Quiet country roads....
Gitelink
is
a fully independent directory of selected French holiday cottages and
gites to rent directly from their owners
Specific directory pages also provide travellers with a selection of
independent
hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation for short stopovers or
longer stays.
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DRIVING IN
FRANCE
Today's
France has an excellent road
network; but do not forget that France is a big country, and while
there is generally less congestion on the
roads than in England or Holland, distances can be longer. Allow at
least ten hours for the
journey between Calais and the Mediterranean. Depending on the route
taken, the speed you drive, and the destination, it could be a lot
more.
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Getting to
your destination In spite of the
tolls, it is usually best to use the French motorway system (autoroutes)
specially if your holiday time is limited. However, you can cut your
costs by following a few tips.
a)
Petrol
(gasolene) (fr. essence):
motorway filling stations generally charge premium rates, so fill up
off the motorway. You can usually find a superstore offering cut-price
petrol close to a major motorway exit.
b)
Use free motorways where they exist, or motorway-standard
dual carriageways (divided highways).
Click here for a list of the main free
motorways in France.
Note: New
driving legislation.
As from September 2008, all vehicles using French roads must carry a
fluorescent waiscoat or jacket, that must be put on in the event
breakdown before the driver leaves the vehicle. The jacket must be
carried in the car, not in the boot. Drivers not carrying the item face
an on-the-spot fine if stopped by police. The jacket is also obligatory
in a growing number of other European countries. |
Overnight
stopovers
There are plenty of hotels sited close to motorway exits, notably
modern national chains such as Etap, Formule 1, Campanile, Ibis and
others. But if you prefer a quiet location a few miles off the
motorway, come off at a minor exit, and look for a B&B or small
hotel. Alternatively click here to find some B&B's near French motorways
. Booking in advance is advisable if you are travelling during
a
summer weekend.or in a peak holiday period. At other times, it's
usually no problem just to show up.
Avoid
Paris
Unless you feel quite at home on busy urban motorways, or the risk of
horrendous jams at busy periods, Paris and its Boulevard
Périphérique are to be avoided. Indeed, they are
best
left far away. Avoid Paris by skirting well to the west, or well to the
east, depending on your destination. Click here for details of routes
avoiding Paris.
Avoid
congestion
If you
can avoid travelling on Saturdays in July and August, this
is very advisable. On these days, many French motorways - and in
particular all
the routes to and from the south - are liable to get snarled up in
places. The worst
bottlenecks
are in the Rhone valley south of Lyons, along the south
coast, and around Bordeaux.
Traffic can also be very congested at
times of bank
holidays (jours fériés), notably Easter, 1st May,
8th
May, and "Toussaint" (1st November); French bank holidays do not
necessarily fall on a Monday. The weekends closest to the two
summer bank holidays (14th July and 15th August) tend to be
particularly busy.
In January and February, Alpine
motorways can get
hyper-snarled up with ski traffic.
At other times of the year, Saturdays
and Sundays are the best
days to travel on French roads, as most HGVs (lorries, trucks) are
banned on the French road network from Saturday 10 pm to Sunday 10 pm,
and on public holidays. Click here to check out busy
holiday periods and weeks in 2009.
If time is not an issue, and
you are just looking for relaxed motoring in or through France, the
network of secondary roads can offer a wonderful way to see the
country; except in the vicinity of big towns, many secondary roads are
under-used, and largely free of lorries and trucks. The main
obstacles may come in the form of combined harvesters (in season),
other agricultural vehicles, or slow-moving camper-vans.
Finding
your route
Road
numbering in France: Except on motorways, the French do
not attach such importance to road
numbers as the British or Americans do; so the rule is to
follow a destinationrather
than a number. Motorways have numbers starting with A, such
as
A26; strategic trunk roads, called "routes nationales" have numbers
starting with N, for example N13; but the once dense network of "routes
nationales" has been greatly reduced in recent years, and a lot of
former "N" roads are now "D" roads, meaning roads whose upkeep is the
responsibility of the local authorities.
