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Post by Dweenimus on May 9, 2016 20:31:54 GMT
So, I have officially booked a Ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo in France for a week away to the gf's Dad's place. Anybody got any advice? I've never done it before. Abroad, other side of the road etc and I'll be taking the MX5. I'll be upgrading the breakdown cover for a start. What else??  |
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Post by sandys on May 9, 2016 20:55:33 GMT
Check the AA site it will tell you all you need, stuff like bulbs and breakdown gear are mandatory in some places.
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Post by atlex on May 9, 2016 21:00:41 GMT
you can be fined if you do not possess: breathalizer tube, high-viz top, triangle.
otherwise, they're ok. remmember there that the cops are all effectively part of the military, so non-civlian.
in opening conversation with them the magic words are 'bonjour monsieur le flique, parlez-vous anglais ?' the flique is pronounced like "freak".
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Post by atlex on May 9, 2016 21:16:27 GMT
*cough* don't call them mr. flique, it's effectively like calling one of ours "mrs jam sandwich" or "mr popo". haha.
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Post by wannabe on May 10, 2016 8:09:15 GMT
IIRC the breathalysers or Hi-viz thing has changed recently (as in no longer needed) but I can't remember...
If you do take Hi-viz, they have to be in the cabin and not in the boot.
Also, do not use a radar detector or a sat-nav with camera detection enabled - they apparently make you drive over it if they catch you using it...
Don't forget town/village speed limits start at the town sign and finish at the other side where the town name is crossed out on a sign.
You will find that motorway lane discipline should be a lot better, and it seems that the trick over there is to leave your indicator on while overtaking then come straight back in again, which I think is a good idea. Leaving indicators on might stop all these moronic Canoewits hogging the middle lane for mile after mile over here... grrrrrr.
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Post by zoona on May 10, 2016 8:10:30 GMT
Don't be put off when people drive 3cm from your rear bumper on the motorway. It means you should be pulling back in Enjoy the largely good behaviour and low levels of traffic on said motorway. People will drive into your car when parallel parking. They will not apologise, and they will think you are odd when you get upset. Basically, don't park in parallel parking spaces. If you are doing a lot of toll road driving think about a toll tag. It ends up costing a bit more, but it means you can use the tag lanes and skip queues. www.saneftolling.co.uk/ |
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Post by boringgit on May 10, 2016 8:15:20 GMT
All the above. Pack a decent toolkit, get breakdown cover your UK one probably won't cover you. RSC are great for this, about a tenner a day. Make sure you carry all your documents, V5, insurance, drivers licence. I needed my v5 to buy a tyre in France.
Driving on the other side is easy, and makes perfect sense. Watch out for speed traps in France, if drivers are flashing you in villages it probably means there's a police trap ahead. We flashed loads of cameras in France though, so only worry about actually getting caught - 80 euro fine on the spot (nice lunch and wine for the officer then! ).
The roads are generally better condition than here, toll roads are nice just don't lose your ticket like I did in Italy...
I've done plenty of driving on the continent and never had any problems, you will get a lot of attention in an mx5 though.
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Post by wannabe on May 10, 2016 8:50:20 GMT
A V5? To get a tyre? Weird... Don't be put off when people drive 3cm from your rear bumper on the motorway. It means you should be pulling back in Enjoy the largely good behaviour and low levels of traffic on said motorway. People will drive into your car when parallel parking. They will not apologise, and they will think you are odd when you get upset. Basically, don't park in parallel parking spaces. +1 to this. In cities I believe the practice is to leave it out of gear with your handbrake off (assuming you're not on a slope, of course) as people then 'touch park' and shunt adjacent cars back and forth to get into a space, to make maximum use of the available kerb space. re: speeding fines, if you can't pay on the spot they will escort you to a cashpoint... I believe they also confiscate your documents if you are really naughty, meaning you need a passenger to carry on driving or have the hassle of recovering your now stranded car back to blighty on the back of a (very expensive) trailer... Don't forget that some roundabouts are still 'Priorité á Droite' - Priority to the Right - meaning you have to stop on the roundabout to let people on. I've seen it done at the huge one in Paris that I can't remember the name of now, and I'm led to believe the practice is dying out in favour of our (better  ) system of giving way to traffic on the roundabout, but you'll need to take care. If you've done any advanced driver training then you should be adept at slotting into gaps on roundabouts without needing to stop, so it's less of an issue, but generally treat everyone as if they're out to get you and be ready on the brakes, and you should be fine. At least it's not Germany, where you have to stop on the main road to let traffic out of a side road - WTF? |
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Post by Horney on May 10, 2016 8:53:17 GMT
Drive on the right.
