/L & M were going to take the A-20, which appeared to be a highway going straight from Domme to Toulouse. Maddie said they were going to take a road that started with a T, which she said looked to be the most straightforward route, but I'm thinking taking that route must have been their downfall. It was perhaps more of a surface street with stop signs, side streets, etc, as opposed to a highway. Claire said on hers and Derek's video from last episode that their maps had town names and highway names, but the streets themselves weren't labeled, so it was pretty difficult to navigate.

I'm sad about Quinton and Maddie also but I realized while watching this that I like all the teams. It definitely seemed like laying the bricks would have been faster than memorizing the French poem. It was hard to tell, the way this episode was edited.

I cracked up when Aubrey said of David, "he's fluent in English and Spanish, so he'll do well at memorizing this French poem". First of all, I don't think being fluent in English counts, Aubrey 😂. Being fluent or a native speaker of Spanish may give you a slight leg up in learning French since they're both Romance languages, but not that much IMO. Spanish words are pronounced exactly as they appear, while French words ... are not, lol.  Still, they ended up getting it on their second try, so kudos to them.

Edited November 10, 2022 by kassandra8286

[Fretful]

10 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Took note of Claire trying to talk about her friends getting her to play rugby and Derek immediately needing to cut her down. This is what I mean about him undermining her. 

I found that funny and it looked like Claire did too.  They seem to have a relationship of equals. I notice that they work together  on the tasks and communicate well.  In this episode Claire reminded him to learn the poem in French when he got distracted.   Last week at the carnival games and several times throughout the race he has expressed appreciation for her figuring out the best way to do a challenge.  From where I sit, they appear to have a strong, fun, supportive relationship.

Otherwise,  I found this to be another dull episode.  I do like self-navigation, but I wish they would show us where the drivers went wrong.  Bring back the Amazing Yellow Line, even if it's only over the map of town.  The rugby took about 30 seconds, so even if someone had to do it a few times they could be out of there in 10 minutes.  Both the poem and the bricks were pretty straightforward and pretty quick.  So, do two easy tasks, plus a couple of hours of driving.  I don't see how KF could be an issue here.  Each leg is a half day, and then they're sequestered in a nearby hotel. If the show is going to limited the travel options, they need to pick it up somewhere else.  Make the tasks harder -not American Ninja Warrior hard, but harder to figure out.  Bring back the clues rather than  instructions.  Remember when they got just a picture of a man in Mexico City and were told to find him? That was fun.

If they aren't traveling the world, maybe stop pretending they are.  Perhaps it's time for an Amazing Race around the US (yes, I know that the Family Edition did that with little success, but we and that were not expecting the great RV Race).  Show us quirky small town America.  Or they see Phil's wonderful New Zealand for a whole season.  Something.  Right now it's drive, easy task, drive, find a clue, drive, easy task, pit stop. 

Dang, I fell like we never really met M and Q, and now they're gone.  They looked like they were having a good time.

[Netfoot]

Enjoyed this episode. Tasks were balanced and yet varied. Biggest surprise was Derek & Claire getting first place. I didn't realize they were doing that well on the leg.

"Two beds! Two beds, please!" and then, "Not just a bonding moment, but something we can tell our kids..." Maybe someone should explain how they get kids. Or are they planning to buy one on the black market?

Somewhat annoyed at teams #2 and #3. They practically ignored the greeter. Not polite. Michelle did say "Thank you" in response to his welcome but neither Luis nor Emily & Molly said a word or even looked in his direction. 

Edited November 10, 2022 by Netfoot

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

"Two beds! Two beds, please!" and then, "Not just a bonding moment, but something we can tell our kids..." Maybe someone should explain how they get kids. Or are they planning to buy one on the black market?

Maybe you're just being facetious here, but...they're not a couple. They didn't mean their joint kids. If they want kids, they'll have them separately using one of the usual methods.

19 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Somewhat annoyed at teams #2 and #3. They practically ignored the greeter. Not polite. Michelle did say "Thank you" in response to his welcome but neither Luis nor Emily & Molly said a word or even looked in his direction. 

