If anyone ever tells you that it’d be fun to take a trip to Paris in your own car don’t believe them!
Charlotte and myself went to France for a few days last week and spent two of them in Paris, the romance capital of the world. Also the road rage capital of the world.
I’m giving some tips on how to drive in Paris here as I wish someone would of warned me before I went. Someone buying me a Eurostar ticket and saying “just take the train” would of been perfect, but anyways.
Firstly. Always remember drive on the right! Something that I personally didn’t have any problem with but as someone that is used to English roads it is a rather odd feeling.
Plan. Even if you’re going on a short journey around the city it’s best if you first look at a map and plan out (with all corresponding road names/directions etc.) the way that you’re going to go. Roads in France are very badly signed and usually only noticed at the last minute. If you can, try to take a road with the least amount of changes and plan a second route! You will take a wrong turn at some point and need a backup.
Signage. As I mentioned above signs are pretty crap in France most roads don’t have directional signs until you are right on the junction at which point you will most likely be in the wrong lane. Signs follow the same sort of principle as in the UK with colours indicating the type of road. Blue is for Autoroutes (or motorway), Green for principle routes (or “N” roads which are equivalent to our “A” roads) and white signs indicate smaller roads and villages on larger routes (for example the D940 Boulonge <> Calais beach road.)
Priorité a droite! Or “Give way to the right!” Unless otherwise told (via sign etc.) you should always give way to traffic approaching on the right. However there is no set rule to when this applies and it does appear to be pretty random. One way of telling is if the road approaching from the right has a solid white line painted accross it (similar to our traffic light stop points), if the line is there then that road will not have priority. Small villages are a good place for where you’ll probably see Frenchies just pull out in front of you from the right hand side with no care in the world. They have the right of way 
Proceed with caution. The best way to drive in France is with eyes in the back of your head, watch out what everyone else on the road is doing because you can pretty much gurantee that they wont be watching you and if you get in anyone’s way then it’ll either be them slamming into you or you getting off lightly with a horn blow and rather angry French man tailgating you. You’ll probably get odd looks for being courteous and most likely get taken advantage of but as the English say “better late than not at all.”
Meep! Meep! Horn blowing is some sort of past time in France so don’t get upset if you get meeped at.
Motorcyclists/cyclists. Possibly the most suicidle people I’ve ever seen in my whole life.
The flashing orange light! From what I can gather an orange flashing light at traffic lights basically means “free for all.” Apparently it’s a pretty common signal around the world and actually means proceed with caution. Obviously, in France, that just means go if you can fit through. And the Parisians definately do, much to the horror of me!
Oh, beware of the speed cameras too. I got flashed and still worrying that I’ll get a ticket even if the internet tells me that I should be okay.
However, I do recommend taking the adventure and driving into France if you like driving, mainly for the experience. It’s made me more of a confident driver back here on English roads I think.
driving with face against the windscreen
B
