Driving in France

If you drive regularly in the Philippines, you will have no problem driving in France.

Just like in our country, people in France drive on the right side of the road, their rental cars are left-hand drive (steering wheel is on the left side of the car), distance is measured in kilometers and fuel in liters.

Your concern is to know where you are supposed to go, make sure that you drive within the speed limit, and have your credit card or cash ready for the toll payments. 

Of course, a rental car equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) is crucial, but sometimes, the software is not updated so it will help to have a back-up via your phone’s more updated app like Google Maps for Android, and Maps for Apple devices.

Hubby and I are a team when driving abroad. He does all the driving, while I take some load off his shoulders by familiarizing myself with the route so that I can have him take the appropriate lane well before the exit, direct him where needed at the smaller roads which are dotted with roundabouts (rotonda in the Philippines), remind him of speed limits which can go as low as 30 kms./hr. to 50, 70 and 80 in just minutes in small roads, and as high as 130 in major roads.

It is my sister-in-law from the US who books us a rental car via Alamo. There are four of us, so it is economically feasible and convenient to drive to the places in our itinerary.

Do we need an international driving permit to drive in France? All our research says no, but we decide to still get one because it had been required when hubby also drove a rental car in a previous trip to Germany. 

Alamo, along with other car rental offices, is in a low building just outside CDG’s Terminal 2. Hubby presents his Philippines driver’s license to the Alamo service personnel who looks at it, declares it “OK, but do you have an international driving permit?”  

Maybe the Alamo guy just wants to make sure of hubby’s driving credentials, maybe it’s not really needed, but we present the permit from the Automobile Association of the Philippines and feel good about the P4,144 we spent to get it.

Hubby with the DS7 Opera in a field of calzo or rapeseed.

Hubby familiarizes himself with the car controls. He is excited about driving a DS7 Opera, an SUV created and designed in Paris by DS Automobiles.  He test drives the car in the adjoining parking lot before he announces he is ready to go.

It’s a lot of driving as we go from the airport to Giverny, Rouen, Honfleur, Dinan, Mont-Saint-Michel, and Amboise before returning the car to the Alamo branch in Montparnasse back in Paris. 

We take the A13 from Giverny to Rouen.

We use A roads (motorways or autoroutes), N roads or national strategic truck routes, D roads or departmental (county) roads and small lanes. I realize that the road we are on can change from N to D without warning, and that even its number can change so I look for the destination on the signs rather than road numbers.

Also, motorways can fork into two or three roads, which can be confusing so it helps if you keep the destination in mind rather than the road number which can appear on not just one, but two of the signs for these roads. Thank God for Google Maps, and Maps. I check both apps frequently to make sure we are taking the right route.

All types of payments are accepted at the booths with a green arrow/Orange 't' symbol.
Photo credit: Tom Brosnahan via "How to Pay Highway Tolls in France". 

There are tolls on all motorways in France. It is important to know which booth to enter. Since we do not have coins on us, we look for a booth with a credit card illustration or one with a green arrow which means that all types of payment are accepted - credit/debit cards, euro cash, and télépéage (automatic payment), indicated by the Orange 't' symbol. We enter and take a ticket from a machine. We deduce, correctly, that we pay upon exit.

Did I mention the roundabouts? I have lost count of the number of roundabouts we’ve had to go around on our drives from one city or town or commune to another. According to a September 22, 2023 article by DiscoverCars.com, France tops all countries with a total of 42,986 roundabouts. I totally believe it.

Photo taken from www.eco-innov.com

What’s remarkable, though, is that while some roundabouts are big, visible and hard to miss, there are quite a number that look like slightly raised circles. I tell hubby that in the Philippines, trucks would just go over these circles to beat heavy traffic.  But in France, the cars carefully round the slightly raised round indentation in the middle of an intersection.

This type of chicane narrows the road, forcing us
to slow down to pass through or give way to
oncoming traffic. Photo credit: Rosehill Highways

I learn that roundabouts are part of traffic calming, which is the deliberate slowing of traffic in residential areas. In some back roads, we notice a series of alternating mid-block curb extensions or islands that narrow the roadway and require vehicles to follow a curving, S-shaped path, discouraging speeding. These are called chicanes.

We'll take this two-way road anytime.

We are unfazed by tiny country roads, used as we are to our small, two-way roads where we battle with motorcycles, pedestrians, cars, trisikads, bicycles and electric scooters for every square inch.

It may seem like a lot to take in, so it helps if you read up on what to expect while driving in France. In our case, it’s best to have someone else doing all the navigating (and guesswork hehehe) so you can just focus on driving.

One last thing. When refueling, remember that diesel is gazole, gasoline is petrol and there are no pump attendants – none at least in the stations where we refueled. You pump fuel first then give your pump number to the cashier, who will know how much to charge you. 

Yes, we are spoiled in the Philippines.