Frech holiday for first time.

spadoosh

Really dont worry about driving in france, personally think its one of the nicest countries to drive in! As long as you avoid the inner ring road ofparis its always flowing and big open roads!

If your using sat nav though a word of warning, dont be too shocked if you think your driving in someones field for some reason they have mud tracks (farmer routes) that are on the sat nav and youll probably end up going down one! Not too bad in cities but we're out in the sticks and have narrowly avoided deer and wild boar on a few occasions.

cubegame

Most important things to do.

Don't mention cycling. Especially the Tour De France.

If a policeman accuses you of having illegal wheels point him in the direction of the nearest pile of overripe grapes. There should be lots and lots of those around.

peachyprice

andygb wrote: »

Why has nobody mentioned the Newhaven - Dieppe route? Having gone to France for the last fifteen years, this has to be ideal for Normandy, we used to use the fast ferry, and it was really quick.

Because it's a much longer crossing, only 2 sailings a day at not particularly convenient times, costs a fortune and is a nightmare to get into if there's any sort of incident on the A26.

Other than that, it's all good

andygb

peachyprice wrote: »

Because it's a much longer crossing, only 2 sailings a day at not particularly convenient times, costs a fortune and is a nightmare to get into if there's any sort of incident on the A26.

Other than that, it's all good

Ah, how times have changed, no fast catamarran now then.:(

spadoosh

cubegame wrote: »

Most important things to do.

Don't mention cycling. Especially the Tour De France.

If a policeman accuses you of having illegal wheels point him in the direction of the nearest pile of overripe grapes. There should be lots and lots of those around.

An ex pat friend of my parents was telling an interesting story last time i was there.

He went out for dinner and had a good few drinks and got pulled over by the gender maries. Worried he would be breathalysed and obviously banned he mentioned he had a few glasses of wine with his dinner. they breathalysed him (way over the limit) and let him carry on. Puzzled he asked his doctor the next day to which the doctor (medical proffesional!!) said 'well, wines not alcohol, its good for you, it helps with the digestive system!'

I can't guarantee this will work again and obviously dont drink and drive, though it is pretty rife when you get out into the country.

Me and a couple of friends (about 17/18 at the time) were traveeling arounf france, the police saw us and he was about to wave us to one side, then he took an obvious look at our reg plate, noticed it could potentially be hard work and waved us through.

Love the french police mentality. Think thats were the term 'sleeping policeman' comes from.

peachyprice

andygb wrote: »

Ah, how times have changed, no fast catamarran now then.:(

No, 4 hrs slowboat. Leaving at 10am, arriving france at 3pm, not much good for on-travel. Or leaving at 11pm, which is a strange time for a 4hr crossing that's not long enough for a night crossing.

I'm sure there used to be an early morning crossing too, 6-7am? I'm sure I remember having a rather nice early morning drive down, that makes much more sense than 10am.

Gloomendoom

spadoosh wrote: »

If your using sat nav though a word of warning, dont be too shocked if you think your driving in someones field for some reason they have mud tracks (farmer routes) that are on the sat nav and youll probably end up going down one! Not too bad in cities but we're out in the sticks and have narrowly avoided deer and wild boar on a few occasions.

Ha ha! Make sure that your satnav is set to "Avoid unsurfaced roads". It's not foolproof but it can save embarrassment.