What is France like to drive through?

I drove to Paris one November, in the middle of a Blizzard (OK it was snowing :))

Deep in places, and you hardly saw any cars it was really creepy.

But the roads are really great, and possibly the best roads for cruise control ever.
 
Driven in France twice, covering about 1500 miles or so last year. I thought it was a breeze, got my head round the on the other side thing straight away, the roads are much clearer and motorway driving is so much easier, just remember to pull in as soon as you've overtaken, can make some serious progress as the limit is higher and the lack of traffic helps. Paris wasnt that difficult although I only done the outskirts, just be aware of the toll roads and dont speed on them as they will pull you if you done them too quickly.

Much more pleasurable than driving with the idiots on our roads thats for sure.
 
vcl_X1 said:
I don't think this is true, my LTSB debit card works throughout France, the HSBC one didn't, most credit cards do except Amex - they've had chip and pin for well over 15 years, from memory it's to do with that.
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It is true. The majority of rural petrol stations (not those on autoroutes) are usually not attended, especially at the weekend. You have to swipe your card through them to make it work, and the magnetic stripe is incompatible - at least that the techie reason I was told. I can definately vouch for them not working however, as I got stranded on a bike in northern france and had to pay a french bloke in cash so that he swiped his card through! This was no more than a couple of years ago - doubt its changed.

If you stick to the autoroute petrol isnt an issue. If your choosing the more rural roads or RN's, especially on a Sunday then make sure you have plenty of fuel.

Oh, and ill add to the "French roads are fantastic" brigade :D You can do some serious miles over there to get around without worrying about time sapping traffic jams!
 
Naf said:
I don't believe the Toll Booths act as average speed cameras, as if they did them myself, and SL55 AMG (or something similar), new shape M3 and Bently Continental GT would have been quite a bit lighter in the pocket after convoying at speeds I shan't mention.
I'd also imagine the group of cars I was chatting with at the Eurotunnel (consisting of a Phantom, SLR, couple of Astons, GT2, GT3 and loads more along those lines) would have been done likewise as they left Monaco but a few hours before they arrived at the Eurotunnel...
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Yeah I agree about the toll booth thing - i would have been done loads of times back in October! I heard they were doing it in Spain but not heard that about France?

I found France a real pleasure to drive through - there was virtually no traffic apart from around towns and you could eat up motorway miles in no time. Off the motorway you'll still find traffic very light - but one thing I did notice was that French drivers (and most drivers on the continent) were quite happy taking what would seem to us utterly daft life threatening risks. I got overtaken going around a blind corner when there was about a 1km sheer drop on the other side of the road - the cars seem to not be worried about cars coming the other way! As long as you stay out of the way of the lunatics you'll be fine.

Driving around the towns however can be a nightmare. A lot of the old french towns have appalling road networks and it can be a real pain if you don't have a decent sat nav. I'd also avoid any kind of multi storey car park if you have low profile tyres!
 
Dogbreath said:
The standard of lane control on the continent is generally excellent, people are simply expected to move out of the way of faster traffic and generally do so, or face a car 3mm from their rear bumper.

The embarrassing thing is that if you see people hogging lanes and generally driving like jerks, then 99% of the time the car will have UK registration plates :(
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That is true, although I had some pleasant lady tailgating me for no reason for about 5 miles or so. It wasn't too bad when there was no other traffic around, but when I was overtaking lorrys and other cars it was a bit iffy. She didn't respond to me backing off to about 40mph either which was strange.

