Getting lost in France: lessons learned behind the wheel

During the last week and a half, my wife and I drove from Paris to the Normandy Region of France, to Bruges and Gent in Belgium, then back to Paris.

I’ve motored across the US several times, throughout Scotland and the UK, in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and many other countries. They were easy compared to France and Paris, and it has nothing to do with language.

For Americans, and others, if I can give you just one tip about driving in France, it’s get a GPS. Paraphrasing the American Express tagline, “Don’t leave home without one.”

We’ve been to Paris before and were aware of how quickly street names change here, sometimes right in the middle of blocks. It can be very disconcerting, and confusing, especially if you’re trying to drive and simultaneously read a map. Add in difficult traffic and the free-for-all atmosphere of the roads here, and you can quickly find yourself in trouble.

Oh, did I mention the motorcycles here?

In Europe, fuel is very expensive. If you haven’t been out of the US, you have no idea how inexpensive our fuel is. I had a little car, and paid as much as $100 to “fill it up.” To save on fuel costs, motorcycles are heavily used in France, and the rules of the road are apparently suspended for them. Driving in Paris, and elsewhere in France, you’ll encounter motorcycles rocketing down crowded streets and highways, on both sides of cars, in between lanes, on the wrong side of the road, and weaving all around.

Until you’ve driven in that chaos, you have no idea how crazy it can get.

Use a GPS to lead you through the streets and highways, to make finding your way easy. I used my Garmin Nuvi with a Western European chip. Bring backup maps, just in case, but hope you never need them.

France’s highway designators are similar to the US’s. France’s Autoroutes, mostly toll roads, are numbered with an “A” prefix, like the US’s “I” for Interstate highways.

France has N designated National routes, similar to the routes in the States designated with “US.” France’s “D” routes are similar to “State” routes in the US. And of course, France, like the US, has many country roads, of which some are one lane wide.

In driving more than 1,100 kilometers on the “A” roads I have only three complaints.

First, “A” route shoulders are generally too narrow to pull your car over to safely change a tire, for example. There are periodic extra wide portions of the shoulder, but in this columnist’s opinion they are too few and far between.

Second, the toll system itself is confusing for non-European drivers. Each “toll plaza” is a mishmash of some combination of human toll takers, credit/debit card machines, toll ticket (t) issuing machines, and télébadge (automatic electronic payment transponders like EZ Pass in the States and apparently unavailable for rental cars) lanes.

You never know which types of “toll booths” will be available to you at each toll plaza. I can’t tell you how many times I saw travelers back out of a toll lane because they were in the wrong one, or because their credit cards didn’t work. That’s really dangerous.

• I encountered a couple of toll plazas which hadn’t closed an unmanned toll booth lane and had to back out myself to pay another way.

• US credit cards aren’t like the European “chip and pin” cards. Ours only have magnetic strips. While my cards worked, I’ve heard from other Americans whose cards didn’t work in “A” route toll booths.

• The “A” route ticket system is great, but it doesn’t always work for non-Europeans. You get a ticket at one toll plaza and pay the appropriate amount at the next. The problem is when you’ve got to pay, if there are no manned booths what if your credit card doesn’t work? You’ve got to sit at the toll booth for at least several minutes waiting for help. It’s not a good situation.

When driving on the Autoroutes be prepared with Euros, a credit or debit card which works in Europe, and carefully read the electronic signs designating open toll booths and their type.

Third, there doesn’t seem to be any enforcement of speed laws on either the “A” or “N” roads. I didn’t see a single police vehicle on these roads during my entire trip. The speed on the “A” routes is generally 130 kph (81 mph) which is what I traveled at. I’d estimate about 25% of the cars were going at least 25 kph more, and 10% traveled at less than 90 kph. That’s a 65 kph (40 mph) difference, way too much for a safe roadway.

In my opinion, France needs to start writing tickets for speeding, driving too slowly, and reckless driving (motorcycles), permit télébadge for rental cars, and widen their road’s shoulders.