2hours in Monaco - tips?

2hours in Monaco - tips?

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nobrakes

Original Poster:

3,310 posts

205 months

Sunday 9th August 2015
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Tips on short trip to Monaco?

Coming from the Nice direction on the motorway. We Just want to do the hairpins before the tunnel, then the tunnel and maybe stop for a coffee or a quick nice view stop, before doubling back to nice.

Any tips on the best junction off the motorway or a stop off point?

slf2012

313 posts

153 months

Saturday 15th August 2015
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Have you considered parking the car and walking round the track? You'll get a better feeling for the ambience of the place rather than just driving round it, although that is also worth doing.

When driving, just be careful of who has priority at junctions! It's easy to forget that you have to give way at certain points.

Driving from Nice, have you thouht about taking the coast road than the motorway? It's a far nicer drive, and you'll probably pass some nice machinery en route.


nobrakes

Original Poster:

3,310 posts

205 months

Friday 4th September 2015
quotequote all
Thanks for that. All I did was type in hotel de Paris and the start of the tunnel on the sat nav. Brief, but great fun.

Top tip: get there as early in the day as you can.

MitchT

16,233 posts

216 months

Friday 4th September 2015
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slf2012 said:
When driving, just be careful of who has priority at junctions! It's easy to forget that you have to give way at certain points.
Would the obligation to give way not be evidenced by signage and road markings, or is it simply that these are there but lack clarity?

thefrog

341 posts

226 months

Friday 4th September 2015
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There are stop and give way signs, as well as strips on the road, but in the absence of any (which happens), it's priority to the right.

Some people are intelligent and check before taking ownership of their right of way, others assume that it's theirs and won't stop or slow down.

My rule (I live here) is that if there are no clear indications and there is a road/path/lane to the right, it's best assume something might come out of it at speed and slow down in preparation smile

Fatt McMissile

330 posts

140 months

Friday 4th September 2015
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In French (and presumably Monaco's) built up areas it is wise to assume junctions are priorité à droite unless they are clearly marked otherwise. It's a major principle of the highway code in France.
In many regions junctions are being re-created as PAD as a traffic calming measure.
Steve
edit - beaten to it by Frog!

MitchT

16,233 posts

216 months

Friday 4th September 2015
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Fascinating stuff. Seems totally counter intuitive, so well worth knowing about as it would never occur to me if someone hadn't told me and there were no signs or markings.

thefrog

341 posts

226 months

Saturday 5th September 2015
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In addition to this, there are a few places where roundabouts have right of way to the right (I only know of three: place de l'etoile in Paris, one south of Paris and another in Auvergne, but I am sure there are more), meaning traffic joining the roundabout has right of way over those already on the roundabout !

You'll know it's the case if there isn't a dotted line when joining the roundabout and the dotted lines are on the roundabout itself before any entry onto it.

They are thankfully the exception rather than the norm.

trunnie

308 posts

264 months

Saturday 5th September 2015
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There are quite a lot of the reversed priority roundabouts around Paris, the plain white line across the middle of the roundabout as you drive around it is also a pointer that you don't have priority. The annoying thing is that some suburbs use a lot of these and some use ordinary roundabout priority, I suppose it makes you pay attention.

thefrog

341 posts

226 months

Saturday 5th September 2015
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Another couple of things I've thought about this afternoon that are a bit different to UK driving.

-Headlamp flashing: In France that usually means get out of my way rather than the polite "letting you through". Learnt the hard way going along the motorway and flashing a car coming up the slip road to tell him it was ok to slip in front of me. He slowed, I slowed and flashed more, he slowed more... until we were more or less side by side crawling along and running out of slip road !

-Negotiating roundabouts: Some people have apparently been taught to drive round a roundabout on the outside if they're exiting between 6 and 12 o'clock from their entry onto the roundabout, or unsure which exit to take... my mind boggles as to why anyone would want to do that, so beware cars on your right on a roundabout, never assume they're coming off !

Fatt McMissile

330 posts

140 months

Sunday 6th September 2015
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thefrog said:
-Negotiating roundabouts: Some people have apparently been taught to drive round a roundabout on the outside if they're exiting between 6 and 12 o'clock from their entry onto the roundabout, or unsure which exit to take... my mind boggles as to why anyone would want to do that, so beware cars on your right on a roundabout, never assume they're coming off !
Funny that, I thought it was just around here. In one of our local cities, Vannes, it's similar to your description except many will use the outside lane for all the exits from 6 to 6, but in Nantes everyone seems to use roundabouts as we do. I don't think some roundabouts have lanes wide enough for big trucks to mingle correctly with other traffic though.....Leaves plenty of room for some carving up though wink
Steve

mikey77

707 posts

195 months

Sunday 6th September 2015
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Fatt McMissile said:
thefrog said:
-Negotiating roundabouts: Some people have apparently been taught to drive round a roundabout on the outside if they're exiting between 6 and 12 o'clock from their entry onto the roundabout, or unsure which exit to take... my mind boggles as to why anyone would want to do that, so beware cars on your right on a roundabout, never assume they're coming off !
It's in the French Code de la Route...

thefrog

341 posts

226 months

Sunday 6th September 2015
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mikey77 said:
It's in the French Code de la Route...
Which is what I thought, wasn't 100% sure and hoped it wasn't taught that way anymore, clearly someone who never negotiated a roundabout came up with this stupid idea.