French driving

[ajp70]

What experience do you have of the crazy French?

Don't get me wrong, I love the French people I have met and their hospitality has been outstanding and humbling but... their driving is scary.

Tailgating, overtaking on blind hills and bends and last time I remember having to take to the grass verge as an oncoming small Renault understeered on a bend following two British sports cars. (This is my LeMans trips I'm refering to). Another point is that I've seen bikers pulling weelies (generally riding) whilst wearing shorts and T shirts. That makes me cringe.

[Steve_T]

Try Belgium - much worse!

[so called]

Sorry Rens but Holland

[heebeegeetee]

Tailgating aside, i think they're much better than the us Brits, though the stats don't support this.

[ajcj]

Interesting experience a few weekends ago, driving up to Le Havre from the Vendee on a Sunday. The autoroute traffic was fairly sparse but lane discipline was excellent, everyone indicated to show their intentions, lorries banned on Sundays so no elephant racing up hills, a very pleasant experience, until I got to Le Mans where the Classic Le Mans mob were joining the road. Lane hogging, tailgating, undertaking, swerving, late braking, all the bad habits were from British cars, and you'd expect the kind of person attending that event to be a cut above the average too.

[Simon says]

Don't think they are much worse than the morons over here.

[macar]

ajcj said:

Interesting experience a few weekends ago, driving up to Le Havre from the Vendee on a Sunday. The autoroute traffic was fairly sparse but lane discipline was excellent, everyone indicated to show their intentions, lorries banned on Sundays so no elephant racing up hills, a very pleasant experience, until I got to Le Mans where the Classic Le Mans mob were joining the road. Lane hogging, tailgating, undertaking, swerving, late braking, all the bad habits were from British cars, and you'd expect the kind of person attending that event to be a cut above the average too.

Totally agree with your comments- when you're over there on a bike they give total respect, even driving on the verge to let you past when there's oncoming. Best of all though is how they handle accidents, they close the road for 20-30 minutes (all the Frogs get out their cars and picnic/chat) then the road reopens with no apparent sign of the crash. If it was Blighty, there would be 20 or so Civil Servants having coffees, chatting and then forming committees so decide on the best course of action. The road would be closed for several hours (to ensure overtime clicks in), by which time there would be several more pile ups due to the conjestion caused.
Another good proceedure the French have is to a vehicle reversing up the hard shoulder with its warning board flashing to indicate conjestion. Why don't the idiots in the police lookalike 4x4s do that instead of just sitting around in police patrol areas daydreaming of being a real cop one day.

[heebeegeetee]

macar said:

Totally agree with your comments- when you're over there on a bike they give total respect, even driving on the verge to let you past when there's oncoming.

I'd forgotten about that. Yes, they're very respectful to cyclists, and joggers too, i found. I've also experienced other drivers moving over to let me past in my MX5 (of all things ) afew times. They like sports cars over there.

Tbh, i've had some bloody good times in France. They're all right.

[GingerWizard]

Steve_T said:

Try Belgium - much worse!

60% of people born in Belgium admit given the choice they would rather have been born in another country.......

They have low expectancy levels..... its a sand/ball pit for germany......

[Gazzab]

So long as you keep out of their way and dont get agitated then its fine but be prepared for tailgating and undertaking and lights flashing. The driving culture is much more emotional than the culture in the UK. But as they have more room the overall effect is a pleasant one.

[ajp70]

Yes, I agree, there are crazies in all nations but I think I have met all the French ones. I took my generous hosts out in my car and burned rubber and swepped a nice left right to return a favour.

[Flintstone]

The indicator thing when passing other vehicles on the autoroute?

They're already tanking along in the outside lane, as they approach vehicles in the nearside lane they put their indicator on then off again once past but don't then move over.

What's all that about?

[heebeegeetee]

Flintstone said:

The indicator thing when passing other vehicles on the autoroute?

They're already tanking along in the outside lane, as they approach vehicles in the nearside lane they put their indicator on then off again once past but don't then move over.

What's all that about?

Just to make them more visible and to let you know they're getting a move on and that they'd rather you didn't pull out. The Germans do it too, (well, i dare say it's done throughout the continent) but it works better in Germany 'cos obviously there's a likelihood of a great variety of speeds being used.

It's a system that works well, I like it.

[Flintstone]

I seriously doubt that a flashing 2" light, low down and in a rear view mirror makes that much of a difference to be honest.