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Post by boringgit on May 10, 2016 8:58:03 GMT
You learnt a lot in your time in France then? ;-) |
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Post by zoona on May 10, 2016 8:58:59 GMT
A V5? To get a tyre? Weird... Don't be put off when people drive 3cm from your rear bumper on the motorway. It means you should be pulling back in Enjoy the largely good behaviour and low levels of traffic on said motorway. People will drive into your car when parallel parking. They will not apologise, and they will think you are odd when you get upset. Basically, don't park in parallel parking spaces. +1 to this. In cities I believe the practice is to leave it out of gear with your handbrake off (assuming you're not on a slope, of course) as people then 'touch park' and shunt adjacent cars back and forth to get into a space, to make maximum use of the available kerb space. re: speeding fines, if you can't pay on the spot they will escort you to a cashpoint... I believe they also confiscate your documents if you are really naughty, meaning you need a passenger to carry on driving or have the hassle of recovering your now stranded car back to blighty on the back of a (very expensive) trailer... Don't forget that some roundabouts are still 'Priorité á Droite' - Priority to the Right - meaning you have to stop on the roundabout to let people on. I've seen it done at the huge one in Paris that I can't remember the name of now, and I'm led to believe the practice is dying out in favour of our (better ) system of giving way to traffic on the roundabout, but you'll need to take care. If you've done any advanced driver training then you should be adept at slotting into gaps on roundabouts without needing to stop, so it's less of an issue, but generally treat everyone as if they're out to get you and be ready on the brakes, and you should be fine. At least it's not Germany, where you have to stop on the main road to let traffic out of a side road - WTF? Oh yeah. Extra caution on roundabouts. They have absolutely no Canoeing idea how to use them. No indicating, random lane swapping, random exiting. Never get along side somebody on a roundabout. |
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Post by Horney on May 10, 2016 9:12:11 GMT
You learnt a lot in your time in France then? ;-) Yes. To be honest, if you're a competent driver you switch to driving in europe very quickly and it becomes 2nd nature. Roudabouts are the trickiest as it's quite unnatural to go anticlockwise. |
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Post by boringgit on May 10, 2016 10:37:37 GMT
I prefer driving in europe. Everything just seems to make sense. Especially the motorways which actually work unlike in the UK!
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Post by NurseHolliday on May 10, 2016 12:44:31 GMT
I think there's a lot of prarrie canoee on this thread, roundabouts are absolutely fine, I've driven North to South and back again without any use of motorways or Peages multiple times on tiny roads and up and over mountain passes and I've only seen L'Arc D'Triomphe roundabout have priority for those joining. Other than that, everyone else knows what they're doing with regards to road rules at roundabouts. If you're on minor roads behind slower vehicles, they'll usually wave you past when it's safe and give you a little flash if you say thanks. When you're in the middle of nowhere, they're usually pretty happy to see Johnny Foreigner and I usually get a few token questions about where I'm going and where I've come from.
"Touch parking" is a thing in major cities but not everywhere, and there's usually plenty of bay style spaces to park in so you don't have to parallel park.
Do use a sat nav with GPS camera positions, I've been using them for nearly 10 years and I've never had a problem, even when I've been pulled over.
Like someone else said, if you're visibly shifting on a single carriageway road, oncoming traffic will usually flash their lights if there's a police/gendarmes speed trap. Beware of brows of hills on motorways and dual carriageways as like in the USA and in the UK, they like to hide so that you pop over the top doing 90+ and they get to give you a ticket.
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Post by NurseHolliday on May 10, 2016 12:45:33 GMT
Where does your gf's dad live?
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) system of giving way to traffic on the roundabout, but you'll need to take care. If you've done any advanced driver training then you should be adept at slotting into gaps on roundabouts without needing to stop, so it's less of an issue, but generally treat everyone as if they're out to get you and be ready on the brakes, and you should be fine.
le sigh