geenance

Driving in Europe (specifically Catalonia and Languedoc).

Hey, I’m a pretty confident driver. Add in a GPS and what could go wrong?

Chapter One: Type of rental vehicle

When researching our trip to the region, our first challenge was what type of vehicle to rent. We had 4 women…and their stuff. We wanted to drive from Barcelona, stop overnight in Cadaques, and continue on the next day to Limoux France. We wanted to enjoy the travel and hoped to stop along the way. But what about our luggage? How could we stop unless our luggage was safely concealed in the trunk of the vehicle? Would all of our luggage fit in the trunk? Of course we could have rented a minivan, which would surely have held our luggage easily, but we were planning on using the vehicle for day trips during our week in France. A large vehicle would make driving through tiny village streets and on narrow curvy mountain roads more difficult.

In the end we packed somewhat modestly and kept our fingers crossed that a mid-size car would work for us. This was defined as a BMW 3-series type vehicle on the rental site. Luckily it worked out in the end. When we arrived at the rental agency the agent looked askance at our luggage (2 mid-size luggage; 2 carry-on size luggage; 3 soft-sided carry-on totes) but then confidently told us she had the right vehicle for us….and Audi A4. She was right. The trunk on that car is very large! Hurray! One problem down. A few others to go.

On another note, we had decided to rent an automatic. We are pathetic North Americans who only know how to drive automatics, so that was likely a wise decision! There are only so many automatics available in Europe for us pathetic North Americans so it makes sense, if you are a pathetic automatic-only North American driver, to go to a rental area with a reasonable selection of automatics. We chose Sants train station in Barcelona.

Chapter Two: Where oh where can the car rental agency be?

Our objective: The Avis rental agency located at Sants train station in Barcelona. The advance advice: Make sure the cab drops you around the back of the station as that is where the car rental agencies are. The reality: not Avis (or Budget…for those renting from them). The other reality: there is always construction in France and for sure your cab driver will get in a heated discussion with authorities as he tries to drop you off near the back entrance.

We trundled into the station with our luggage. Lo and behold, there were the desks for the rental agencies, immediately inside the back door of the station. Lo and behold, there was no Avis. We asked around. “Try this way.” Nope. “Perhaps it’s that way.” Nope. “perhaps it’s out the front door of the station immediately to the right.” Not quite. Lo and behold, gazing far across the parking lot, beyond the buses and taxis, we see an Avis sign on a parking garage. We gambled, not knowing if it was just their parking garage, and we won. The office was there. The staff were professional and helpful. (although perhaps providing a map of how to get out of town and where to drop the car off when we came back might have been even more helpful.)

Chapter three: Getting out of Dodge. (aka Barcelona).

You are just getting used to your new car. You don’t know where you are going. The GPS is saying one thing. The directions from the non-english-speaking-yet-trying-to-be-helpful-garage-attendant are not quite consistent. The person in the passenger seat is saying another. The person in the back seat is saying yet another. You find yourself turning at the first corner immediately into a bus-only lane, segregated by a barrier. What to do?

Let’s just say that GPS isn’t perfect. Let’s just say that Barcelona, just like other major cities, is pretty busy traffic-wise. Let’s just say that Barcelona has an incredible amount of pedestrian cross walks that appear out of nowhere. Let’s just say that Barcelona has a lot of round-abouts and one-way streets. Let’s just say that if you take the wrong turn it’s difficult to get back on track.

Take a deep breath and carry on.

Chapter Four: The car didn’t look very big by North American standards

There’s a reason why there are so many tiny cars in Europe. There’s a reason why everyone flips in their side mirrors once they park.

I can guarantee, that if you do any amount of driving through quaint European towns and villages and hamlets and communes you will find yourself in a tight predicament or two. When you drive around that tight curve on that mountain road, if you are in a small car, and if you simultaneously hold your breath, you can absolutely squeeze by that oncoming truck. I can say that we felt like champions when we returned our rental car without a scratch!!

Chapter Five: Practice makes perfect.

If you are timid when you start out, yet you have a sense of adventure, you will feel like a rally driver by the end. (Question: Why is the speed limit on rural mountain roads in Languedoc 90km/hour? We never got over 40, even once we were pro rally drivers. I’m not sure what the purpose of the speed limit was.)

Chapter Six: Know your signs

Shame on me. When I picked up my International Driver’s License they considerately included a pamphlet of international road signs. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. Easy peasy. No need to worry. There were only 2 signs for France. Those weren’t the signs that would have been useful to know. I should have done more research.

