Taking a car to France

Karb

I'm thinking of taking advantage of a cheap day trip to France and toying with the idea of taking the car.

What do I need to have in order to drive in France, without it costing me the Earth?

Dumyat

check out the AA's website for some advice..think you must have warning triangle not sure what else.

when we took our car to france on holiday we had to top up our insurance and I took out a top up for our breakdown insurance (thankfully because the exhaust fell off!!) cant remember it being too expensive.

John_3:16

Passport
If you trust your car then you would get away without breakdown cover
Greencard or check your insurance about travel abroad.
Don't bother about adadpting your headlights very few do now.
Not much else really
Red triangle and yellow jacket
Spare bulbs

Cuddly toy!!!!!!

Cheapest day trip I can find is £25 return anyone find better?

1012donna

You need a GB sticker on the car if you don't have the emblem on your reg plate.

crossleydd42

And don't exceed speed limits - the police will dole out instant fines and you have to pay cash!

As for places to visit, you have the Cite d'Europe shopping mall, Auchan (Robin in English) hypermarket at Calais. Calais has only its wonderful town hall worth looking at, but Boulogne had a wonderful old town on the hill and a Aquaworld place by the harbour.

If you want fags, you'll need to go just into Belgium, to Adinkerke.

Karb

John_3:16 wrote:

Passport
If you trust your car then you would get away without breakdown cover
Greencard or check your insurance about travel abroad.
Don't bother about adadpting your headlights very few do now.
Not much else really
Red triangle and yellow jacket
Spare bulbs

Cuddly toy!!!!!!

Cheapest day trip I can find is £25 return anyone find better?

I found £19 - https://www.poferries.com/now

trisontana

Regarding speed limits. You will not see a speed-limit sign when you enter a built-up area. Instead the lower speed (usually 50 kph) starts when you see the town's name on a roadside sign-board. When you leave the town you will see a similar sign-board, but with the name crossed through. This indicates the end of the speed limit and a return to the national limit.

Also in built-up areas, traffic coming from side roads on your right has priority. This does not apply on the open road, where you will see a road-sign showing a yellow diamond on a white background, this indicates that traffic on the main road has right of way .

The normal speed limit on motorways is 130 kph. This is automatically reduced to 110 kph when it is raining. I have also heard that you are timed through the individual sections of the toll-roads. If you arrive too early at the next toll-booth, you can be done for speeding.

Karb

Thanks for all the advice. I'm not really worried about speed limits - we probably won't venture beyond Calais, and as I'll have the children with me, I certainly won't be speeding anyway.

Is a UK licence ok, or do I need something else?

I take it I can pick up a GB sticker at most motor retailers.

trisontana

The normal UK licence will be OK. It should have a "EU" logo on it somewhere. Regarding driving on the "wrong" side of the road, I usually find that on ordinary roads I don't have any problems because I'm concentrating. It's when I'm in such places as supermarket car parks that I forget, and start driving on the opposite side of the road.

Have a nice trip, and watch out for those cars coming out of side streets when you're in Calais !

mcfisco

If you see any pedestrians about to step on a crossing - accelerate even if that means swerving around them.
You do want to drive like a local don't you?

1012donna

Karb wrote:

I take it I can pick up a GB sticker at most motor retailers.

You can get them at the ferry port if need be. We forgot last year and got one at Dover hoverspeed port.