Driving a UK car in France

[Pauline]

In just over a week we will take our UK car to France. These are the things I had to arrange.

Car Insurance
Our UK car insurance is comprehensive in the UK but third party only in other countries (meaning our car is not covered but any other car in an accident is). I was able to purchase comprehensive for driving in France for a small amount extra (£22). I can do this up to 7 times a year, up to 90 days of travel.

Car Breakdown Insurance
This is quite expensive for 1 week. Either £45 from our current provider or £63 from AA. We've never used our own breakdown insurance in 7 years so decided to not get it for the trip.

Compulsory Equipment
GOV.UK Driving Abroad tells you to go to the AA Driving Abroad page to find compulsory equipment needed for each country. The PDF on the AA site gives this list of compulsory items:

It’s compulsory to carry in your car:

• Warning triangle
• Reflective jackets
• Breathalysers (but there is no fine if you don't have one)

We have a warning triangle in the car and bought reflective jackets and breathalysers.

Lights
We bought something that you put on your head lights to make them work for driving on the right (something to do with which way the lights point). We probably won't install this since it doesn't get dark until 11pm now.

That's it!

 

[Ian Sutton]

Hi Pauline
There is always the chance of fog / rain, so might be worth considering fitting those headlight adjusters. The breathalysers were a bit of a farce, introduced IIRC in the latter days of Nicholas Sarkozy (coincidentally a teetotaller). Indeed I wasn't 100% sure the legislation passed - maybe the no fine was the compromise.
regards
Ian

p.s. one of the advantages of travelling in France with a right hand drive car, is the passenger/navigator can sort the toll coinage out, leaving the driver to focus on the road as they pass the barrier.

 

[jonathan]

Yes, those headlamp deflectors are just for the dipped beams: at the moment, they're set up so you don't dazzle oncoming drivers, but give good illumination of the verge on the left. But when on the continent, undeflected beams will, of course, dazzle the oncoming drivers.

Ian's point about bad weather is useful: I'm pretty sure France has the same sort of laws as we do here about needing to use headlights in those circumstances.

As part of our downsizing, we're now down to just one car, midway in size between the big black one and the little green one! It's an Audi A3, basically the same car as your Golf - but in its newest (ours is late 2016) version has a nice setting within the menus that lets you change the dipping pattern for LHD/RHD within the car: no more fiddling with those sticky deflectors for us

 

[Pauline]

Maybe ours has that! I'll check. That's good to know because we are planning on getting a new VW Golf or Audi A3 eventually.

 

[Pauline]

My 2008 VW doesn't have anything that lets you change the lights. We'll have to figure out how to put on the deflectors.

 

[Ian Sutton]

FWIW we put ours on in the car park at the eurotunnel terminal (UK side). Took about 5-10 mins to work out what to do and 1-2 minutes to put them on.

 

[Sojourner]

I don't know what kind of beam deflectors you purchased but the simplest are a 'peel and stick' plastic product. I believe that the law is you must have them on, regardless of what time of day or night you plan to drive. You may not plan to drive after dark but must be compliant just in case you end up doing so. There would be little point trying to argue with a traffic cop that you have them but not plan to need them and so have not installed them.

If you get the 'peel and stick' type, you simply peel them off when you return to the UK.
http://www.headlampconverters.co.uk/how-fit

 

[Sojourner]

Also meant to mention, the reflective vests must be IN the car, not in the boot. You have to be able to reach it and put it on before stepping out of the car.

 

[Eleanor]

We religiously kept our hanging over the back of the seat. You could always identify the tourist as they were the cars with the vests clearly visible.

 

[Pauline]

Thanks Eleanor! I have put our vests in the back seat pockets, the breathalyser in the glove box and we will put on those light deflectors the night before we take the ferry. I think ours are the peel off and stick type.

I told Steve we have to say "driver in the ditch" constantly while driving to remind us where to drive, but he thinks that isn't a positive phrase!