In fairness, they arrived one after the other and were focused on Emily's obvious pain and tears. And did they show the whole interaction in one continuous shot? I'm sure they acknowledged the greeter at some point.

[RunningMarket]

Having gone through 12 years of French Immersion, I (not so) humbly brag I would have aced that poetry task. I was pretty impressed that I glanced away from the TV when they were showing the subtitles and I could translate it back to English. Mattie's French sounded good too.

Very sad to see Q&M be eliminated. They had great attitudes and were fun to watch. Navigation is really getting to teams this season.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, Fretful said:

If they aren't traveling the world, maybe stop pretending they are. 

This was filmed while there were still covid restrictions in a lot of places.  I'd cut them a break on that.

[iMonrey]

That had to be one the the absurdly easiest Roadblocks I have ever seen. Hard to believe Marcus had the most trouble with it. And even he got through it without bleeding a lot of time. 

I'm sorry to see Mattie and Quinton go, although they have consistently been laggards throughout the race. But I feel like navigation is the biggest hurdle this season and the main reason teams are shuffling placement. It's not the challenges themselves. 

Quote

Right now it's drive, easy task, drive, find a clue, drive, easy task, pit stop. 

Sadly, I must agree with this.

I'm starting to warm up to Luis and Michelle a little bit, but they, along with Aubrey and David, remain at the bottom of my list of teams I'd like to see win. I have a growing suspicion that Emily's knee is eventually going to take her and her sister out of the race. It sort of feels foreboding every time it comes up.

Quote

Took note of Claire trying to talk about her friends getting her to play rugby and Derek immediately needing to cut her down. This is what I mean about him undermining her. 

I didn't read it that way. She said she'd "almost been recruited" to play soccer and he laughed at that characterization and then she did too and admitted she just had a bunch of friends that suggested she play soccer. She made is sound like a bigger deal than it was and he called her on it. From what I've seen of Derek on Big Brother, he doesn't have a malicious bone in his body. Neither does she, they are both a couple of nice kids and I like them.

[PurpleTentacle]

That was a harsh edit at the beginning of the episode. The cheerleaders talking about how they have to make sure they don't just take the first route they see, cut to them driving the scenic route, while everybody else of course takes the autoroute (highway).

I will miss them and hope they'll be back at some point. But if they do come back, they seriously have to improve their navigation skills.

-

Later in the leg: Aubrey: "David, you know, spanish and english, fluent in both. And I thought 'this is going to be so easy for him.'"

I actually laughed out loud at that. I speak german and english fluently. That doesn't mean I can remember a poem in french. What kind of logic is that?

[Tango64]

2 hours ago, Fretful said:

Otherwise,  I found this to be another dull episode.  I do like self-navigation, but I wish they would show us where the drivers went wrong.  Bring back the Amazing Yellow Line, even if it's only over the map of town.  The rugby took about 30 seconds, so even if someone had to do it a few times they could be out of there in 10 minutes.  Both the poem and the bricks were pretty straightforward and pretty quick.  So, do two easy tasks, plus a couple of hours of driving.  I don't see how KF could be an issue here.  Each leg is a half day, and then they're sequestered in a nearby hotel. If the show is going to limited the travel options, they need to pick it up somewhere else.  Make the tasks harder -not American Ninja Warrior hard, but harder to figure out.  Bring back the clues rather than  instructions.  Remember when they got just a picture of a man in Mexico City and were told to find him? That was fun.

That's everything I was just about to type myself. Well said. This has always been my favorite show and I still look forward to it every week, but after each episode I feel let down. Beautiful locations still, and thank goodness for the self-navigation follies, but that's not enough to make TAR what I used to love so much. 😕

[PurpleTentacle]

2 hours ago, kassandra8286 said:

Maddie said they were going to take a road that started with a T, which she said looked to be the most straightforward route, but I'm thinking taking that route must have been their downfall.

They took the D-49, which by the looks of it is more like a parkway. I hope that's right, I'm not that familiar with american streets. In germany it would be a Bundesstraße, while all the other racers took the aquivalent of an Autobahn.

