Driving in France from the UK

As a french driver, I find it very interesting to see what you guys say about driving in my country :) I just heard you saying "never seen any case where you should give way to the right". Beware, this is VERY FREQUENT in towns, and mandatory right given priority is hidden everywhere. It is also indicated by a triangle sign with a black cross in the center. I realised recently many french people don't even know what that sign means, but it is very important... Oh also, round abouts where you have to give way to entering cars are very rare excepted in Paris. If you go outside Paris, you will almost never see any one of those weird dangerous things.

Thank you for this. It's superb, No waffle - just great practical tips. Just what I needed.

"Child seat requirements are too complicated for me to remember, here's a brief expla-- okay, nevermind, go look yourself, that's too much" lol

Great video, exactly what I needed for my trip all explained so clearly. Cheers!

Moved to France but never drove in my first 4 years here. Just recently needed to drive so I took a a couple of refresher lessons and came across this clip which really helped me out. Thanks for making it! I'm comfortably on the road again

I am actually aiming for a road trip through EU next summer, so this is helpful. Even though there are some things mentioned here, that ARE similar to my country of origin... ;) (At least my steering wheel is on the "right" side! Hehe!) Good job mate, keep 'em coming! Cheers!

“Sanss plombo” hahaha love you Richard. It means ‘without lead’ or unleaded. Essence means gasoline.

I do own both rhd and lhd cars here in France. I drove it both in France and the UK. Never felt uncomfy here and there. The locals are consistent in their driving, so do the flows on roads, as a visitor it's your job to be locally consistent. Believe me but it took an hour to switch from France to UK (or vice-versa) and an entire day when I rented cars in some parts of Asia or South-America. A responsible driver checks the usual speed limits and priorities used where he is and applies it. A good driver controls his car and applies it to whatever is around. Being carefull as for some very first off-road driving in my very own area. Driving in Indian urban arreas was disturbing and turned into a funny way to go from pointA to pointB. Your points about sign's differences are pretty solid!

Brilliant summary for travelling in France!! Thank you.

5:20 correction, unless you have the white/yellow diamond shape sign, you have to give priority to the right. So if you enter in a village and there’s a road on your right with no sign and no stop or else, then the basic give priority to the right is the rule by default. It’s very common if you’re not on a big national road.

You make really high quality videos! Thank you! :yougotthis:

Thanks Richard another great video. So many videos on driving in Europe are just about the rules before setting off and not the actual driving. I'm thinking of doing a trip to Belgium via France so this was really helpful.

Wow, didn't know you had another channel in addition to conquer driving. I passed my driving test following your instructions and was thinking about UK and more trips to Eu, and it doesn't get better watching your videos here.

Great to see this channel growing well as a fellow ADI I'm also a MX5 owner I always recommend your other videos to all my pupils all the best

Lots of quality info with no waffle. Nicely done.

What kind of British person buys a convertible? One who drives with the top down even when it's cold enough to need a jacket and gloves in France.

Great vid might be going to France next year very helpful thanks. Keep the vid's coming

If you drive long distances in or through France, and even if only fairly often (eg once or twice a year), it’s really worthwhile getting an “EMovis” electronic toll tag. You attach it with a little adhesive clip provided to the upper inside of your windscreen. They allow you to use the automated toll gate lanes marked with an illuminated lower case “t” (for “télépéage” = automatic toll) or the pun “Liber-t” (pronounced “liberté”) which have tag readers which recognise your tag (you hear a “beep” - thus the franglais “bipandgo” name for the tag) record the toll charge against your account and lift the barrier. Some of them (marked with an illuminated “30”) allow you to approach at that speed without stopping, thus processing cars much more quickly. You’ll also find that it’s a minority of cars that have them and therefore those toll gates often have shorter queues. No struggling to get your car close enough to the toll machine for your passenger to lean across! No long queues at major toll plazas! No struggling to find your bank card with an impatient queue behind you! No fraught in-car arguments about whether you’re close enough, where’s the card! Your toll charges are accumulated and billed to your bank account next month. It works just fine with a UK bank account, the £/€ exchange rate used isn’t a rip off and all the communications for U.K. account holders are in English. There’s a set-up charge (I think €20) and a charge for additional tags or when your battery runs out and the tag has to be replaced - they last a long time if you’re an infrequent U.K. based user like me - but no other extra cost. Worth every penny.

I know you posted this 1year ago but definitely most pragmatic one ive seen nice to see some real driving it helps with my spatial awareness

This sort of information is extremely useful. I never knew what the yellow and white diamond meant until now. Keep up the good work!