Has anyone got experience at driving in France? How easy is it for someone from US going there and picking up a car ? Also if someone has used the Hertz Neverlost GPS system in the rental car, does it work in the rural/semi-urban areas of France ? i.e Loire valley and Dordogne.

I wouldn't worry about any navigation system as road are extremely well marked. Get a 1:200,000 Michelin map or atlas, at any gas station, supermarket, newsstand, etc. and then every little intersection has signs with road numbers on them and signs pointing to the towns that road goes to. Idiot proof as long as you know what towns along the way you want to pass through you wouldn't even really need a map. Literally - every intersection will have signs to the next major town. this i wouldn't worry about - aggressive French drivers, that's another problem!

We've driven in France many times and really love it. Much better than driving here in FL! Once you get the hang of the signage..the arrows will point to the next towns along your route instead of route numbers mostly..and if you are lost all you do is look for "toutes directions".

Haven't used GPS yet, but someone posted yesterday about how great it was and I think they were driving in the countryside.

The toll roads are quite expensive snd we actually prefer the N and D roads!

Yes - decades of experience. Thre's nothing very daunting about the actual driving in France, especially if you're going to be mainly in rural and semi-urban areas - I wouldn't tackle Paris the first time out, though.
You do need to learn a new way of navigating, however. Route numbers often aren't marked or not clearly marked, and you won't navigate from place to place using them. Rather, you need to know the names of towns you'll be passing through to get to your destination. So, e.g., in the Dordogne, if you're driving from Périgueux to St-Cyprien, you'd need to know to follow the signs to Le Bugue or Les Eyzies. You also need to learn to deal with roundabouts - people already in the roundabout have priority. It's a good idea to bone up on the international signs, too - any decent road atlas will have them.

Can't help you with the GPS system. I'm too devoted to paper maps to use one, and in fact my only experience with one in the Dordogne was laughable. It kept telling us to "stop and make an illegal U-turn NOW!" and steered us right into a pasture.

I agree with the other posters. Driving in France is no big deal. Pal is right, the Michelin map giude is all you need. We got the one for all of europe 5 years ago and use it every time we go to europe.

Yes and stick to roads either in white or yellow on the Michelin maps and, at least in rural areas, you'll find wonderful untraveled well paved back roads that go thru the quintessential rural and village France - see the next town by its steeple often perched on the town's highpoint. In urban areas the color scheme often breaks down and yellow roads may be busy. Stick to D (departmental) roads and avoid truck-plagued N (national) roads. But back roads take time. And yes the Toutes Directions signs - always follow them as they sooner or later will lead to more definitive directional signs. Driving during the long French lunchtime in busy areas will see roads with often much less traffic, especially lorries. And note that speed limits, once in theory only, are now being strictly enforced by speed traps - resulted, along with crackdown on drinking and driving, in dramatically lowered accident rates. Gendarmerie, police enforcing road rules can even confiscate your license. Autoroutes cost an arm and a leg but other roads can be tediously slow if you need to say get between the Loire and Dordogne in a day you should pay the price and fly along the autoroutes. Usually you only need your regular drivers license, i drove for years in France with just that but never got stopped - an International Drivers License is recommended - check out you AAA - costs just a few bucks and translates info on your license into several languages. Petrol prices pretty much a uniformly extortionary price of about $5/gal but supermarket petro stations can save a little bit. Nearly all take credit cards for self-servie, often 24 hours. Many city centers are off-limits for regular cars; parking can be problematic.

It's very easy for someone to rent a car in France if you are/have:

1. 25 years of age or older

2. a valid US drivers license

3. a credit card (debit cards usually don't work as well if at all.)

If you don't meet all of these conditions you'll have to do some extra work.

My first couple of times driving were a real pain. I had the map but wasn't familiar with the area. If you're leaving Tours in the Loire Valley and the sign says Amboise one way and Chinon the other way you don't have much time to find those on a map to decide which way to go.

It helps to really study the map before you leave to have a sense of where the smaller towns are. That's what I do now.

Having just returned from a 3 week, 3600Km trip to France, we detailed our driving experience in the post, "3 weeks trip to France-reporting."

As mentioned by other Fodor-ites buy a good Michelin map of France, or print out your itinerary from Mappy or ViaMichelin.