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

"Two beds! Two beds, please!" and then, "Not just a bonding moment, but something we can tell our kids..." Maybe someone should explain how they get kids. Or are they planning to buy one on the black market?

Pretty sure they didn't mean "our" as in together but as in "we both will have kids with other partners". So they both will have kids and if you both have something you can use "our". As in "we played a few games of Anno last night, over the internet, on our computers."

But even if they had meant "together" you know cups and turkey basters are a thing, right?

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

If they want kids, they'll have them separately using one of the usual methods.

I suspect Quinton will use a bit more unusual method, but yeah, this.

[proserpina65]

45 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Later in the leg: Aubrey: "David, you know, spanish and english, fluent in both. And I thought 'this is going to be so easy for him.'"

I actually laughed out loud at that. I speak german and english fluently. That doesn't mean I can remember a poem in french. What kind of logic is that?

I assume she was basing that on Spanish and French both being Romance languages and having a lot of similarities.  Probably not nearly enough to help all that much, though.

[Teriacky]

Derek had four years of high school French and one of the most horrible accents I have aver heard. Of course he never said what grades he got…

[RunningMarket]

I did actually think (before Aubrey said it) that anyone fluent or with a good grasp of Spanish should have an easier time with the poetry task. As I noted earlier, I was in French Immersion, and it made learning Spanish later much easier. While overall I think Spanish is an easier language to learn, they are a number of similarities that someone with experience in Spanish could use as an advantage.

However, as they say, MMV.

Edited November 10, 2022 by RunningMarket

[PoultryDancer]

Just not finding a lot that's all that exciting this season. It's great that teams are having to drive themselves a lot, but the tasks have been pretty underwhelming (how many memory/pronunciation challenges can there be?), and theres been a real lack of memorable moments. I can't remember a thing about Quinton and Mattie. Pleasant people I'm sure, but contributed very little to the season for making it so far. 

[Yogisbooboo64]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Quote

Took note of Claire trying to talk about her friends getting her to play rugby and Derek immediately needing to cut her down. This is what I mean about him undermining her. 

I didn't read it that way. She said she'd "almost been recruited" to play soccer and he laughed at that characterization and then she did too and admitted she just had a bunch of friends that suggested she play soccer. She made is sound like a bigger deal than it was and he called her on it. From what I've seen of Derek on Big Brother, he doesn't have a malicious bone in his body. Neither does she, they are both a couple of nice kids and I like them.

^^^^^^THIS!  Again, I see a couple who lovingly bust each other's chops, I go through it all the time with Mr. Yogi.

Sad to see Quinton and Mattie go.

Luis actually made me smile this eppy and I usually don't care for him.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Yogisbooboo64

[aradia22]

Quote

I didn't read it that way. She said she'd "almost been recruited" to play soccer and he laughed at that characterization and then she did too and admitted she just had a bunch of friends that suggested she play soccer. She made is sound like a bigger deal than it was and he called her on it. From what I've seen of Derek on Big Brother, he doesn't have a malicious bone in his body. Neither does she, they are both a couple of nice kids and I like them.

I don't think he's malicious (though it reads as a little "nice guy") but to me, it's a bad habit to constantly undermine your partner. No one else does it. Claire doesn't do it back. I get all the explanations when it happens in the episode, but when it keeps happening over and over, to me that's a bad habit you should try to reconsider.

Quote

I'm starting to warm up to Luis and Michelle a little bit, but they, along with Aubrey and David, remain at the bottom of my list of teams I'd like to see win. I have a growing suspicion that Emily's knee is eventually going to take her and her sister out of the race. It sort of feels foreboding every time it comes up.

I agree. My favorite team is now Emily/Molly. Marcus/Molly next. Then, Claire/Derek, mostly because I like her. The other two teams winning would be... fine, but a lackluster finale.

[vousviou]

23 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Seriously, Expedia needs a mascot like the Travelocity Gnome.

I should look up the differences behind an American football and a rugby ball. Also, was the proper way to kick was to do it from the drop, or let it bounce off the ground first?