Eventually she overtook, and I (childishly) matched her speed and undertook her to get in front to pass a car. Then let her go off, she didn't seem phased or irate (as a typical tailgater does in the UK) which got me confused even more :confused:



Cruise control was a godsend though! Put it on at the limit (130km/h) and was happy enough cruising at that speed for many miles at a time. Only really pushed on when we were coming home and in convoy with other Brits (see my earlier post)
 
Naf said:
tailgating woman
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she didn't want to overtake, they just drive far too close to the car in front. it's the same in belgium, be it on a motorway or a single-carriage road. they drive very close the car in front with no intention of overtaking and they'll happily slow down if you slow down.

it's very odd. maybe they're trying to slipstream :p

although i had some **** in germany tailgating me for about 15 minutes. at over 120mph. if i swerved across some lanes, he followed. if i slowed down, he slowed. :mad:
was not a happy bunny as i didn't have enough power to leave him behind :(
 
you get them free from your insurance company.

it's so that you can be seen if you're changing a spare in the dark, for example
 
mikeh501 said:
Oh, and ill add to the "French roads are fantastic" brigade :D You can do some serious miles over there to get around without worrying about time sapping traffic jams!
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Heh yeah - I averaged 78mph over 470 French miles in a Golf TDI which is pretty high up the list of my life achievements :p


Stonedofmoo said:
Why do the drivers and passengers have to wear high visability jackets in France? Do the French wear them too? :confused:
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You don't actually have to wear them - you just need one per passenger somewhere in your car in case of a break down. Clarkson wore his whilst driving on a recent TG episode as a **** take - the French police were pretty hot on checking cars for the hi-vis jackets when the law kicked in last year.
 
Naf said:
I don't believe the Toll Booths act as average speed cameras, as if they did them myself, and SL55 AMG (or something similar), new shape M3 and Bently Continental GT would have been quite a bit lighter in the pocket after convoying at speeds I shan't mention.
I'd also imagine the group of cars I was chatting with at the Eurotunnel (consisting of a Phantom, SLR, couple of Astons, GT2, GT3 and loads more along those lines) would have been done likewise as they left Monaco but a few hours before they arrived at the Eurotunnel...

If anybody flashes you from the other side of the road, there's a speed trap up ahead - I like to think I saved a Bentley driver's wallet as he was leaving Calais at a fair rate and I alerted him to a few Gendarmes around the bend (Saw his brake lights come no, so presume he caught on)
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Yup having done the trip to Le Mans a few times, the toll gates weren't doing average speed checks else we'd have been in trouble (averaging triple figures).

The drivers coming the other way do often flash their lights to warn of speed traps.

In general the toll roads are awesome, though I guess this year they'll seem a bit more expensive.

Enjoy :)
 
morfmedia said:
the toll gates weren't doing average speed checks else we'd have been in trouble (averaging triple figures).

Enjoy :)
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Bad boy ;)

Don't forget that the toll booths calculate your average speed and that the service areas are inside the toll area.

My advice is drive for a couple of hours and then make a pitstop, have a coffee and maybe a bite to eat - the food is usually very good - see my earlier posts - your time stationary in the Aire's helps brings down your average if you need it to.

On one occasion the person in the toll booth said to me.."ooh grand vitesse" to which I said, perhaps we should have stopped for a coffee and perhaps we did...to which she laughed and told me there were Gendarmes on the next stretch and to be more careful, she was right and luckily I took her advice.
 
I drove through France to Morzine last year, found it very exciting after i got off the train. Then after an hour i got bored... 7 hours in i was still bored. Hit the Alps and was amazed.. Absolutely awesome place to drive. Just avoid the middle bit of france ;)
 
forgot to note, it cost an abosolute fortune in road tolls to get to south of france. More than people have said in this thread, also if you go into Switzerland, be prepared to pay 30 euros for the privalidge
 
I think the whole toll booth speed trap thing is a bit of a myth tbh. I'm sure its probably happened before in isolation, but its certainly not the norm.

I've been to europe twice a year on holiday for the last 6 years in cars and bikes. Its a fantastic place to visit. Just like anywhere else the driving standards are variable, but in my experience...... French are mediocre drivers, and getting down to the south of France they turn into nutters, just like the italians. The Belgians are the worst drivers from a standards point of view imho, not nutters just bad lol. The germans are generally very good drivers like the swiss, but ensure you get out of the way on the autobahn :p The austrians are slightly better than the belgians lol

One thing I can guarantee is that wherever you go in europe, you will find that when you get back into the UK off the ferry at Dover the traffic, crap driving, congestion, impatience, cameras and policing in the UK completely depressing.
 
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