Driving in France

I drove extensively in France on our 2003 trip and again in 2010. It's very manageable, but be aware there are a lot of speed cameras. It was fine driving there, the only thing is if you happen to arrive in a town around 5pm, which we inevitably did again and again, the driving can be quite hectic. Also hard to get oriented in a town and the other drivers really zip around in their little cars.

First of all, Big isn't always better,don't rent a car larger than you need. )parking is a problem in towns) You should have a GPS, and be careful how you set it up,, they can get confusing, Be careful on entering the names of the destinations, as there can be many towns with the same name, but different districts. My primary (car unit) GPS screwed me up several times, so i had to resort to using my portable unit. Often i got conflicting directions and relied mostly on my Garmin.
I did about 3200 miles on 2 trips, and had no problems at all. There are 10 million round a-bouts on the secondary roads, and the GPS's don;t always get the exit numbers correct.

Both times we've rented overseas has been in France. It's been mostly fun. We need an automatic, so first time we ended up with a VW Touran (small SUV) and last year a Citroen Cactus - I guess a midsize (smaller than the Ford Escape we drive, but not much).

Our only few issues was a bus almost running us off the road (the back wheel went over the little curb towards a ditch but we didn't get stuck), impatient drivers tailgating and unfortunately - putting a big scratch on an otherwise brand new Citroen with only 10,000 kms while trying to negotiate a very tight corner in a parking garage. We were covered by AMEX as we used our Amex card to pay for the rental. It took a while to get refunded and I won't go into the long story - bottom line - use the credit card of the principle driver to do ALL the booking...I used MY cc to do the initial booking with AutoEurope (since I do all the planning and booking) and even tho my husband and I are on the same account (diff card numbers) it almost disqualified us from getting reimbursed (no small amnt - $600) as you are supposed to use the cc of the primary driver. Make sure you read the small print - or even call your cc company - if you plan on rejecting the coverage offered by the rental place and relying on your cc coverage.

So go with the smallest car for your needs. Check out the fine print on the insurance. Otherwise, we quite enjoyed the freedom offered to us by not having to rely on busses and trains, travelling at our own pace, travelling to more off the beaten path spots. Don't get me wrong, we still love the train system in Europe, but sometimes a car is better. I would also make sure to check if your accoms have free parking (if you are worried about paying for overnight parking).

I've driven in France dozens of times over the last 30 years, and have a couple of things to add to what others have said. In France, vehicles on the right have priority unless a sign indicates otherwise. I learned the hard way, almost causing an accident early on in my driving in France. It normally isn't a problem, since if you're on the principal road, small side roads entering from the right will usually have a stop sign. But if not, cars entering have priority, except when you're on a road that has a priority sign (See this page for signs: http://www.france-pub.com/french/french_traffic.htm). Also, stay to the right on a multi-lane unless you're passing. I know that's also the rule in the US, but unlike in the US, it's really obeyed in France.

Do review the rules of the road for France; the priority on the right thing is not intuitive for American drivers -- it means that cars coming from small roads into big ones still have the right of way if they are on the right. In the US the major road would have the right of way. Be sure you know how to use roundabouts correctly as they are ubiquitous -- not unusual to have to negotiate half a dozen within a short stretch especially near towns.

And obey the speed and ZTL rules as they are camera enforced and very expensive. And learn how to use the parking dial thing on the dashboard and the rules for parking various places. Tourist parking near tourist sites and small towns is usually pretty well marked; just be sure you are following the rules.

We have driven a lot in France and Italy and found things to be well signed and drivers to be pretty good. We have had a few tickets but very few but it is costly when it happens.

Ahh Bob's comments below remind me of the other big deal. Getting gas. We have now tried with our new Chip/sig cards but the old magnetic strip cards do NOT work in automatic pumps and I am dubious about the obsolete Chip/sig type cards since Europe uses chip and pin. We were always careful to gas up when we could and to never let the tank get below half because in small towns gas stations may not be manned on weekends or even when they say they are open. It is not trouble using the credit card in person, but you can't count on having a manned station. On a weekend if you can't find one, then head for the nearest tollway as the island there will have stations with personnel. We just were very careful to not get caught with a low tank.

We've driven in France on 5 visits (including Perpignan) and will again this time. I'd say the biggest problems have been gassing up and directions. There have been a few times that our cc wouldn't work at the pump (or I didn't know how to make it work) and I had to go inside to pay. That's resulted in inconvenience and the uneasiness of having to complete the transaction using my limited French, but it's never reached the level of a real problem.

We've always navigated using paper maps. My wife says good maps make a good vacation. We're thinking of using GPS this time but comments like those above give me pause. In France you navigate by towns, not by road numbers. At intersections, keep going towards (vers) the next town on your map. Pick a larger city as your destination (even if it's not your final destination) and keep going towards it, using smaller towns as the intermediate goals. Read RS on navigating roundabouts if you're not familiar with them (I don't know the road systems in any of the countries you've listed) and don't hesitate to continue on around the circle again if you're not sure which road to take.