I'm a little surprised Expedia doesn't have a mascot or stronger hook for brand identity, since that has traditionally been a big part of the travel and hospitality industry. Maybe it's a holdover from Expedia's time as a Microsoft product and Bill Gates' robotic, featureless personality.

I'm 99% sure they needed to dropkick the ball, since rugby has a rule that the ball must touch the ground just prior to a scoring kick. Serious players  can score by kicking while it's still in contact with the ground, but it's easier for beginners to get some air under the ball and kick on the bounce. Regular punting is part of the game, but you can't score with a punt.

Drop kicks are part of the rules in US football too, but they are almost never used. Wikipedia lists just a few cases in the NFL in recent years.

[vousviou]

On 11/9/2022 at 10:06 PM, tracyscott76 said:

Have to appreciate the loose attitude toward working together this season. Luis, after comparing notes with Derek/Claire on the route to the detour: "If we finish the detour before you, we ain't waitin' for your ass! HAHAHA" 😆 

It's such a breath of fresh air to watch this show right after watching the increasingly grim slog that this season of Survivor is becoming.

I've been trying to put my finger on why I've liked this season, and I think the closest I can come is that it feels authentic.

I realize there's always something artificial about the show -- we only see a fraction of what's going on  editing plays a big part,  etc.

But it feels like every team is taking things seriously, avoiding drama, not mugging for the camera, but also genuinely appreciating the experience.

I can feel engaged in the race for what it is, and that's a big positive.

[selkie]

Having experienced similar this summer, we were rolling with laugher when the twins were struggling to escape from the underground parking garage of the dammed. Because every parking garage seems to have a slightly different pay system and less than half of them seem to have a Union Jack button for English language instructions. 

[Neobie]

There's some dishonest editing this episode. We're shown that the best way from Domme to Toulouse is on the A20, while Quinton/Mattie took the (smaller) "D49... [staying] on it the whole time". But neither the D49 in Dordogne nor the D49 in Lot (the next department over) lead to Toulouse. In fact, when they're shown later in the episode navigating small villages, the footage is really just them getting out of Domme.

Quinton/Mattie must have been on the D49 for just a short while trying to get to the A20. I wonder what put them that far behind then?

...

For Marcus/Michael, part of the confusion entering Toulouse is that there are overlapping highway designations at that point. While the highway sign only shows "E80 / E9 / Périphérique intérieur" going left and "E72 / Périphérique extérieur" going right; maps would more prominently show A62 going left (which Marcus later says he doesn't want), and A620 going right instead.

If teams understood French / the French highway system, they would also have found that "Périphérique intérieur" refers to "Ring road, going clockwise" and "Ring road, going anti-clockwise", which would have been much clearer when matching where they are to their maps.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Neobie

[Dobian]

Nice city, bland episode.  No real twists and turns.  The rugby challenge was meh.  I would have taken the bricks task in a minute over the French poem recital, it was a no-brainer.  So long, cheerleaders.

[aghst]

Yeah the tasks weren't that exciting.  The navigation challenges were probably once they got into Toulouse.

That barrier that Quinton and Mattie came up against, they're there deliberately to keep the general public out of certain pedestrian-only areas.  The trucks or delivery vans which need to enter have their remote controls to lower the barrier.

It was kind of them to lower it for them but basically there must be a route around the barrier to get to their destination.  Presumably in a city like that, TAR cordon off some parking spots because normally, they'd be looking for parking all the time and that would come down to pure chance, unless they entered a parking garage like the twins and paid out of pocket.

The one twin with the knee problem, she's bravely soldiering on and talking about setting a good example for her daughter.  Well that's  true but she could be irritating it more, causing it to swell up.  Or even worse, she could be risking more structural damage, which makes rehabilitation even harder.  When she talked about needing more support for her knee cap, I wondered if she had dislocated the patella, in which she really shouldn't put weight on it.

Quinton and Mattie always put on a happy face but they seem pretty crushed that they didn't survive.  Low drama so you want them to succeed but they probably have less experience traveling overseas and dealing with foreign languages than others.  Obviously navigation with paper maps was also a problem, the younger you are.

