Driving in France

gingerdad

yummymummy888888 wrote: »

Things to be aware of....

1 The French do not know how to use roundabouts (seem scared of the inside lane).

2 They do not know how to overtake ( they wait untill they are at your bumper before pulling out).

3 ( this is our main grumble) they do not move out of your way when you are coming off a sliproad, even if the road is otherwise empty. French sliproads are very short which means you have to do 0-70 in about 5 seconds. You find yourself trying to get onto the motorway and they stay in the inside lane making you either have to brake hard or put your foot to the floor. :mad:

4 They keep their indicator on for the whole duration of overtaking.

5 Learner drivers have an A symbol on their cars which they must keep on for 12 months after passing their tests. They also have a restricted speed limit for that 1st year although they are allowed on motorways. HOWEVER if the OPs hubby has not been a driver for 2 years this rule applies to him too.! this rule may have changed but I would definatly check it out.

.

Most brits can't drive around a roundabout in this country, and will stay in the middle lane for ever to avoid having to pull out.

Driving in france is a pleasure, have done it a few times now, main issues is remembering when setting off to keep on the correct side of the road.

most tolls we went through took credit/debit cards. Make sure you have all your paperwork with you in the car, I did get stopped in rural france and asked for it. We stopped of in Lens on the way down in a Novotel, great value (we did have an 6 hour drive trough the uk first).

GD

Mark_Hewitt

poodledoodledoo wrote: »

Thank you very much for the advice folks.
We are planning to stop over in Rouen to break the journey up because it's roughly half way and then we plan to stop every couple of hours on both of the days to break it up a bit.

Good choice! Try the Suitehotel, great rooms, especially if you have kids and an underground car park. 10 mins walk from the Place du Vieux Marche which has many resaurants etc.

In fact, I'd recommend a full day in Rouen!

Mark_Hewitt

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

If you do have a sat nav, I think you can set it to remind you to drive on the other side (I think our Tom Tom has a setting to anyway)

This was very useful for me driving in France. Every I switched the unit on it flashed up "Drive on the right" then as I move off it beeps again and says "Drive on the right!" I certainly didn't forget!

Unlike in Spain where I did once, only for a few seconds.

apn_2

We drove to La Rochelle from Calais last year.We left at 8 am and got to La Rochelle about 5.30 in the afternoon!! and we only stopped once. According to viamichelin this was a 6 hour 40 minute drive ??!! Driving itself in France is fine the roads are so much quieter than at home. We have always used viamichelin to print out a route and also follow this on a road map so we always know where we are. I think you would be better off breaking your journey completely with a night in a hotel and driving over two days. It's a very long drive particularly for young kids. It's a lovely part of France you'll have a great time.

sunshinetours

apn wrote: »

We drove to La Rochelle from Calais last year.We left at 8 am and got to La Rochelle about 5.30 in the afternoon!! and we only stopped once. According to viamichelin this was a 6 hour 40 minute drive ??!! Driving itself in France is fine the roads are so much quieter than at home. We have always used viamichelin to print out a route and also follow this on a road map so we always know where we are. I think you would be better off breaking your journey completely with a night in a hotel and driving over two days. It's a very long drive particularly for young kids. It's a lovely part of France you'll have a great time.

Did you go via the autoroutes or local roads. That sounds a long time for a c450 mile journey on the autoroute? We are doing same trip soon and i was planning about 8 hours including a couple of half hour stops for the kids?

Thanks

LandyAndy

You can spend an awful lot of time getting past Nantes.

smudge2006

I'm driving in France soon and have a satnav. However...I can't get it to recognise any French addresses!

I'm trying:
Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch
BP117
77777 Marne La Vallee

but every combination I come up with is ignored. Any ideas?

I've got a NavMan F40 Europe. Ta.

yummymummy888888

smudge2006 wrote: »

I'm driving in France soon and have a satnav. However...I can't get it to recognise any French addresses!

I'm trying:
Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch
BP117
77777 Marne La Vallee

but every combination I come up with is ignored. Any ideas?

I've got a NavMan F40 Europe. Ta.

Dont know if this is any help but we had the same problem. We ended up programming it to take us to The theme park as that was listed in attractions. You drive past Davy Crockett ranch to get there! Cant miss it.

haggle_2

Information on French car insurance http://www.carinsurancefrance.co.uk/2009/04/french-car-insurance.html

Cumbrian_Male

Apart from all the above advice I would recommend using ViaMichelin over AA for route planning as it will give toll costs.