Driving in France
OK, this should be the last rant for a while. Before I can describe our driving tour through France I have to explain how the roads work. Driving through the country (en plein campagne) is really fun and beautiful, if you're not the one doing the driving or navigating. Some rules on driving in France:
1. Don't bother about the actual road you're on. They have autoroutes there (i.e. our major highways, like the 401) with different names (like A1, A21 etc.) but the names really don't mean anything. To get to Paris from Lille, for example, keep following the signs in the city that say "Paris - 200 km". The only way to get to where you want to go, is to know how to spell it.
2. Bring a map, not to tell you which road to take, but to find all the cities along the route to the city you want to go to. For example, if you want to get to the small town of Sarlat-la-Caneda, which is on the way to Bordeaux, don't bother looking for signs for Sarlat until you're right on top of it. Follow the signs to the major cities to get to the small towns. Of course, you only know which ones those are if you have a map and can trace your path geographically.
3. Roundabouts (rond points) are for going round and round - 3, maybe 4 times. This is very necessary when the direction of the road signs are ambiguous. Is it pointing to the 80 degree angle left road, or the 45 degree angle left road? Not sure - go around again. Also very useful when none of your destinations show up on the signs anymore, and you have to review the geography again to try and figure out which of the cities that do show up on the road signs are closest to the direction of the city you are trying to get to. That usually takes about 3 circles of the rond point.
4. There's no such thing as yield in a rond point. To yield is weak.
5. While the autoroute is fast, the French never take it because (a) there are tolls (payage) and (b) it's not "en plein campagne" enough. Why take a straight fast road when you can take a slow windy road through beautiful countryside? To be fair, it is much nicer scenery to take the national roads instead. And when are the French ever in a hurry when they're on vacation?
6. Do NOT take the really small country roads though. While often deserted, even during the day, they are undivided roads which I swear can't fit more than 1.5 cars on it. I have no idea how we would have passed if there had been an oncoming car.
7. Highways in France mark where fatal car accidents have happened by putting up a black cardboard cutout of a faceless person (sometimes with a red scarf around their neck) at the site of the actual accident. Supposedly this is to discourage speeding.
8. Speed limit is 130 kmph on the autoroute. This makes total sense to me since when do we ever drive less than 130 kmph anyway, and we still can keep the cars under control. Another good thing about highway driving is that drivers actually obey the left-lane-is-for-passing-only rule. If you're going 130, stick to the right lane because inevitably the 140 drivers will pass you. The worst thing about Canadian highways are the slowpokes driving 90 in the left lane. MOVE!
9. Of course, the French generally drive fast which is why they have so many car accidents which is why they have to warn people about this stuff. Drinking and driving is a real problem over there too. It's starting to become illegal I think. Our theory about the large number of unnecessarily windy roads, is that they were intended to slow French drivers down. Of course it backfired because they never slowed down anyways and the windiness just causes more accidents.
OK, enough. Get the picture? But for all my complaining, driving in France (in the country) can actually be really pleasant. The roads are fairly spacious, you can go fast, the scenery is gorgeous and since they have no snow, the roads are really well maintained. I wish we had more of that here in Canada! Except for the navigational issues, it was totally fine. (Minora thinks, if you could trace our paths on the map, you'd see a whole bunch of circles and weird 3-pt-turns.) And remember - it's completely OK to ask the policemen for directions. That's what they're there for.
1. Don't bother about the actual road you're on. They have autoroutes there (i.e. our major highways, like the 401) with different names (like A1, A21 etc.) but the names really don't mean anything. To get to Paris from Lille, for example, keep following the signs in the city that say "Paris - 200 km". The only way to get to where you want to go, is to know how to spell it.
2. Bring a map, not to tell you which road to take, but to find all the cities along the route to the city you want to go to. For example, if you want to get to the small town of Sarlat-la-Caneda, which is on the way to Bordeaux, don't bother looking for signs for Sarlat until you're right on top of it. Follow the signs to the major cities to get to the small towns. Of course, you only know which ones those are if you have a map and can trace your path geographically.
3. Roundabouts (rond points) are for going round and round - 3, maybe 4 times. This is very necessary when the direction of the road signs are ambiguous. Is it pointing to the 80 degree angle left road, or the 45 degree angle left road? Not sure - go around again. Also very useful when none of your destinations show up on the signs anymore, and you have to review the geography again to try and figure out which of the cities that do show up on the road signs are closest to the direction of the city you are trying to get to. That usually takes about 3 circles of the rond point.
4. There's no such thing as yield in a rond point. To yield is weak.
5. While the autoroute is fast, the French never take it because (a) there are tolls (payage) and (b) it's not "en plein campagne" enough. Why take a straight fast road when you can take a slow windy road through beautiful countryside? To be fair, it is much nicer scenery to take the national roads instead. And when are the French ever in a hurry when they're on vacation?
6. Do NOT take the really small country roads though. While often deserted, even during the day, they are undivided roads which I swear can't fit more than 1.5 cars on it. I have no idea how we would have passed if there had been an oncoming car.
7. Highways in France mark where fatal car accidents have happened by putting up a black cardboard cutout of a faceless person (sometimes with a red scarf around their neck) at the site of the actual accident. Supposedly this is to discourage speeding.
8. Speed limit is 130 kmph on the autoroute. This makes total sense to me since when do we ever drive less than 130 kmph anyway, and we still can keep the cars under control. Another good thing about highway driving is that drivers actually obey the left-lane-is-for-passing-only rule. If you're going 130, stick to the right lane because inevitably the 140 drivers will pass you. The worst thing about Canadian highways are the slowpokes driving 90 in the left lane. MOVE!
9. Of course, the French generally drive fast which is why they have so many car accidents which is why they have to warn people about this stuff. Drinking and driving is a real problem over there too. It's starting to become illegal I think. Our theory about the large number of unnecessarily windy roads, is that they were intended to slow French drivers down. Of course it backfired because they never slowed down anyways and the windiness just causes more accidents.
OK, enough. Get the picture? But for all my complaining, driving in France (in the country) can actually be really pleasant. The roads are fairly spacious, you can go fast, the scenery is gorgeous and since they have no snow, the roads are really well maintained. I wish we had more of that here in Canada! Except for the navigational issues, it was totally fine. (Minora thinks, if you could trace our paths on the map, you'd see a whole bunch of circles and weird 3-pt-turns.) And remember - it's completely OK to ask the policemen for directions. That's what they're there for.
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