Driving in France

Driving in France was pretty easy. Use the Autoroute when possible, smooth sailing. Helps to kind of know the route ahead of time, and/or have a navigator for roundabouts. I’ve always found gps/ Google maps get confusing describing which exit to take. Before you leave the rental place, be 100% clear on what kind of petrol you should be buying and write it down.

You might appreciate this you tube video about driving in France. This US expat living in France has many other good videos about French culture and language too. I love her tour of a bakery and a tour of a pharmacy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn8ZncjrZ6Q

Rick has a whole section devoted to driving in Europe, for starters: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation

Take a copy of European road signage along, one way, yield, no parking, no passing and more. Rick Steve’s guidebooks used to have them and I’ve taken a picture of them, printed it, taped it to dashboard for quick reference.

I recommend listening to episode 16 of the Join Us in France travel podcast. Lots of helpful information on driving in France.
https://joinusinfrance.com/resource/driving-in-france/

If you can download the Michelin app……play with it at home before you go to get used to it……it shows you toll roads and all and helps you to negotiate the best routes….we were pleasantly surprised that WAZE worked in France when we opened our app….it gives you your speed and tells you if you are speeding……which is great help since you can’t understand, unless you speak French, what a lot of the road signs are saying as you travel through these small towns. We have driven numerous times in France and are so glad that we did! Our latest trip was incredibly easy as we used our “tap” credit card at the toll gates and did not have to worry about losing our card in the machine because we did not know what they were saying.

Be sure you know the rules of the road like 'right priority' -- it is somewhat different than in the US where main roads have priority and then right priority.

If you have difficulties with your credit cards at the pump pay attention and tank up when there are people running the station or use the autoroute islands to gas up.

The roads are quite good on the whole. Well-signposted, too.
Besides the aforementioned priority rule, you will find lots and lots and lots of roundabouts: they might be unfamiliar depending on where you live, but they are easy to manage after the first handful.

Speed cameras are a common occurence, fixed ones (the majority) are usually signposted but it is best to use Waze if you worry about them. There is basically no tolerance above the posted limit, but limits do change often on 2-lane roads so it can be hard to keep track!

Roads are easy and well-laid out in most of the north, north-east, center and west, but they can be narrow and twisty in mountainous areas and in Provence, so take appropriate care when required. Two cars coming in opposite directions don't always pass each other with ease on such roads, and local drivers don't always keep their right. If you feel that drivers behind you are getting impatient, pull over!

Like others said, driving in France is not a problem. The roads are fine and the other drivers are mostly civilized!!! Using the "tap" at tolls is easy and recommended. Take lots of pictures of the car before and after you take possession. Lastly, (in July) we reserved an automatic transmission but when we got there, they only had standard. Luckily, I learned to drive on standard many many years ago, so I was able to relearn pretty quickly.

We just got back from a two week trip in Dordogne and Bordeaux. We drove the whole thing. Unfortunately we missed our CDG connection to Bordeaux (which was where we picked up our car to Sarlat) so we drove from Paris to Sarlat then all through the Dordogne and Bordeaux. Easiest drive ever. French roads are superior to anything I’ve ever driven. Insanely fun to drive. Road signage is very intuitive but definitely learn what it means before you get on the road. Driving through Paris at rush hour morning traffic wasn’t as unpleasant as Atlanta morning rush hour traffic. Same can be said for Bordeaux evening traffic. We drove through Provence a few years ago and same experience.

Yes, be specific about what petrol to use! I asked and the rental car agent told me "unleaded." When we went to buy gas, in France, on the pump listed the gas as E10, E7, and E5 and gasoline (diesel). We didn't then know which was unleaded. People helped us and found out E10 was unleaded, Not a minor inconvenience when you're out in the country with few options! The French people were all wonderful to us. Whenever we needed help or an answer to a question, they were more than helpful.

Deedee, I'm quite sure you can ONLY buy unleaded gas anywhere in Europe (or the US for that matter). Those E codes were probably the equivalent of our octane ratings and probably involved ethanol or such. If nothing else, nozzles are designed to only fit in certain filler holes.

. If nothing else, nozzles are designed to only fit in certain filler holes.

Nope, that's not true. A petrol (unleaded, gasoline, "essence" in French) nozzle will fit in a diesel car.
Many rental cars have stickers inside the fuel cover. Your rental contract will also include the info, and the contract should always be in the glovebox.

It’s been illegal for many years to sell leaded gasoline in France/Europe, so all gasoline is unleaded. The number after the E refers to the maximum percentage of ethanol that’s been mixed into the gasoline. E10 contains maximum 10% ethanol, E5 contains maximum 5% ethanol etc etc.

