Rules Of The Road for France.

My husband and I drove in France last year and as long as you don't try to use route numbers (use the town names) you will be fine. It was really easy. I strongly second John's post about the driver NEVER being the navigator.It is just not possible to drive on a roundabout and try to figure out where to go. You need a driver & a navigator.

Here's a link from the AA - it's aimed at British drivers but has info that should be useful for yanks.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/touring_tips/AA_France_Monaco.pdf

Obvious peculiarities of French driving are priorité a droite and the odd precedence rules on roundabouts. One thing that isn't mentioned but may catch out American drivers is turning on red - this is pretty much unique to the US - a red light means stop unless there is a filter arrow.

I'd assume that your own AAA might have a similar guide but their website won't let foreigners like me access it.

Here are links to rules of the road for France

click here

it's a site for motorbikers but scroll down and you'll see the parts on rules of the road in France.

And here's another

click here

Not really a rule, but a helpful tip that's applicable for most of Europe. It's usually easier to navigate by the names of towns, rather than the route number.

You have been given some excellent advice above!

We just got back last week, and found the driving to be a piece of cake. (Much easier than driving in Italy or Germany.)

The freeways were excellent...the drivers courteous, traffic was lite. The backcountry roads were just like ours...only narrower. Some street in middle of old towns can be Exteremely narrow. Top speed on the freeway was 130 killometers, about 81 mph. Watch out for the fixed radar cameras...usually at places on the roads were speeds drastically drop. I.E. follow the speed limits!

Make sure that you bring your GPS, and that is one that will alert you when you drive past these cameras! We also bought a great little Michelin fold-out road map of all of France at a service station, and it was wonderful for planning our trip.

Rick Steves has some great tips in his book; read it.

Some other hints; bring plenty of CASH for the road tolls...don't even try to use a US credit card in these toll booths. When you pull up to the row of toll booths, always go to the right, and look for the green sign showing the booth that takes CASH! Tolls can be steep.

Buy your gas at a manned service station. You just drive up, and place the pump handle in the tank, and they turn the pump on from inside. After you fill up, you walk inside, tell them your pump number and hand then your US credit card.

And don't drink and drive; I can tell you this from personal experience. Read Phil's excellent advice below about the alcohol limit...two glasses of wine could put you over.

Don't leave anything showing in your car that someone might want to steal. Buy a loaf of French bread and a local paper, and throw it the back to look like a local.

We just drove over there 2 weeks ago, our first European driving experience. I would STRONGLY recommend getting a GPS. We take a lot of road trips in the US and I'm an excellent navigator. We rarely get lost here but in France we were lost constantly!

We also just returned from France and a Brittany driving tour. We took a Garmin for the first time on this trip after never using a navigation device prior to this. Like night and day. Driving itself is straightforward, really. The roundabouts can be frustrating until you figure them out. Europeans tend to be more aggressive drivers.

But the key to driving anywhere in Europe is to follow much of the advice provided here. I would add this, the driver of the car should never, and I mean never, be the navigator. Pick the person who can concentrate on getting you to your next destination and put them in the shotgun seat with the GPS and a road map of the area. If you have addresses of your hotels and other places you want to visit, preprogram them into the GPS before going.

With my wife and me, I navigate and she drives 100 percent of the time. I am a much better navigator and she is a good driver. But the Garmin in the cities was a blessing, especially.

Thank You all for your links and tips !!!

Listen very carefully to Ambrosia's comment. RS has good advice in his books about getting to Centre Ville and Toutes Direction (in and out of cities), but on the highways you need to pay attention to the towns, not the route numbers. Our first driving trip in France many years ago taught us that valuable lesson.

Let's say you are going from Arles to Vaison La Romaine. The first town you would head for would be Avignon, so follow the signs to that town. Then choose the next and follow those signs. It works pretty good. We rarely get lost (but we have, which is fine, as we see something new!).

"We rarely get lost (but we have, which is fine, as we see something new!)."

These days, with a GPS you can have the best of both worlds:

To go right to your destination the first time, turn the GPS on.

To savor the experience of discovering something new when you get lost, just turn the GPS off.

When you drive by a towns name sign with a red line through it,,, that means you are LEAVING the town.. this is good to know as some "towns " are so small you didn't even know you entered them yet.. LOL

I just returned from a 24 day driving trip in France and Spain. I had not problem using a credit card at the automatic toll booths. However when I tried using my Visa card at a manned booth it was rejected both times and I had to use my American Express card. Another thing I noticed about Spanish and French drivers is that they do not stay in their own lane. Overall I liked the French drivers better though. Since I was a long time commercial driver I tend to pick up on bad habits of drivers around me.

When you enter a town on a main highway and are planning to continue on the same highway at the other end of town, be prepared for all references to that highway to disappear. This will cause you to think you missed a turn; but if it's obvious that you are on a main through street, you probably haven't. When you get to the other end of town, the sign for your highway will reappear. I've never used a GPS; but I expect that if you have one, this phenomenon won't be an issue.