Tips for driving in France
From St Rémy to Avignon, now we're back in New Zealand, a lot of people have asked me about driving in France, so here goes:
Get the smallest car you can: otherwise prepare to walk a lot as in many small towns you won’t be able to fit down the laneways! Or get a park!- GPS is a must: a few wrong turns but trust it even when it directs you under a 1.3 metre high underpass and you think there is no way it’s a road, in France it actually is!
- Ensure you have a payWave credit card: tolls are everywhere, you take a ticket getting onto the motorway (autoroute in French) and pay when you get off so just swipe using payWave is so much easier!
- You have to pay for parking at most tourist destinations: again, payWave credit cards are the easiest, also for filling up with petrol.
- Drive with confidence: there are plenty of places to stop if you get confused, while French drivers may beep at you if you get it wrong they generally let you in.
- Most difficult place to navigate: inside walled city of Avignon. Easiest - French Riviera.
- Driving gives you great freedom to spend as much or as less time at each destination.
- Sometimes in towns there are bollards: you think you can’t drive down a street however, when you drive near them, they retract into the ground allowing you through.
Amazing how you can be in a crowded bistro one minute then a deserted 13th-century deserted street the next.
Wishing all our clients a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2020. Please note that Alliotts' office will be closed from midday 23 December 2019 and reopens 13 January 2020. We thank you for supporting us during 2019 and we hope that 2020 brings you inspiration, bravery and opportunities for growth and success!
#drivinglaFrance #provence #frenchriviera