David's Diary: Monday, July 30, 2001

Driving In France

Yesterday we watched Le Tour De France. Racers travel on D-roads. These are tiny secondary roads, only two lanes wide, that run throughout the countryside. Because we are living in the countryside, we too get to travel on the D-roads. Only we do so in a van that can hold five people plus all of our luggage. I think you might be better off on a bicycle.

Some roads have trees lining the road within feet of the shoulder. Or what would be the shoulder if one exists. While some drivers slow down through villages others seem to speed up. And if trees were not bad enough, many villages are lined with stone walls that seem to close in on you as a huge bus approaches from the opposite direction.

Stone Walls Surround The Road

There are only two rules for French drivers -- the person on the right has right-of-way unless the person is inside a roundabout (if you are in a roundabout you have right-of-way, although it never feels like it). That's just about it. While the rules are simple, to survive one must use more aggressive driving habits than what we are used to in Western Canada. You might never manage a lane chance if you don't just inch your way into the lane until someone gives way.

Karalee and have learned though about 10,000 kilometers of driving in Europe that things work best if I navigate and she drives. With all of the traveling we have been doing around Paris I have had to concentrate intensely to navigate us through the countryside, around Paris, and off to monuments and sites. Highway road signs give directions in terms of the next destination. This works most of the time, but can be a challenge when you've no idea where the road that leads off your map ends up. So far, we've always arrived back home, but after a long day of driving we're both ready to put our feet up.