Driving in France

Welcome to the ferrybooker.com guide to driving in France!

Roads

Motorways / Autoroutes

France has more than 8000 kilometres of motorways (freeways) of which most are toll roads - autoroutes des pages. These are split up into eight privately owned networks funded by tolls collected as vehicles enter and leave. Compared to the congestion common in the UK, the French autoroutes are excellently maintained and allow high average travelling speeds. The speed limit is 130km/h (80mph; 110km/h when wet).

Autoroutes Toll Payments

Tickets are issued at the start of each motorway network. Payments are calculated on the distance travelled and are paid when leaving the motorway, or motorway network. Payments at the pages (toll gates) can be made by all major credit cards. For short journeys it's worth keeping handy plenty of small change for making payments if you don't want to use your credit card. Payments vary depending on the type of vehicle driven, with different price bands for: cars, vans, cars with trailers, lorries and motorbikes.

Route Nationales

If you're on a limited budget and not in too much of a hurry, France has an excellent network of trunk roads, the N-denoted routes nationales.

Rules

Rules of the Road

Traffic rules across France are generally the same as Britain, with the key difference being the need to remember to drive on the right and overtake on the left!

On-the-spot fines can be demanded for not wearing seat belts (compulsory front and back); drink-driving offences; and driving on a provisional license. Children under the age of 10 are not allowed in the front seat.

Speed Limits

130km/h on autoroutes (110km/h when wet); 110km/h on non-toll dual carriageways (both dry and in the wet); 90km/h on other roads (80km/h when wet); and 50km/h in towns. Additional speed restrictions apply to drivers with less than two years experience. Exceed these limits with caution; they're enforced by on-the-spot fines payable in cash only. Speeds are often enforced by radar speed cameras. Travelling more than 25km above the speed limit can result in your license being confiscated.

Headlights

Driving with dipped headlights is compulsory in poor visibility, so don't leave the UK without buying a pair of headlight beam adjusters. You should also take a complete kit of spare bulbs and a red hazard warning triangle.

Breakdown and Assistance

Parking and resting zones are situated every 10 to 20km, with 24-hour petrol stations found approximately every 40km. If you do breakdown, pull up on the right hand layby. Make sure you illuminate your hazard warning lights and place a red warning triangle 30m behind your vehicle (this is compulsory for vans and cars with trailers). Free orange emergency telephones are situated every 2km on all motorways. If you do break down and don't want to leave your vehicle, there are regular road patrols on all sections of the motorway.

Route Planning

French Route Planner

The route planner provides detailed routing and also calculates the time and amount it will cost you in fuel and toll fees to make the journey.

The Official L'Autoroute Web Site

The official French motorway site (http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/homepage.html) enables you to easily work out the costings for motorway routings across the whole of France. You'll also find out detailed information on each of the motorway network operators.

Useful Websites

Paris Traffic Reports

Live traffic information for the main routes in and around Paris.

The AA

Information on road break-down France.

Bison Futé and Maps

There's an official national network of alternative (itinéraires Bis) routes designed to take you around known regular trouble spots, especially in the peak summer holiday season from mid-July to the end of August. These are detailed in the annually produced Bison Futé map, widely available free from petrol stations, tourist offices and 59 special information centres throughout France. Named after a cartoon character, whose name translates as 'Smart Bufffalo', Bison Futé is packed with useful information. Whatever your itinerary, be sure to carry up-to-date maps. Those published by Michelin are widely available in the UK; for very detailed route planning, seek out those of the Institut Gographique National (IGN), the French government mapping agency. Click here for the Bison Futé website.

Further Road Travel Information

All autoroutes have their own 24-hour information radio stations. In northern France, on 107.7 FM there are English-language bulletins on the hour and half-hour.

Motorway Information can be found by dialing (in France only) the premium-rate phone number +33 (0)836 681077. Calls cost FF2.23 / minute from a French call box. Please remember if you are calling from an English mobile phone, calls will be significantly higher.

Petrol & Service Stations

Service Stations

Every 30-50km on each autoroute there's a 24-hour service area (aire), offering a combination of fuel, food and leisure facilities. There are two varieties of aire: one with full-scale fuel, catering and shopping facilities; the other type is a picnic area with WC facilities. These are often beautifully landscaped but usually don't provide any toilet paper so be sure to take your own.

Petrol

Petrol sold at the service stations tends to be as expensive as in the UK. Off-autoroute petrol is sometimes cheaper, meaning that if you're travelling from the UK, enter France with a near-empty tank and fill up at a hypermarch (hypermarket) before you start your autoroute journey in earnest. Savings on diesel are much greater, often up to 15% cheaper from off-autoroute petrol stations.