Hypothetical question for North American drivers. If you were to arrive at an intersection and you saw a road sign with a big red circle and a big red slash through it, what would you think it means? What if it had a big red "X" through it? What would you think that means? Our brain trust thought that these signs meant “DO NOT GO HERE”. This lead to a quandary at many a small village intersection. Clearly we couldn’t go in those directions. Instead we would have to make an impossible sharp turn to go up that tiny alley! Hurray…no scratch! Of course we would hit the next intersection only to face those same daunting signs again
.
Who in their right mind would have thought to make a sign with a big red circle and a big red X through it to stand for “no stopping”? With a big red slash through it to mean “no parking”? I ask you?? :blushing: :embarrassed:

Chapter Seven: Moseying back into town (Barcelona)

Well, we had hopes of moseying. After all we were now professional rally drivers. We had done death defying driving feats on cliff edges, through gorges and in teensy tiny dead end alleys. We were confident that driving back to Sants train station in Barcelona would surely be a breeze.

Let’s just say that GPS isn’t perfect. Let’s just say that Barcelona, just like other major cities, is pretty busy traffic-wise. Let’s just say that Barcelona has an incredible amount of pedestrian cross walks that appear out of nowhere. Let’s just say that Barcelona has a lot of round-abouts and one-way streets. Let’s just say that if you take the wrong turn it’s difficult to get back on track.

Did I say that we felt like champions when we returned our rental car without a scratch!!? Did I??

Prologue:

We had a wonderful time driving through Catalunya into France. We had an exciting time driving out to the Cap de Creus, driving through rural Languedoc, driving up narrow trails to Cathar castles, driving through picturesque villages, and driving along hilly, winding scenic roads.

We would do it all again!

Sassafrass

Fun read. Thanks.

kerouac

I rarely use a GPS, but I have noticed that it often disagrees with the road signs. Trust the road signs!

Sassafrass

There was a recent thread about GPS failures. Some were quite funny. One person ended up in a field.

Dukey1

Interesting self-viewpoint

isabel

Nice summary. I agree with most of it. I would advise you (although it's too late now) and others that picking up cars at airports really reduces the problems of driving in a strange city first thing after picking up the car. I really think it's worth the extra time and expense to get back to the airport from the city center.

I did a trip very similar to yours (3 women instead of four, and we did pick up at Barcelona airport). I've driven in Europe multiple times and as I was the only 'pathetic American' who could drive a stick I did all the driving. Great trip expect for one thing - as we were approaching our hotel in the French town of Ceret, we ended up in the middle of a major parade! We got directed down a side street where we were then stuck for three hours. We could see the hotel but couldn't get to it because the parade kept going around in circles surrounding the area we were stuck in. It was actually pretty funny in the end.

nytraveler

As the enjoyer of more than 20 road rips in europe a couple of hints:

Do NOT rely on GPS - they are very often - simply - wrong - and cannot account for temporary conditions like construction, accidents, etc - and then limit you to a very few options right near your location when you should be going in a different direction

ALAWYS carry good quality paper maps and if you do run into problems per above you have a whole lot more choices

ALWAYS print out very detailed maps - including one way streets etc - from google and bring them with you for each city you will enter

We have found this solves all problems with wrong directions or confusions

And have never had any problems driving a mid sized car (we are both tall and don't like being squished) anywhere in europe - even in places in the cener of Spanish towns where the car was so much wider than the road that we had wheels on both sidewalks (and we asked locals and were told - that's how you have to drive down that street).

Being able to parallel park in space only marginally larger than the car helps as does turning in the mirrors when parked - but as New Yorkers we are used to doing both.

rosiecaro

So a couple to thoughts as I read this. GPS or Siri can be pretty spiffy, but like previous posters said, it can also be unreliable. Just yesterday I ended up at an intersection rather than the address I was looking for, about 6 miles away from where I wanted to be. But most of the time it works great for me both here and in France, Holland, and Germany. Italy was a bust! HOWever the amp on my phone still worked and we limped along.
Secondly be careful about eh car rental you use. Sixt has not once, but twice tried to tell me I had damaged the car upon return, so I now take a quick video and still photos until all is said and done with the rental. IN y experience Eurpocar has been the easiest to work with.

traveller1959

Your trip reports reminds me of an old Gershwin piece "An American in Paris"!

I live in Europe and I have been driving across the whole continent and my private car is a 7-seater minivan. And I love it. In fact, it is only 10 cm wider than an ordinary sedan, but the psychological effect may be different if you enter the driver's seat for the first time.

In Naples, the rental car agency failed to reserve us a 7-seater. So, after some negotiating, we got a 9-seater for our family of six. It was a real truck, and this was the thing we had to drive the narrow coastal road of the Amalfi Coast! Well it worked. It has some advertising painted on it, and every truck and bus driver on the Amalfi Coast thought I was a colleague rather than a tourist, so they were polite and helping, especially in the very narrow curves.

thursdaysd

Thoroughly enjoyed your TR, even though I haven't driven in Europe for over a decade. I'm a solo traveler and it's rarely cost-effective, plus I don't want to cope with driving, navigating, parking, not to mention admiring the scenery, all on my own.

