What I learned about parking from my driving trip to France--- I need to practice!

This made me laugh.

We recently rented a car for Normandy for 4 days. We picked up the car at the Rouen train station. The gentleman was late in waiting on us and upgraded us to a luxury size car for free.

The bigger car was great on the highway, but driving through Honfleur was a nightmare! If I was driving we wouldn't have been able to stop there as the parking spots were small. My son discovered all of the cameras and he fit that car into a spot barely larger than the car.

The car had scuffed rims and the agent emailed us photos so we could prove we didn't do it, but I am sure that the rims had more scuffs when we were done because driving that thing down the ramps of the return garage was near impossible!

I remember an underground parking garage somewhere in Spain (Salamanca, Ronda??) I finally found a vacant spot and pulled in. I was in a compact car and parked midway between the white lines as did the cars on either side of me. The problem was, I could not open the door enough to get out of the car! I ended up crawling over the seats and exiting through the hatch back. Same way I got into the car later on.

And in Catania where parking half your car on the sidewalk was a necessity. 😂 Fold those rear view mirrors in!

I have always been glad that my high school drivers ed included everything about parallel
parking and more. We were tested doing it over and over.

Try driving the narrow streets and hills of Croatia with a minivan. I couldn’t wait till we turned it in in Split. We live in Brooklyn so parking in tight spaces, parallel parking, and backing in are everyday occurrences - we drive a minivan at home. But in Croatia I was a wreck but he didn’t get one scratch on it. Whew!

Something I learned when driving in America is that you can’t parallel park on the other side of the road, ie facing into oncoming traffic. Absolutely standard in the UK but I got shouted at by a policeman for it!

Get as small of a car as possible!

And sometimes that means turning down an "upgrade"!

I really do need to practice packing into stalls—I never do it at home.

Something I learned when driving in America is that you can’t parallel
park on the other side of the road, ie facing into oncoming traffic.
Absolutely standard in the UK but I got shouted at by a policeman for
it!

I drove in Scotland and England last year and it was tough for me to accept the fact that it was OK to do that. I'd drive up and down a few blocks looking to park on the same side as traffic because it just didn't feel right to zip in on the other side.

Mike Wade, you are absolutely correct. Driver training is more extensive in most European countries than in most US states, and looking at the size of the parking places, you see one of the reasons.

We have both a garage and an underground parking space here in France. The only car that will fit in our garage is a mini VW Polo. We can get a small sedan into our parking space. We have friends in France who can't park their cars in their garages. Yes, you have to know how to park backwards to get your car out of a lot of spaces.

When I had free drivers education in the 1970's we never, ever backed into a parking spot. In fact I remember that our McDonalds drive ins didn't allow backing in!

I started practicing backing in parking yesterday!

And the next time I rent a car I am getting the smallest car possible and will refuse an offer of a free upgrade.