Driving in Europe: England 1, France 0

I was told before we came here that French drivers are nutters. I don't know if they are necessaryily crazier than most, more like drivers in the Bay Area without the looking over their shoulder (or the use of gun fire).

In England, on the motorways, they drive fast, even faster than what we are used to on 280 at home. The fact that they do not have cops on the road is probably a factor. However, the vast majority of the drivers we came across were very polite. People generally wait their turn, wave if you let them through. The English roundabouts are well marked with signs and road paint to show which lane goes where. Also, in roundabouts with multiple lanes, the lanes are marked to show the exits the lane goes to. Once you get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, the roundabouts work pretty well, you don't get quite the backup you do at stop lights.

Notes: When driving in England 1)At the roundabout you yield to the drivers on your right. Not California yield, but a real yield; 2) You CANNOT make a left on a red light (the equivalent to our right on a red).

In France, the drivers seem to be polite, waving you across the street or letting you out of the driveway. But the roundabouts are a little unnerving at first. Remember in European Vacation when Chevy Chase got stuck in the roundabout in Paris? That could happen here. In roundabouts with multiple lanes, the lanes do not veer off to the exits like in England, to allow logical traffic flow. Its a matter of guts and glory, king and country if you are in the inside lane. They just go, sometimes they signal, rarely do they seem to look over their shoulder.

If you come to a stoplight and you leave a gap so as not to block an intersection, they will go around you and fill the gap. I don't think it is a matter of them being a******* about it, that is just the way they drive here. Kind of Third World with Western World traffic laws (at least I think they have traffic laws).

No right on a red in France.