I'm also a pathetic (semi) American who no longer drives stick (last time both my knees and the gear box complained), and I can no longer see to drive in the dark either. So I am very much looking forward to the advent of self-driving cars - something I would never have said a few years ago!

Entirely agree that picking up a car in the middle of a big city sounds like a recipe for stress.

NewbE

Very entertaining report, great writing, thanks for posting!

jubilada

Great report. I'm about to rent a car for a trip to Puglia in the fall, so timely.

We drive standards, so that's a help.

annhig

I agree with most of it. I would advise you (although it's too late now) and others that picking up cars at airports really reduces the problems of driving in a strange city first thing after picking up the car.>>

we picked up our car from the airport. [Malaga]

we had a map not GPS.

we are experienced drivers on the continent.

We got lost within the first few kms and found ourselves in a an industrial area, and had to ask some passers by [who happened to be Irish] how to find the road to Grenada.

Bedar

Amusing report. Good to know about the trunk of the Audi A4. Think we'll change our July 1st rental to that car.

schnauzer

Fun report, glad you pathetic folk made ît back in one piece! We've had terrible trouble finding both pick up and drop offs for cars in Italy particularly. They told us they weren't allowed to put up signs, so how the heck you're meant to know where to go beats me!

Sue4

My advice: besides having maps and studying them well in advance of your trip, be sure you know how to drive the particular model car before leaving the lot!

My FIRST "driving" trip to France (in the Loire Valley, solo) I rented a cute little stick shift Renault since I had learned to drive on sticks and figured I could manage that. I drove off the Avis lot OK, and managed to find my way from Tours to Amboise with only a couple of wrong turns. Upon arriving in Amboise I pulled into a parking spot along the river to get my bearings before finding the hotel. Then, when trying to back out, I couldn't! The reverse gear was nowhere to be found on this car! Practically in tears I flagged down a nice Frenchman who showed me a strange (hidden) little button to push, and voila!, I could back out. And I had owned a Renault in the U.S. at one time, with OUR reverse system.

But I must admit, I felt very empowered after that successful trip driving around solo for 10 days. I did it again at least 7 more times to other parts of France, always solo. I was pretty old (like maybe "elderly"!) when I started that, so now I stick to the train.
But those memories are wonderful, and much is due to the many NICE French people who were so helpful in many situations.

Thanks for your amusing report - fun to read.

Whathello

Fun report.

And I like it when Us citizens present it the way I can feel superior ;-)

geenance

Thanks for your comments everyone....including much sage advice from some pros. (Clearly I still have a lot more training to go through! I'm not even at my first badge level.)

I did one thing right, and that was to purchase the Michelin map for Languedoc region. Since we were 'going where the wind blew us' each day it wasn't practical to plan out our route in detail (and there's a heck of a lot of detail on those maps!). We did use the map to 'confirm' which route the GPS was picking and a couple of times we decided to backtrack a bit and head off in a direction that made more sense to us based on the map. I can't say we ever got truly, irretrivably lost (hey, I'm typing this so this is proof)...or even moderately lost. We did make some incorrect turns and eventually got back on track.

All of the above refers to the rural part of our exploration...not our nemesis, Barcelona. For that we had a lovely clean central Barcelona map that came with the pocket guide we purchased. The problem with this is that only showed the very central part of Barcelona, not the entry and exit routes to the city.

Another thing we found helpful was the 'blue dot' on google maps on our phone. Whenever we found ourselves scratching our heads, trying to figure out where we were, we started up google maps and figured it out. We only tended to do this in cities or on major routes. We were trying to save on roaming, so didn't tend to do this in the very rural areas.

Hey! key tip that was given to us when we were staying in Barcelona....download the Barcelona google city map. Put a pin in at your home base. And then, even when you are offline, it will show you where you are compared to your home base. We used this often while walking around BCN. (I should have mentioned this in my main Trip Report. Oh well.)

geenance

@sassafras - thanks for the tip about the GPS thread. I've got to check that out!

@kerouac - <trust the road signs> . We certainly found that out! I don't know how many times the GPS said 'at the upcoming roundabout take the second exit'. Ummm, no. I can hear her now in her hilariously incorrect and British-accented pronunciation of French and Spanish words. We had to read the signs to just figure out what she was saying! It was as if she was speaking an alien language. It wasn't English and it definitely wasn't French or Spanish. The GPS had us laughing so hard at times that we decided she deserved a name. We named her Elizabeth -- Lizzie for short. When she was on track we called her Lizzie. When she led us astray we called her Elizabeth, in a very stern, parental voice.

geenance

@annhig <we picked up our car from the airport. [Malaga]

we had a map not GPS.

we are experienced drivers on the continent.

We got lost within the first few kms and found ourselves in a an industrial area, and had to ask some passers by [who happened to be Irish] how to find the road to Grenada.>

Touche! It makes me feel so much betterto know that even experienced drivers get lost! Thanks! (BTW, I like your prose.)