Driving in France

[Railwaygun]

No-one has mentioned the thing I've always found most useful when driving abroad: a wife who automatically says every time you join a road or reach a junction,"You are looking left; you are driving on the right!" 
Last week in Invergary I managed to attract the attention of a French driver just before he drove round a corner into an oncoming lorry.  A quick swerve to the left and he survived. 

A post- it note on the wheel ( drive on the right) is useful.

[njee20]

I've never had a problem with being on the right for normal driving, when I tend to forget is in car parks or little single track roads when you have to pull in to let people past, I often end up going left if I'm in my own car, a LHD car is sufficient reminder not to! Always been met with a slightly bemused French driver who passes on the 'wrong' side and carries on!

[weave]

Hi all,

Bit of an aside story from years ago but I drove a previous girlfriend and another couple of friends round Brittany for 2 weeks with no problems. Got back to England and drove the couple to Heathrow as they were flying on to Ireland.

I was shattered so asked the then girlfriend if she would drive home. She had been doing the 'think right' and 'careful'  warnings for me for 2 weeks and it had obviously been installed in her brain as at the large roundabout for the M25 near Staines, as I nodded off, she went right 

Luckily it was late and there wasn't much traffic. No one was hurt but it confused the hell out of a Polish lorry that had just come off the motorway. I didn't sleep until we got home.

Cheers weave 

[Newportnobby]

More years ago than I care to remember my mate and I toured Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and France in 3 weeks on our motorbikes and, on arrival back at Dover, I just rode up the hill out of town on the right hand side of the road. It seemed the natural thing to do!

[bob lawrence]

Any old  bulb set will do! I have a Peugeot ( spell checked) set in my Jazz
Glove pocket

Apparently not, checked what spare bulbs I already had and was two short. One was H1 headlight obtained from Halfords, the other was HP24, indicator, this one


But the bulb was orange on the one I wanted. Well what a job I had, Had to go to Citroen in the end and even they had trouble identifying it, no kidding. Quoted me £36. I had an idea it would be expensive as I had been looking on Google but not that much. After having checked it was reduced to £18, it looks like it's in two parts, the bulb and the holder. In the end it had to be ordered from Citroen and will be here about 9 in the morning.
I know I've left it a bit late (slapped wrist) but I thought 'just a bulb'. We have all day to travel down to Portsmouth so no problem.
Once again thanks to all for your comments.

[joe cassidy]

Bob the best advice is "be careful".

The statistics speak for themselves - French roads are more dangerous than UK roads.

Also, the French do still not understand that drinking and driving is dangerous.

Losing your licence is not  a deterrent.

If you lose your licence you can buy a 4 wheel car with a tiny petrol engine that can be driven without a licence, a bit like the Reliant 3-wheeler in the "good old days".

Best regards;



Joe

[daffy]

In today's BBC new roundup on my iPad is this article about the current change in speed limits on French rural roads, lowering the 90kph limit to 80kph between now and July 1st:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44472557

Don't get caught out!

Article contains interesting stats about European roads.