Driving in France

We rented a car at Charles DeGaulle (CDG) north of Paris. It was a small but not too small Renault-Elf Clio five speed stick shift.

It's been a while since I drove a stick but I got the hang of it before we got out of the airport. With some directions from Google maps and a map from the rental office and their advice we drove out into Paris traffic. The maze of freeways is nothing like anything I've ever seen including Los Angeles. Rick Steves reported that even two kph over the speed limit can result in an enormous fine so I watched it closely and used the cruise control. The guy at the airport said it would take five hours to get to Chartres. Google maps and I estimated three hours. It turned out to be three and a half hours.

I think I'll do some general comments about driving in France and leave the details to the major write up.

Most signs are self explanatory. Driving on the toll roads was very easy. You must keep to the right unless passing. In town it was trickier. All the towns were laid out in medieval fashion - small streets, often one way, not well marked. No right on red. In small towns there were often speed bumps and sometimes sections of road that were reduced to one lane to slow traffic. The county roads were usually in good repair but quite narrow. There were many round-abouts. After a few times you get the hang of it. The mini-roundabouts were a bit trickier and sometimes hard to see. On the bigger roundabouts I often went around more then once - usually to get somebody off my bumper or just to be sure of the exit.

The speed on the big toll roads was 130kph (80mph). Country driving was usually 90kph (56mph) or 70kph (45mph). The tailgating is amazing.

In one case we took a long drive along the Loire into Angers. That was interesting. Every problem you can imagine on the way but we got through with no major hitches.