Driving Abroad Tips, Questions please

[jellyjelly]

Going to be driving abroad this weekend - France. I need to know the legalities apart from having first aid kit, tirangle and a set of bulbs and things. Is there anything else, have the usual insurance socs, rac memembership.

bump

stuff here

and here

Find out what priority to traffic from the right means...I've never worked it out. And what all the yellow diamond signs mean.

Take a torch too , in case you need to stop in the dark, and be cautious about who has right of way at roundabouts. Does this help ?

be careful about the petrol situation. a lot of the filling stations are automatic at night and only accept french credit cards.
fill up at supermarket petrol stations during the day. i learned the hard way

Priority from the right means what it says. You should always give priority to anyone on your right (even if you are on more major road) unless there is a give way sign or stop sign at the end of the road on the right. People really do shoot out of roads on the right (or at least they do where we live!)

The yellow triangle means that the next junction is an exception and you have priority.

You really do have to come to a stop at stop signs even if it is clear there is nothing coming.

Also - keep all your documents in the car all the time. There seem to have been a lot more police round since the rioting and they get really shirty if you haven't got stuff.

This makes it sound terrible. It isn't - most of Frane is much easier to drive in than the UK.

So traffic on a major rd has to stop and let a vehicle enter from a side rd? That's what I assumed - buut no-one else seemed to do it. Because of the mystery triangles! Thank you deep and crisp!

Thankyou all, have looked at the site but nervous about it having never been to france before.

you need that tape that goes on your headlights that stops it from shining in french drivers eyes - becuase out headlights shine slightly to one side.

gb sticker?

its a piece of piss driving in france much easier than over here. but please think when you get to rounabouts - it feels wrong to go anti clockwise round the roubabout.
also your looking for cars coming from the other direction so it helps if you dont have a fat passenger with beer belly in the way

Priority from the right means that if some maniac shoots out of a side road and rams you its your fault.

jelly - when you first go to France, its ok. The worst bit is coming back to the UK, thats when you find yourself making mistakes!

This might sound really dumb but we give way to the right so i still have to think of that rule right??

Sorry - not sure I understand the question?

well on roundabout we always give way to right so the rule is similar to that ie they have the right/priorty to go first?

In case you hadnt guessed i havent driven abroad or have my license for many years

Give way to the right except at a roundabout as they will be coming from the left.

the priority rule isn't for roundabouts - as bsg says on those you give way to the left (it's easier when you're there, I promise!). It's for every road situation. So if you are travelling on a road and there is any sort of road that joins it from the right, even if it is very small, people coming from that road will usually have priority over you. That means you have to stop to let them pull out.

The exceptions are when the road joining has a stop sign or give way sign or there has been one of the yellow square signs beforehand.

Blu - we couldn't believe it either. Especially as the people who pull out blithely are almost always old guys wearing hats. But we spoke to someone who has just passed their test here and it does still apply.

jelly - when you get to roundabouts, just look at the arrow signs on the roundabout, and follow them. I couldnt possibly rely on myself to automatically go the right way round a roundabout after so many years driving in UK and France.

Thanks for that, i will watch out for that, going on saturday and will take extra money.