French Connection 2

How We Will Drive

It's looking like we are going to have a fair few cars at SM5. We don't want to attract the wrong kind of attention. We will have to stick to speed limits, particularly on major roads. Fortunately the limits are quite generous, particularly on the Motorways

With this many obvious cars we will be stopped by the police at some point. Please be careful.

Here is a link to a recent discussion on S2ki

Pushing It

We do have a lot of miles to cover though and I'm anxious to make the most of our available time. So we could push the limits a bit. The S2000 speedo reads about 5% below so we can go up a little on what is read. I reccomend that we travel at about 140 on Motorways and still be safe. I may even push this a bit.

When not to Push It

Any temporary restrictions must be observed eg roadworks, accidents etc.

Also in towns. French towns all have an implicit 50kmph limit even if there is not one posted. We'll have to be careful about this one.

About Driving in France

French Roads

French roads are less busy in general than roads in the UK. This makes for some great driving. Roads are also less organised. Traffic lights may not have stop lines and major junctions have no lane markings. All this leads to a more "free for all" attitude to driving. All cars in France have dents in them. It's expected.

The French and Cars

The French have quite a different attitude to cars. A car is just to get you from A to B. They don't have the same car culture and flashy sports cars are very rare. Expect to get looked at a lot

How the French Drive

Roundabouts are a real problem. There is nothing that can be assumed about the intended exit to a roundabout from the signals a car is showing

Motorways are usually very empty and at these times they seem like safe roads. When they get busy you will see driving of a far lower standard than that in the UK - stopping distances are ignored and whole streams of traffic will travel bumper to bumper at 140kmph.

When overtaking its normal to leave your indicator on (and if someone is behind you and has their indicator on, they wish to get past you)

Europeans always tend to make room for bikes something UK drivers don't do...

French Police

French Police can be seriously nasty and regard this as part of their job. On the spot fines are common, and they can demand that you bring all sorts of documents to the Police Station, or make you destroy illicit property (e.g. radar detectors) or even confiscate your car!

Info from Kelk:

Apparently the ECM stuff about destroying at the roadside is true and they have had a major campaign on enforcing the already in place laws. The police have been known of late to confiscate cars travelling too quickly, say above 100mph on the motorway and they have two main types of mobile "gatso".

1) A cop stands at the side of the road with what looks like a pair or binoculars and then radios to his colleague on a bike 2 miles down the road who picks you up.

2) A small roadside device, which looks like a home barbecue, about 2 feet high on tripod-esque legs, usually under a bridge with a cop car not far behind in the lay-by / bushes.

His advice to me was to go carefully as the press in France, and therefore the French public, are loving the foreigners getting caught