A GPS system is the best invention for tourists driving in a foreign land, since the invention of the wheel. All you have to do is key in the country that you want, the town, the street name and civic number, and the system will direct you to your destination.

A GPS system will work anywhere regardless of your location i.e. rural/semi-urban areas, is irrelevant.

BTW and to answer your question, the best advice we can give to people driving in France is to be prepared to drive fast, especially on expressways. "N" and "D" roads are the most scenic for visiting and discovering the real France.

I'm sending you an article on driving in France--I think you'll find it gives you a good idea of what's involved.

Aside from navigating, it would be good (and could be life-saving) to study the signs indicating priority at intersections and in case of obstacles, as well one-way streets, and the road markings that advise on passing.

My advice: memorize every page of the article Underhill sends you, then buy very detailed maps. As everyone has said, the small roads are so much more scenic.

Thank you all, I have ordered a Michelin Road atlas 1:200,000. I was trying to plot driving routes on viaMichelin and Mappy website. Unfortunately no book seems to give the Street address and ZIP code/place name of the Chateau's. I was trying to get to Chambord, Cheverny and Chanonceau. Any suggestions on where can I get the street address for these to put into the website or GPS for that matter of fact ?

No but study the Michelin atlas legend and see the symbol for a chateau - and this pinpoints exactly the chateau's location - and there are many signs pointing to them. You won't have a problem.

AjGupta,

Don't worry about entering the exact address in the GPS system. The name of the Chateau/town is enough to guide you to the right location. Remember that many towns are very small and it's practically impossible to miss spotting the chateaux. The road signs indicating tourist attractions are very visible.

With Chenonceau Chateau the town Chenonceaux is all you need. (note the "x" at the end of the town.) The town is hardly even a crossroads it's so small. It's more like a wide spot in the road.

Cross over the railroad tracks and you're at the entrance to the chateau's parking lot.

BTW here are some website address for chateaux in the Loire valley:

www.chateau-amboise.com/
www.chambord.org/index.htm
www.chenonceau.com/index.html
www.chateau-cheverny.fr/index.html
www.chateauvillandry.com/
http://www.francebalade.com/valindre...au.htm#chateau
www.francebalade.com/blois/chaumont.htm
www.a-castle-for-rent.com/castles/

Good surfing

Here are a few more things that are important to know about when driving in France.
Blue directional signs indicate your route will be via the autoroute or “A” road, which we would call a turnpike or highway. The word “peage” on the sign indicates that you will pay a toll.
Green directional signs will indicate your route via the “National” or N road.
White directional signs indicate the route will be via a “D” road….smaller country two lane roads.

So, if the next town you are headed for is Amboise, for example, and you don’t want to get there via the autoroute, when you come to a roundabout or a group of signs, look for “Amboise” on a sign that is not blue. Continue on, or around the circle until you see the name “Amboise” on a green or white sign.

Also note that in the U.S. when a sign indicates straight ahead, the arrow usually points up. In France the arrow points sort of left or right when it means straight ahead…..but it’s sort of on an angle.
It’s a little tricky! My husband is pretty good at guessing which they mean but he is very far sighted!
In any case, getting lost in France is half the fun!!

I usually mark our route on the Michelin maps with a highlighter before we leave. That way it’s always easy to see what the next town is along the route I’ve selected.

Our Hertz rental in France last month had a guidance system. We hadn’t ordered it on the car as we’ve driven in Europe for many years, but since it was there we played around with it for a week or so. We found it pretty useless unless you were heading for a major city, in which case you didn’t need it at all as French road signs are really good. We’ve used these systems successfully here (U.S.) on rentals a few times, so I don’t think it was us!

If a garage or parking lot has a machine which gives you a ticket, take it with you. When you return, you will use another machine to pay and have the ticket validated for the exit gate.

Just a warning on directions from Michelin website. Sometimes the distances are completely off. Once the directions told me to take a road for 2.5 km until I reached a roundabout, but within a short distance I found myself at a dead end. I think 25 meters to the roundabout would have been more accurate! It is also puzzling sometimes to see signs pointing out the road to your destination, while the Michelin directions tell you to go somewhere else.

Underhill, would appreciate it if you would send me article for driving in France; we will be first time drivers in France this September and trying to get as much info as possible.

Currently I have a Michelin Regional 528 Provence/Cote d' Azur - is this sufficient or should I also purchase the 1:200,000 Michelin map also?

Thanks - [email protected]