After four days in Paris my husband & I will be renting a car and drive to the Burgundy region for three days and then on to Reims for two days and then back to CDG to fly home. We do not speak French and I was wondering if this driving trip is doable. Can anyone give me any advise on driving in France and what to expect? We are really looking forward to seeing the beautiful countryside, but the language barrier is starting to worry me.
Thank you for your input.

Hi Diane,

You will be fine. Get a good map. Learn the words for North, South, left, right, etc, and possibly "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to...X?". People can point out routes on a map for you.

Road signs can be pretty universal, but if you want some advance help, try these websites:

http://www.americansinfrance.net/Dri...dRoadSigns.cfm
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6852/entran.htm
http://www.travlang.com/signs/

With a little prep, you will have a great experience that doesn't have to be stressful in any way.

Have fun!
Karen

You won't be the first non-French speaking tourist to travel through France by rental car. If everyone that didn't speak the language stayed out of France, their external tourism dollars would be reduced by more than half.

In general, the French are not as multilingual as the Dutch, Belgians, Germans and Scandanavians. Don't believe the myth that many French actually can speak English but refuse to do so out of pride. Most are essentially monolingual.

It will help considerably if you can learn the French versions of commonly encountered highway signs, etc. Words like "exit," "toll," "speed," etc. Parking situations can be the most difficult to interpret. I highly recommend a book called "Signposts French," which has hundreds of pictures of signs and explanations of their interpretations. The book focuses on key words that are common to many signs, rather than emphasizing the literal interpretation of any single sign. In addition to chapters on driving and parking, it has chapters on hotels, restaurants, shopping, etc. I have used the German version for years and it is great.

On our first trip to Europe, my wife and I stuck to trains, in large part because we were concerned about language barriers. Since then, we have learned that the worst thing that can happen is an occasional awkward moment. This is a small cost in comparison to the freedom that a car can give you to explore a region of Europe.

The main thing you need to know about driving in France is that route numbers are useless. Say you want to drive from Dijon to Beaune. When you drive out of Dijon (with a good map that you have consulted in some depth),you don't look for A31 or N74, the two routes that will get you there fastest, you look for signs that say Beaune, or even intermediary towns like Nuits-St-George. If you don't see the name of the town on signs, always follow Toutes Directions and you will eventually see the name of the place you're heading to.

For this reason, it's always good to know the names of towns along the routes you're planning to take.

Also, familiarize yourself with the international driving symbols, found on just about any European road atlas.

I don't think your lack of French will be an issue, except if you get lost and have to talk to people to find your way. If that happens, you'll manage.

If you have some idea of which towns you want to see, go to the mappy web site (google mappy). There you can specify your itinerary with stops in-between, and then print out the results which will include the important sign posts that you will see on your itinerary.

Beware of the #1 lane on the toll roads, unless of course your comfortable driving 160 km/hr. I like www.viamichelin.com for online maps. Definately learn the route ahead of time. Also, make sure you get precise directions leaving Paris and your return route as it can be quite confusing. Have lots of change for the toll roads, as credit cards do not always work.

You will love Burgundy. Hopefully you will take time to visit the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuit. Breathtaking beauty! If you pay my way, I will be happy to do all the driving and show you some amazing places in Burgundy region
Bonne chance, Gregg

You will be just fine. France uses international road signs that are designed to be read by everyone--not only people who speak French.

StCirq is right about the rte numbers being meaningless. You have to know the name of the next town to know which route to take.

Be sure to pick up the Michelin maps for Burgundy (you may need two of them depending on where you are going). Do not rely on the one big map of France. It is helpful for general planning but does not show all the roads you will need.

Have fun!

DianeP,
Don't worry, you will be just fine. Hubby and I did the grand tour of France in a rental car w/o any language problems. His HS French got us by. You would be surprised how many of the French people understand English, but try to use a few words in French if possible. Buy yourself a small French/English dictionary to get by, if you must.
My only problem were the fast drivers on the major highways. Be on the lookout for them! Stay safe, and enjoy the scenery. You will love it!
Francie

When you enter a traffic circle, you will see a sign that says "Vous n'avez pas la priority." (You don't have the right of way.)It means you have to yield to traffic coming from the left. That's all you need to know Have fun.

Diane,
We shared your worries regarding driving in the French countryside. In reality, it turned out to be far easier than we expected. The basic adjustment that you need to make is understanding the "roundabout." Most intersections, instead of having stop signs or stop/go lights have roundabouts with signage that shows towns that are in that direction. If you know what your destination is or towns along the way, you just veer to the road in that direction. It is an unbelievably efficient way to move traffic. You can cover great distances even through some larger towns without ever stopping. As we entered the roundabouts, I would watch for merging traffic and I told my wife to watch for the sign. It seemed to help if we viewed the roundabout as a clock - then Lynn would tell me turn at nine o'clock or twelve o'clock or whatever. If you missed your turn, you can keep going around until you're sure where to exit. One funny story - we entered a busy roundabout and I was waiting to hear where to turn and I yelled "where do I go?" and Lynn yelled back - "I don't know what time it is!
JoeG

It will definitely work out to drive - just remember the advice about "Toutes Directions" in the traffic circles. I was the navigator on our trip in Normandy and the Loire valley and whenever I did not know which turn-off to take, I sang out "toutes directions" - and we eventually got there! We did get temporarily lost in France more often than in England or Scotland, and big towns like Tours are particularly tough. But that is part of travel - just consider it part of sight-seeing. And try not to drive in an unfamiliar area after dark, when signs are harder to see.

