RJD

The thread about driving in France reminded me of the many places in Europe I've been badly lost while driving in Western Europe. Here's a few:
Frankfurt looking to return a rental car. Eventually drove the wrong way down a one way street and made it. Haven't been back.
Siena trying to find my apartment. Four times past the Porto Roma. Stopped at a gas station and bought a good map. I still have it.
Dijon trying to return a rental car. I now have a map that shows the one-way streets.
The principles: If you're driving somewhere, especially a fairly significant city you haven't been before get a good map and give yourself lots of time.

dgassa

After picking up the car at the Lyon Airport, which was easy and took about 10 minutes, I mounted the GPS we had brought with us to the windshield. I had been warned that the GPS might take 15 or 20 minutes to acquire a signal after being transported from the U.S. Well it took a lot longer.

After awhile and since it was going to be dark soon, we figured we better start heading towards our B&B. We promptly became lost. We stopped in a small town and I tried to find where we were on the map. No Luck. Now we were really lost and it had become dark, which didn't really make any difference because we were lost when it was light.

We decided we better head back to the airport and start over. Just before getting back to the airport the GPS began working, but at first it said we were in London. After figuring out how to tell the unit we were really in France, it showed us were we were. It was a good thing because we had been heading in the completely opposite direction, away from our B&B. We would still be looking if it wasn’t for the GPS. It had been 28 hours since getting up at home and we were ready for bed.

nytraveler

We've never been seriously lost after MANY MANY road trips. Once made a wrong turn after hitting an unexpected diversion near Bayeaux - and had to make a little circle to get back where we wanted to be.

I think the people that get lost are the ones that don;t have good driving (not walking) maps and don;t study them in advance. If your route is mapped out it's generally easy. (And we've found street signs generally much more reliable in europe than in the US.)

TPAYT

Our favorite "get lost" story was in the south of France on a round about somewhere between Nice and Monaco.

It had about 20 signs, and my husband said "you have to be able to read something!!!"

My response was--"the bus is free"(Ce bus est Gratuit)! That really didn't help much, but it was good for a laugh.

We have driven all over France and Italy, got lost often, but that was always interesting.

misty_in_stl

We were perpetually lost in Venice despite a very detailed map. We were looking for smaller churches and ended up in several dead end alleyways.

socaltraveler

We were always lost, somewhere, on every trip we took, AND then we bought a GPS. Saved my marriage on our Italian adventure last summer.

I do remember driving around and around the outskirts of Siena on our first driving trip; it seemed like we had passed the same field of sunflowers more than twice, but my husband pointed out that ALL fields of sunflowers look alike. But we were still lost.

Love the GPS.

travelbunny

chalelet metro...wandered hopeless for half an hour. I know try desperately to avoid changing at this stop.

dgassa

Here's more proof that you can even get lost with a GPS.

After a visit to Perouges we needed to return to our B&B on the other side of Lyon. I programmed the GPS to take us the “Shortest Route” instead of the “Quickest.” Since our destination was on the other side of Lyon, the second largest city in France, the GPS guided us, should I say attempted to guide us right through the middle of Lyon. It was only logical, because a straight line would be the shortest route. To make matters worse, it was rush hour.

By the time I realized my mistake we were in the depths of the city. Of course being a city, it has tall buildings, which tend to block the signal to the GPS. We were having fun now! Wrong turns, one way streets, bus only lanes, dead ends, you name it. Good thing there were no police around because I've never broken so many traffic laws. In the end we made it safely back to our B&B.