The roads are good and not hard to figure out. Speed is an issue.

When you are driving off the toll roads, speed limits are consistently 90 km outside city limits, then step down when you cross a city line and get closer to the center. I use Copilot GPS. It beeps at me when I'm over the limit, which helps if I missed a sign.

On the toll roads, the speed is reduced when it's wet.

When driving, I always asked my Airbnb host where to get gas. Your credit card can be an issue at automatic pumps but will be fine at attended stations. The gas stations on the toll roads are always attended but charge a little more per litre.

The other thing I'd watch is no entry and no parking signs. Know those so you don't drive/park somewhere you shouldn't. Still not hard if you know what to look for. In cities, I generally park in public lots just so I don't have to worry about it.

speed limits are consistently 90 km outside city limits

that is now 80.... in most places, and there are more of the tall dark round columns with speed cameras inside

My wife and I just spent three weeks driving in France. Aside from the fuel strike, we had absolutely no problems. Using a nav system like Android Auto or Car Play is a HUGE help. Highway signs are really clear and easy to follow; backcountry village roads not so much. I agree that you should find a website or get a book or something that shows the European traffic signs, they're not that difficult to get used to, but they are different from the US.

Two things I'd highly recommend you know about: priority signs that let you know who has the right of way on things like one-lane bridges and narrow roads, and how to navigate a roundabout. There are roundabouts everywhere in France.

Fuel stations in France are totally easy. If there's a contactless credit card sensor on the pump, use it. Otherwise, find the person in the kiosk or inside the station and pay there. BTW Essence is gas/petrol and Gasole/Gazole/Gas Oil is diesel. Inside tour fuel filler door there should be a placard telling you what to use. Have the rental person show you how it works before you drive off.

In general, driving in France was pretty easy and straightforward, and only took about half a day to get really comfortable. And IMHO if you can drive in narrow back streets of country villages, you can drive in Paris. Even when you suddenly find yourself in the 12-lane roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe in rush hour...

Have a great trip!

Will you have friends/family with you who are decent at reading a map? We didn't have cell service and I just gave my husband verbal directions from google maps. We picked up a car in Caen and used it to drive the area around DDay beaches (2 days) and then drove down to Mont St. Michele. They were smaller country roads and very easy. Can't speak to the larger toll roads but others have anyway.

We spent 3 weeks last month driving through France and got caught up in the fuel strike, which didn’t really affect us until we needed to top off before turning the car in. France has a lot of toll roads. We were able to use our tap card to pay. Most of the toll plazas we went through didn’t have a cash lane. At one place we went into the cash line thinking we could use our card there. Nope. Luckily we had cash.

Here are my two pieces of advice for driving in France
1) pay attention when approaching the toll booths...slow down to make sure you are in the correct lane. we found using our debit card always worked but our Chase credit card not always
2) in the roundabouts .... the road markers are very helpful-once you get the hang of looking up at them maneuvering through the roundabout to your road will be a breeze

We found it quite easy as long as you use GPS and have specific destinations. If you train out of Paris, many towns have car rentals near the train stations but most not open on Sundays. Most signs are in English but learn the basics of kilometers. Enjoy!!

speed limits are consistently 90 km outside city limits

Alas, this differs by département (French administrative région) -- in plenty of places, the max is 80 kph.

About half of metropolitan France's départements have opted to go for up to 90kph -- but even within those departements, there are still plenty of roads where the limit is 80kph. The other half (roughly) of the departements stuck with the central government's max of 80kph.

There is no official map showing which department has which max speed (80 or 90) - and remember, lots of departments have a mix of the two.

Here's a map that Radio France put together -- but don't rely on it (for one thing, as time goes on, departments may change -- this dates from August):

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/carte-quels-sont-les-departements-qui-sont-revenus-aux-90-km-h-7849427

You have to scroll down a bit to see the map -- the dark red departments are those where they have put all their regional roads at 90 kph -- you see that they don't make up much of the country at all !

Thanks for that ? ? ? clarification ? ? ? Kim.

That's not questioning you but the linked article. The map is clear enough, but the text shows less than a unified response to the national government axing the 90 kph limit. Shame. It boggleth the mind.

Exactly Nigel -- it's absolutely not clear !! I guess the best we know is that nowhere is the limit more than 90 -- but it could be 80 almost anywhere !!

That article literally is reflecting reality -- every source on this is confusing, because the reality on the ground is confusing.

Here's the way one person drove in France in a 1976 art film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJYOMFayruw

Filmed in real time with no editing other than the audio.