You might consider renting a cell phone for the driving trip in case you would need to contact the rental company. During our driving tour of eastern France, we struck road debris and ended up with two flat tires, in the middle of a rural area in driving rain. We did have several other people stop to offer help but none of them spoke English and our French is limited. We finally had a policeman stop and he called Hertz for us to send a two truck. After being towed, we spent the night in a hotel, and got a replacement car the next day. A cell phone would have allowed us to call Hertz as soon as it happened and prevented the 3 hour wait we endured until we arranged help. Other than that, we had a great time, no other problems driving, and all went well. One other hint. It is likely your car will be diesel, and if so, when you go to a service station (most are self service) there will probably be two diesel pumps. One is for trucks and one is for cars, and the nozzle on the one for trucks will not fit your car. You will need to be sure to go to the pump that is for cars. The truck pump always seemed to be away from the rest of the other ones. You will figure it out. Also expect that most things will be closed for lunch in the small towns from about 12 until 2 or so.

JoeG, I am STILL LOL from "I don't know what time it is." We've ALL been there.

"the traffic circles..."

I love the traffic circles. My wife always navigates. She knows the direction I want to go, and when we get to an opportunity she just says "no" or "yes". When she says "damn", I know I've missed the opportunity and we just drive around in the circle until she says "yes." It's great fun and relieves any driving stress.

centre or centre ville = to town center; toutes directions = will take you out of town; nord = north; sud = south; est = east; ouest = west; itineraire conseille = alternative route; sens interdit = no entry; sens unique = one-way; sens issue = dead end; autres directions = all other routes, follow if your city isn't on the sign. Hope these will help

We just returned from a similar trip. Not to worry, the language barrier is not a problem. Driving in France is easier than driving here, in some respects. Better drivers, on the whole. Get a really good map (Michelin) if you want to really explore the smaller roads and less visited areas. We have been there numerous times and wouldn't think of visiting without a car. If you use the toll roads , just use your debit or credit card for the toll payment..Same for gas. It makes it easier sometimes. Be sure and drive the wine route through St George and also the Beaujolais area. Very beautiful.

The smaller areas are much easier to navigate, rather than the larger cities, especially for your first driving visit. Just my opinion. Beaune, Macon, even Dijon are very easy to find your way around in. Lyon is more difficult. We only went as far as Troyes, then over to Epernay in the Champagne area, so I am not sure about highlights in that area. Drive from Auxerre to Troyes was pretty boring, after driving in Burgundy a week! Much prettier after leaving Troyes and heading in the direction on Chateau Thierry on small road.

In all, you will have a wonderful time and wonder why you had any reservations about driving in the first place!

DianeP,

I have done several driving trips in Europe, including France, in the past few years. For France, you should not have any problems. My suggestions, in addition to the helpful ideas above:

1) Print city to city directions from www.viamichelin.com (as several posters have suggested). In using this site, you can insert cities where you might like to stop or through which you might like to travel, as well. (For example, you should consider making a stop in Troyes on the way from Burgundy to Champagne).
2) Buy either the Michelin Yellow Guide to France (about $20 -- a spiral bound book with maps covering the whole of France) or the relevant Michelin maps covering the areas of your journey. (I have found the Yellow guide has always met my needs). Highlight on the maps the routes you will be driving as they are laid out on viamichelin.com. (I usually xerox the relevant map pages of the yellow guide and highlight the copies. This way, I only have to take along the relevant pages (not lug the entire book), and will have the guide at home to use for future trips. Take both the highlighted maps and the written directions with you so you'll be able to cross-check them as you drive.

3) As the above directions are only for getting from one town to another, do get instructions from the hotel on how to find them (let them know where you'll be coming from and what major road you'll be coming in on. Ask them if they can email or fax you a map.

Have a great trip.

John H.

I make comparisons between viamichelin and mappy and almost always choose the latter. Excellent suggestion to get directions to your hotel, since navigating in towns and cities can be confusing.

with a good map and a reasonable sense of direction - it is a blast! my only warning is to keep your gas tank full on Sundays and especially Holidays as I had a bear of a time getting gas on Bastille day last year w/o a credit card/smart card that would be read by unattended gas stations. In Rennes there were 2 gas stations open accepting cash and/or US credit cards.

Besides that, and the very expensive tolls on the toll roads, it was such a memorable driving experience!

Fantaman

I know that this is not in the spirit of high adventure that many travelers relish, but I offer it anyway. Although we did not request it, we were given a car by Autoeurop that had a navigation system. It made driving a snap. The car would say "roundabout ahead. Take the 3rd turn on the right." After a few days, we were chafing a bit at constantly being told what to do (talk about putting up with a back-seat driver), but, overall, it really made driving a stress-free experience.