Maybe not so bad after all...
Well, today I completed 4.6 hours in the DR400, 2 dual and the rest solo or with passengers. I guess it does kind of grow on you, by the end we were getting on pretty well together and the weird controls have a certain kind of charm, juggling the throttle, stick and pull-out brake on Biarritz's up-and-down taxiways. I continue to think that it's not very stable in roll, although it's true I'm comparing it to my TR182 which is extremely stable in roll, even in mod-sev turbulence. My wife (who isn't a pilot but is an experienced passenger) commented on this too, so it can't be *entirely* my imagination.
It's true that the view is excellent, up to the point where the wing gets in the way - generic problem with low-wing aircraft of course. It's also true that the low wing makes landing easier (imo) - just hold a landing attitude and wait for the wheels to start to turn.
When I did the DA40 transition, I soloed in about 1.5h (from memory) AND did the radio in French, whereas this time I gave up on French (everything worked perfectly in English anyway, the Biarritz tower and approach controllers are really a pleasure to work with). But the first session of dual didn't go very well partly because of a misunderstanding - the instructor had somehow got the message I was an experienced Robin pilot and was getting increasingly irritated by the fact that I evidently wasn't until he finally put two and two together and asked "how many Robin hours do you have?". Once we got that straightened out and did a bit of ground stuff before the second session, things went a lot better.
btw I strongly recommend the Aeroclub Basque at Biarritz as a nice place to fly from (as long as you don't mind the Robin of course! - though they do have a couple of Tecnams too). Nice people, nice atmosphere, only drawback (as everywhere in France) is that you have to pay around E250 for an annual subscription to do more than take a trial lesson. That adds quite a lot to the hourly rate if you only plan on flying a few hours on a holiday. But then nobody expects flying to be a cheap hobby anyway.
n5296s / f-gahr