France trip

[Millwheel]

Decided to avoid the Coronation dog and pony show with a week in Normandy. Had fond memories of driving a two seater forty years ago on the French highways. Sadly disappointed to find that France now has 80km/h limits , often 70km/h, on the single highway roads and towns and villages now at 30km/h with endless speed bumps to boot. Tragedy, roads as good as before with little to no traffic but no opportunity to exploit them, at least legally. Locals seem keen to ignore the 30 limit but I got really fed up with being tailgated by them while trying to stay legal. In parts the 30 limit runs for mile after mile, utterly frustrating.. Ah well. Driving standards still awful, had several near misses with this one particularly egregious.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pli96ihc4kfo6 ... y.mov?dl=0
wide angle lens makes it look further away than it was, we were lucky to avoid a collision.
Took advice elsewhere on this forum and fitted the Emovis tag - works perfectly and makes the tollgates on the autoroute a doddle. Also bought the Critair sticker, no problem at all. France still a lovely place to visit, but expensive by UK standards.
Very few two seaters on the road, saw five Alpines, all blue, and just one white F-type roadster in Deauville. Didn’t respond to a wave.
Car got a lot of admiring glances from passers-by though I doubt many knew what it was. Waze worked perfectly under CarPlay and does advise fixed camera locations but not reliably. Didn’t see many fixed cameras but they all seemed different designs and their function wasn’t obvious, unlike ours. Road surfaces variable, many as bad as ours, others billiard table smooth. Autoroutes excellent. Fuel stations few and far between off the autoroutes, mostly supermarket located. 98 octane available at all the ones we stopped at.
Brittany Ferries to Caen comfortable and reasonably priced. Normandy has much to offer and makes a pleasant short break from the UK. We got a weeks luggage in the boot with space to spare and we go well equipped. Need to plan the next trip now, Brittany perhaps.
One item of advice - it’s possible to park in front of the palace at Versailles which is great but so is the price - we paid €21.60!
Also note that card payments now pervasive, I think we used cash once. Keep a few euro coins for the occasional parking meter though, a couple didn’t like my card.

[Kevlcat]

Hi,

Last time I drove in France (E92, 330M-Sport) about 10yrs ago we went to Champagne for an anniversary. It was pretty much the same then. They even timed you between tolls !!!

First big road trip in the F Type coming up end of June to County Kerry in Ireland as brother lives there, can’t wait.

Then another trip to Highlands in September, but focussing on Cairngorms and planning the old military road from Blairgowrie to Grantown on Spey on one day and can’t wait

South of France next year maybe?

[Millwheel]

Did Kerry last year but was disappointed. The Ring is narrow, the road surface is dreadful in places and the coaches are driven regardless of other traffic. They all go one way round (anti-clockwise) so make sure you go the other way! The key is to start really early before the coach passengers have finished their breakfast and then you can enjoy the scenery a bit, otherwise it’s like wacky races.

Roads in the West generally narrow, many cramped towns/villages to navigate and again road surfaces often terrible so build in plenty of time to get where you want to go. Local driving standards not good and watch out for agricultural vehicles which mostly use the side lanes present on all main roads. Surprisingly, petrol widely available unlike UK. Also stout of course…

[jonm]

Last time I was in france in the Indre-et-Loire area I found the standard of french driving no Issue, Certainly no worse than British drivers.
Your right about the speed limits, they are a bit over the top and no-body observes them, I just do what the locals do and go with the flow of the traffic, if the locals are sticking to the limit on a stretch of road you know thats where the cameras are.
I'm not worried about getting caught speeding as you can't get points on your license, just a fine, just don't take the piss, do as the locals do.
In general I find the experience of driving in France a pleasure.

[Cawenil]

In 2021, I was in the Louvre. It is one of the largest museums in the world, located on the right bank of the Seine in the first arrondissement of Paris. I really liked it there.