[North of Eden]

Unrecoverable.

Clearly whatever happened to the cheerleaders at the top  of the hour there was no coming back from. Self Navigation blues are a mixed bag. It's fun to watch teams struggle but when one gets so far behind the pack the suspense of the outcome is zero.

Please let the day come when a team decides to help another team and they get eliminated as a direct result thus ending the practice forever.

Michelle's papi died ten years ago? In the pic she looks the same. Hasn't aged a day!

Military men fooled be...I had them pegged as being hopeless at the poetry task but they nailed it.

Also the Poetry Proctor is one of the BEST guest supporting characters in the history of the entire race. For barely speaking she had prescence!

So its okay to win a trip to Bangkok but not race there? Okay.

Love the twins but I'll be honest I'm really tired of hearing about Emily's bum leg.

Edited November 11, 2022 by North of Eden

[Steph Sometimes]

I took French in high school and minored in it in college. I like to think I'd do ok with pronunciation, but I don't know how I'd do with the memorizing part, especially in a stressful situation like that.

I find myself just really liking Claire. She just seems fun.

The top 3 teams of this episode would be a good final 3 for me.

[Vermicious Knid]

Mattie and Quinton exit interview with Parade. What we didn't see, they got pulled over by the cops.
 

Quote

P: Well, especially because I saw you post online, Quinton, that there was a moment we didn't see where you actually got pulled over last leg!
Quinton: I mean, everything that could have went wrong that day went wrong.
Mattie Lynch: Think Austria, but worse. (Laughs.)

P: Even worse than driving to the wrong country?!
Mattie: Yes! Because that was a Google Maps error that we learned from. Because we just didn't put in the country name, so we stayed in the same country. And that was a bad mistake, but an easy one to fix. This last one, it was just a disaster from start to finish. And right in the middle, Quinton gets pulled over.
Quinton: I think the cop said that I ran a red light. But I'm still to this day confused, because I was next to a white SUV. So I was like, "How did that happen?"
Mattie: The streets were very confusing. So Quinton figured, "As long as I'm moving the same with the person in the lane next to me, then I'm fine." And also the traffic lights are very, very small. They're not like in California. We're spoiled with big, very prominent signs. They're very small in the corner. There's only a red and green. And I guess he missed one of them. The French police gave us a lesson on what red means and what green means.

Quinton: The funniest part was when he was running our like passports and stuff Mattie goes, "Well while you're there, can you help us get to the Detour?" (Laughs.)
Mattie: Now that we sorted that out, we're not going to jail, can you help us get here? (Laughs.)

The Race was trying to recruit Quinton since he first got hired by the Rams and he thought it was spam. They actually were on the A20 and it split and they took the side that looked like it was more direct. Then they took a wrong turn and got stuck in a busy retail center that you can't drive through, that was the dramatic part going into commercial with the bollards. But they say even with all that they were only a few minutes behind at the end.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Vermicious Knid
stupid quote box

[30 Helens]

On 11/9/2022 at 9:06 PM, tracyscott76 said:

Still speaking of navigating, Aubrey and David after switching driving/navigating roles: "Why didn't we do this sooner?" Everyone watching: "Yeah, why didn't you???"

I have noticed that when it’s a male/female couple, the male almost ALWAYS does the driving. I see it in real life, and I definitely see it on this show. Obviously, the smarter move is to figure out who is the better navigator, who is the better driver/listener and assign based on that. But so many just go to the stereotypical roles and don’t question it. At least these two finally did; I’ll give them that.

10 hours ago, Teriacky said:

Derek had four years of high school French and one of the most horrible accents I have aver heard. Of course he never said what grades he got…

I don’t know, I thought he had a pretty decent accent. This from someone who had 3 years of high school French + 2 years college. (All A’s.) This task was certainly not graded that harshly, though— a lot of mispronunciations slipped right through.

I laughed at Derek making fun of Claire’s rugby hyperbole and would bet that she said something similar about his French bragging that was cut for time. Lovingly making fun of a partner’s vanity is not mean, it’s… my marriage. 😜 

[SVNBob]

20 hours ago, Haleth said:

M&Q flew through the tasks so they must have really gotten lost early on.  (Weren't they the ones who were in the wrong country in the second episode?)