With the driver on the right there is probably less chance of scraping or hitting parked cars on narrow roads, and the cars coming towards you will avoid being scraped. A positive!

 

[Eleanor]

Husband was always the driver. It took him a long time to get used to being sat on the near side next to the edge of the road - especially if there were stone walls whizzing past a few inches away from the car...

 

[veronicafrance]

With the driver on the right there is probably less chance of scraping or hitting parked cars on narrow roads, and the cars coming towards you will avoid being scraped. A positive!

And you'll have plenty of time to look at the scenery due to difficulty of overtaking

 

[Ian Sutton]

And you'll have plenty of time to look at the scenery due to difficulty of overtaking

At least in Italy the risk of this happening is minimal!

 

[Sojourner]

I actually had the opposite problem to the subject of this thread. I owned a left hand drive car while living in the UK. The biggest issue with driving on the 'wrong' side of the road from what the car was intended to do, is when passing. You cannot see ahead of the vehicle in front of you if it is high. Nor can you just 'ease out' a bit to see ahead as you are on the wrong side of the car to do so.

Having spent years driving on the 'right' side of the road and some years driving on the left (but wrong) side of the road, I sometimes refer to being 'ambiroadius.'

 

[Pauline]

I am happy now driving on either side, but I can never remember which side of the car to get in. I approach the car from behind then lean down to see where the drivers wheel is.

I suggested to Steve that we get an Ape, where you sit in the middle, so we could easily use it in the UK or on the continent. Or a motorcycle!

 

[Sojourner]

Yes, a motorcycle works everywhere.

But you still have to remember which side of the road to stay on! When going from one place to another and having to drive on the other side of the road, I have found for the first few days that you have to pay attention when coming out of a parking lot or driveway. If you are on 'auto pilot' in your head, you tend to not choose which side of the road to drive on and can end up driving down the wrong side of the road!

I did this once in the UK and wondered why the idiot in the car coming towards me was on the wrong side of the road. It was me that was on the wrong side of course. Oops.

 

[Pauline]

Do you remember the movie A Fish Called Wanda? One of the jokes was that the Kevin Kline character was driving a US car in London and every time he got in and started driving, he was on the wrong side of the road and would scream "asshole" at the oncoming car.

View: https://youtu.be/RlylQ8XYqx8

Or at least I thought that was the joke. Now that I watch the clip isn't he driving on the left and turning into the left lane?

 

[Ian Sutton]

Yes, a motorcycle works everywhere.

But you still have to remember which side of the road to stay on! When going from one place to another and having to drive on the other side of the road, I have found for the first few days that you have to pay attention when coming out of a parking lot or driveway. If you are on 'auto pilot' in your head, you tend to not choose which side of the road to drive on and can end up driving down the wrong side of the road!

I did this once in the UK and wondered why the idiot in the car coming towards me was on the wrong side of the road. It was me that was on the wrong side of course. Oops.

My favourite instance, was after the brains of the operation had driven through France and then about 3 weeks in Italy. We needed to move the car about 100 metres, so she said she'd do it and I could walk to meet her. She gets in the car, and simply drives it slowly on the same side of the road (the left) she was parked on, to the space we'd spotted. The passing traffic could see what she was doing and simply moved over without any fuss.

I remarked to her that she was now driving just like an Italian (ever the pragmatists, pretty much anything being ok as long as it is obvious what you are doing and you don't hold others up), but in fact she'd forgotten.

 

[Chris]

I remember once in Burgundy suggesting calmly "right side, Pauline, right side!"

 

[Pauline]

I remember once in Burgundy suggesting calmly "right side, Pauline, right side!"

Yes, that was on of my better "driving on the wrong side" incidents. I did a right turn at a T junction and went into the left lane. It felt so natural to be on that side of the road.

I am still laughing at @Ian Sutton 's story!

Years ago in Tuscany on a not busy country road we had a car driving in the wrong lane straight towards us. He veered to the correct lane at the last minute. Must have been a Brit!