As in the UK, motorway destination signs are white
on a blue background, main trunk road signs are white
on a green background.
A few cities (Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux,
Toulouse)
tend to be indicated on road signs over very long distances on main
routes; but apart from these, and on less major routes, signs may just
point to the next medium-sized town along the way, even if the road
itself goes all the way across France. It's fine for the locals (who
make up most of the traffic), but not very helpful for long-distance
travellers, who tend to be those who have greatest need
of route
signs. A map, or Satnav (known as a GPS in France) is
therefore
useful.
Like the UK, France has a system of alternative holiday
routes;
these are known as "routes bis" (i.e. b routes). They tend to be
cross-country routes, using roads with few lorries – though
this
is not always the case. "Route bis" destination
signs , like
main roads, are white
on a green background, and they often indicate
fairly distant destinations, such as Perpignan, Lyon or Bayonne.
Speed
limits
BE
WARNED! Until
2007, cars registered outside France generally avoided getting speeding
tickets when flashed by a roadside speed camera. This is no longer the
case. New agreements between European police forces now mean that
details of any car caught speeding can be sent through to the offending
motorist; the system is not yet 100% operational, but the risk is
there. If you are flashed by a manned, rather than automatic, speed
camera, you may be stopped regardless of the nationality of your
vehicle; you may face an on-the-spot fine or, if guilty of very high
speed, the immediate impounding of your vehicle.
Speed on French motorways is limited to 130 km/hr (just over
80
mph) - and in places less. On dual carriageways, the limit is 110
km/hr, and on ordinary
roads it is 90 km/hr. In built-up areas, the speed limit is 50 km/hr,
or sometimes 70. Beware
of speed cameras. Over a
thousand of these have now gone up on France's roads and motorways, and
you can find the official
French radar map
of them on Internet. However, do not forget that new radars are being
set up all the time, and that the official map obviously does
not
include the mobile radar cars or the movable stationary radars. So the
best rule - not to say the most sensible one - is to observe the speed
limit.
Crawler lanes on French motorways; the speed limit for crawler lanes is
60 km.h (Article R43/9 of French highway code). It appears that police
in Normandy have been fining foreign drivers on the spot for exceeding
this speed limit.
Car insurance:
Technically, if you have UK registered car, you do not need a
green card to travel within the European Union, just your national car
insurance certificate.
Your insurer should be able to provide you at no cost with a "European
accident statement form", which should be used if you are involved in
an
accident (see below). However, standard UK insurance generally
only
provides third-party cover once outside the UK; if this is the case,
if you want full comprehensive cover, you will need to get the extra
cover from your UK insurer for the time you plan to stay abroad.
Consult your insurance company on this matter, or click here for the
AA.
What
to do if you are involved in an accident
in France
If you are involved in any accident with a French car, you
will be asked to fill in a "constat amiable" (an amiable declaration)
by
the driver of the other car involved. This is a routine
procedure.
If possible, call your insurance company at once
on your mobile phone. They may put you in touch with a local French
representative.
If you are involved in an accident involving any
sort of
injury - even if it is not your fault - you MUST remain until
the
police have come.
If your car is immobilized on the open road, due
to an accident or breakdown, you must put up your hazard
warning triangle at a suitable distance behind your
vehicle. All cars travelling in France must carry a hazard warning
triangle.
Driving at
night in France
If you plan to do any night time driving in a vehicle with normal UK
right-hand drive, you must get beam deflectors for your headlights. UK
headlights dip to the left - which is fine in the UK, but means that
they dip into the view of oncoming traffic when you're driving on the
right. Deflectors can be bought form any motoring accessory store, or
you can simply stick a bit of black tape on the spot
indicated. On some vehicles, headlights have an adjusting screw for
this purpose. (Incidentally, continentals coming to the UK do not need
to adjust their headlights, as on the Continent headlights simply dip
vertically.)
In theory, all vehicles driving in France must carry a spare set of
lightbulbs - even though replacing them is now often a garage job !
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