Yes they were.  And I agree they blazed through the tasks.  So it was their lackluster self-navigation that ended up doing them in.

[Haleth]

5 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

But they say even with all that they were only a few minutes behind at the end.

That is surprising.  I would have loved if the show had included them being pulled over by the police.  Perhaps the police officers refused to be on camera though.

[mojoween]

Was really hoping that showing Aubrey and David struggling AGAIN with getting to the pit stop they weren’t faking us out again.  Alas, Quentin and Maddie, hope to see you again sometime.

I loved when Q got frustrated at the barrier and said “I need a moment” and pouted with his arms crossed.  Sometimes, you just have to take a second and regroup, and he looked adorable doing it.

[chitowngirl]

9 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I have noticed that when it’s a male/female couple, the male almost ALWAYS does the driving. I see it in real life, and I definitely see it on this show.

Slightly Off Topic-between my husband and I, I usually do the driving. Believe me when I say NO ONE in the family likes when he drives 😆 Our son has kicked him out of the driver’s seat and taken over (he was old enough to drive, don’t worry!)

[Welshman in Ca]

9 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I have noticed that when it’s a male/female couple, the male almost ALWAYS does the driving. I see it in real life, and I definitely see it on this show. Obviously, the smarter move is to figure out who is the better navigator, who is the better driver/listener and assign based on that. But so many just go to the stereotypical roles and don’t question it. At least these two finally did; I’ll give them that.

In everyday life I will drive 99% of the time if we're traveling together but that's because I am a REALLY bad passenger in that I will make noises about the others driving, I even do it in Taxis and I also get very ill being a passenger and also can't look at my phone, read a book, sleep etc.

But mainly I'm just a fucking nightmare as a passenger.

[Tango64]

12 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Please let the day come when a team decides to help another team and they get eliminated as a direct result thus ending the practice forever.

Strongly endorse. It's sort of nice that everyone is so pleasant this season (though I like having villains to root against) but the race is a competition. I want to see teams competing against each other, even if they do it with a smile. I'd love to see a scenario in which two teams are friendly and want to share information but they just can't.

13 hours ago, Neobie said:

If teams understood French / the French highway system, they would also have found that "Périphérique intérieur" refers to "Ring road, going clockwise" and "Ring road, going anti-clockwise", which would have been much clearer when matching where they are to their maps.

In Atlanta, we call it the Perimeter, with the inside ring and the outside ring. And it is the border that broadly defines where you live. Some people will not date someone who lives ITP (inside the Perimeter and more urban) or who lives OTP (outside the Perimeter).

[30 Helens]

3 hours ago, Welshman in Ca said:

But mainly I'm just a fucking nightmare as a passenger.

Ha- I can relate. I tell my husband it’s an automatic reaction because he’s a terrible driver (and he is), but I sometimes wonder if it’s a chicken/ egg thing. Maybe my noises> stress> poor driving. Anyway, we get along better when I drive, so I almost always do.

[vousviou]

1 hour ago, Tango64 said:

14 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Please let the day come when a team decides to help another team and they get eliminated as a direct result thus ending the practice forever.

Strongly endorse. It's sort of nice that everyone is so pleasant this season (though I like having villains to root against) but the race is a competition. I want to see teams competing against each other, even if they do it with a smile. I'd love to see a scenario in which two teams are friendly and want to share information but they just can't.

In Season 29 Liz was having one of her regular crying fits when she couldn't make a ladle, and was saved when multiple racers helped her. She went on to win it all. During her breakdown she even promised not to U Turn Mike and Liz when Mike helped her. When the chance came later to U Turn someone, she went ahead and broke her promise, and Mike and Liz were eliminated as a result.

[Cotypubby]

On 11/9/2022 at 11:46 PM, aradia22 said:

Took note of Claire trying to talk about her friends getting her to play rugby and Derek immediately needing to cut her down. This is what I mean about him undermining her. 