It may sound complicated, but it's harder to describe than it is to do. Maybe we've just been lucky, but have had no accidents. Recent comments on this forum say you'll need an international drivers license. They're easy to get. We go to AAA. They're fast and inexpensive.

We were lucky in that both our rentals had integrated GPS. The only issue we ran into last year was going thru St Remy when it kept trying to send us the wrong way down a one way street - which I think was due to some construction - and we ended getting very turned around and it took us 20-30 min to find our way thru the town, going down the same road 3 times trying to figure out how to get to the main highway...BUT...it came in very handy when there was localized flooding because of heavy rains and our exit to where we were staying was blocked...we were able to hit the alternate route button and it found us another way to get where we were going.

The first time, we took maps, but were pleasantly surprised to have the GPS and used it. The second time, I had borrowed my sister's GPS (she lives in the UK) but the darn thing - even tho it knew we were in France, kept trying to give us UK driving directions (go around the roundabout the wrong way kinda thing) so it very quickly got thrown in the glove compartment. (We also had paper maps for a backup)

The other great thing about using a GPS - it'll tell you how long it'll take - and of course give you faster or slower routes. When we first got the car last year in Avignon (driving to Carcassonne) we had it set to avoid toll roads - our driving time was something like 3-3.5 hours say. After about an hour and wayyyy too many roundabouts, I changed it to allow toll roads to see the difference in time - it went from taking 2 hours to taking 1 hour, so we hit the toll roads as we were running late because of a late train...so don't feel bad about using a GPS - even for knowing how long it'll take if you use diff routes it's invaluable!

As to the gas thing, several years ago I got a chip and PIN from Andrews FCU just for that reason. Besides problems on nights and weekends, it seemed that many gas pumps at large grocery stores (which is where I usually gas up) that were formerly attended no longer were. The kiosk was still there, just no person. Since I got that card, I've never had a problem getting gas at an unattended pump. I haven't tried it yet with the replacement chip cards I've been getting from my banks lately.

I have rented and driven a car in France twice. After the first day or two there is no problem and roundabouts become second nature. Last summer we didn't need to haul luggage in the car so we rented a Fiat 500 and it was great for the towns and back roads in Normandy.

The Join Us in France podcast has an episode on driving in France which I found very informative.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the insights.

Agree on the Join us in France podcast - best summary of what it is really like.

Take a GPS that you are familiar with. Google map your routes ahead of time to familiarize yourself. Have a paper map just in case.
Diesel is NOT the black pump handle.

I skimmed the entries above and didn't see this mentioned so I'll chime in. I've spent a good deal of time driving in this part of France and there are lots of toll roads in the area. You can avoid them by taking side roads but it takes quite a bit longer to get anywhere if you need to cover miles quickly. They can be a significant travel cost so keep this in mind before you go. The roads in this area are great and you'll have no problems.

I agree that if you drive in France, be prepared for some automated gas stations with no attendants. On the autoroute and during the week you'll find stations with attendants who can take your US credit card. But on Sundays or at the hypermarches like Carrefour, the stations may only take a credit card with a chip-and-PIN setting that works offline. There are a few US credit cards that do this--Wells Fargo and Barclaycard have some but they charge high fees. I'd get one from the Andrews Federal Credit Union--it's worked for me and they have low to no fees. If you use the toll roads, always us the cash lane marked with a green arrow at the toll plazas. The payment machines in these lanes usually take credit cards too, so you can try yours--and then use cash if your card doesn't work. Just remember that these payment machines won't take any bills larger than 20 euros.

We have driven in France probably 5 or 6 times. Paris to Madrid. Paris to Berlin. Paris to Valencia. London to Nice. We have driven once in Paris, Never again. I landed at CDG, picked up the rental and headed out of Paris for a couple of hours to a pre-booked hotel to spend the night and get over jet lag. We did the GPS no tolls option and enjoyed the countryside, small villages, etc. Granted it took longer, be we were there to see France, not the A1. Plus, the saving on tolls was substantial. I probably got 1 if not 2 tanks of gas "free" this way. I use a Garmin GPS and bought a Europe chip for it off of Ebay. It was a year old, but roads do not change that much in a year and I saved 75.00 over the price of a new one. We bought a good Road Atlas from Barnes and Nobles and familiarized ourselves with the routes we needed to take and took it with us. Get as small a car as you can. Some roads are fairly narrow. Automatic transmission cars cost twice as much, or more to rent. If you can drive a stick shift, you will save a bundle. The French drive on the same side of the road that we do. You might want to review this website: http://www.expatica.com/fr/about/A-guide-to-driving-in-France_101102.html