I am simply not seeing that at all! I feel like people came into this season wanting to hate the team from Big Brother just because they were on Big Brother, and are now are making up any tiny reason they can to think of them as horrible people.

Everything they have shown of Derek & Claire during The Amazing Race have shown them to have a very well-adjusted relationship filled with a lot of humor. They have not fought with each other, they joke back and forth and generally seem to be extremely upbeat and joyful. There is nothing "undermining" at all about anything we have seen!

[dgpolo]

35 minutes ago, vousviou said:

In Season 29 Liz was having one of her regular crying

Brooke

35 minutes ago, vousviou said:

she went ahead and broke her promise, and Mike and Liz were eliminated as a result.

Mike deserved to go, felt sorry for Liz

2 minutes ago, Cotypubby said:

I am simply not seeing that at all!

Nor me.

In regards to the 'boring' tasks, I just keep remembering the ones that I felt were alarming even before a pandemic. Both driving an ox and in another, actually being pulled through a field full of mud and feces. Eating food that was sometime raw or almost raw, with some coming from wet markets where some strains of the flu came from. I always hoped everyone was immunized against everything possible. I think that maybe they are easing themselves into and trying out what kind of challenges are possible in a post pandemic world. ?

[Netfoot]

16 hours ago, aghst said:

Obviously navigation with paper maps was also a problem, the younger you are.

This is the navigation software vs. paper maps argument. But it doesn't make sense. Navigation software generally centers around an image of a map. If you can make sense of this, you can make sense of a map printed on paper. The problem is that some people don't navigatecat All. They just follow step by step instructions blindly. Which reminds me of the tourists who turned left and drove into the river Thames because their navigation software told them to.

If you asked for directions to my house you would be in trouble. The software will tell you to stop at the point on the road nearest to my house, and walk. But that point is a busy intersection and between there and my actual home is a tall brick wall and a fair amount of barbed wire. And if you can't read a map (paper or electronic) you probably won't be able to figure out that you need to take the next left and proceed to my front gate.

15 hours ago, North of Eden said:

For barely speaking she had prescence!

At times, she was struggling not to laugh.

14 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I have noticed that when it’s a male/female couple, the male almost ALWAYS does the driving.

When my parents were alive, my dad always did the driving, despite the fact that mum was by far the better driver. Nobody in the family liked him driving but he always did. And if I recall correctly, nobody thought it was the least buit unusual.

[selkie]

16 hours ago, Haleth said:

That is surprising.  I would have loved if the show had included them being pulled over by the police.  Perhaps the police officers refused to be on camera though.

There was a stage of the Tour de France that got disrupted by protestors this summer. The global tv feed cut off coverage of the protest, going to the riders that had been ‘neutralized’ (told to stop) and were just standing around on the road, so the swat teams were not shown as they roughly unstuck the protestors who had glued themselves to the road. 

The policy now seem to be to keep the gendarmes off tv cameras as much as possible. 

[snarts]

I miss the non-elimination legs. 

[illdoc]

5 hours ago, snarts said:

I miss the non-elimination legs. 

Well, I believe that

Spoiler

next week is the start of another "mega-leg", which is almost like a NEL.

[vousviou]

On 11/11/2022 at 3:02 PM, dgpolo said:

On 11/11/2022 at 2:15 PM, vousviou said:

In Season 29 Liz was having one of her regular crying

Brooke

On 11/11/2022 at 2:15 PM, vousviou said:

she went ahead and broke her promise, and Mike and Liz were eliminated as a result.

Mike deserved to go, felt sorry for Liz

Good catch, right, Brooke. It really would have been something if Liz's team U-Turned itself.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 11/11/2022 at 4:17 AM, selkie said:

Having experienced similar this summer, we were rolling with laugher when the twins were struggling to escape from the underground parking garage of the dammed. Because every parking garage seems to have a slightly different pay system and less than half of them seem to have a Union Jack button for English language instructions. 

In germany and france (and some other european countries) I've literally never seen a parking garage that didn't have a machine you could pay at with cash. Paying with a credit card directly at the barrier you'll only find in newer parking garages, but paying with cash is the same everywhere.