Decided to avoid the Coronation dog and pony show with a week in Normandy. Had fond memories of driving a two seater forty years ago on the French highways. Sadly disappointed to find that France now has 80km/h limits , often 70km/h, on the single highway roads and towns and villages now at 30km/h with endless speed bumps to boot. Tragedy, roads as good as before with little to no traffic but no opportunity to exploit them, at least legally. Locals seem keen to ignore the 30 limit but I got really fed up with being tailgated by them while trying to stay legal. In parts the 30 limit runs for mile after mile, utterly frustrating.. Ah well. Driving standards still awful, had several near misses with this one particularly egregious.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pli96ihc4kfo6hj/220101_232012_856%20copy.mov?dl=0
wide angle lens makes it look further away than it was, we were lucky to avoid a collision.
Took advice elsewhere on this forum and fitted the Emovis tag - works perfectly and makes the tollgates on the autoroute a doddle. Also bought the Critair sticker, no problem at all. France still a lovely place to visit, but expensive by UK standards.
Very few two seaters on the road, saw five Alpines, all blue, and just one white F-type roadster in Deauville. Didn’t respond to a wave.
Car got a lot of admiring glances from passers-by though I doubt many knew what it was. Waze worked perfectly under CarPlay and does advise fixed camera locations but not reliably. Didn’t see many fixed cameras but they all seemed different designs and their function wasn’t obvious, unlike ours. Road surfaces variable, many as bad as ours, others billiard table smooth. Autoroutes excellent. Fuel stations few and far between off the autoroutes, mostly supermarket located. 98 octane available at all the ones we stopped at.
Brittany Ferries to Caen comfortable and reasonably priced. Normandy has much to offer and makes a pleasant short break from the UK. We got a weeks luggage in the boot with space to spare and we go well equipped. Need to plan the next trip now, Brittany perhaps.
One item of advice - it’s possible to park in front of the palace at Versailles which is great but so is the price - we paid €21.60!
Also note that card payments now pervasive, I think we used cash once. Keep a few euro coins for the occasional parking meter though, a couple didn’t like my card.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pli96ihc4kfo6hj/220101_232012_856%20copy.mov?dl=0
wide angle lens makes it look further away than it was, we were lucky to avoid a collision.
Took advice elsewhere on this forum and fitted the Emovis tag - works perfectly and makes the tollgates on the autoroute a doddle. Also bought the Critair sticker, no problem at all. France still a lovely place to visit, but expensive by UK standards.
Very few two seaters on the road, saw five Alpines, all blue, and just one white F-type roadster in Deauville. Didn’t respond to a wave.
Car got a lot of admiring glances from passers-by though I doubt many knew what it was. Waze worked perfectly under CarPlay and does advise fixed camera locations but not reliably. Didn’t see many fixed cameras but they all seemed different designs and their function wasn’t obvious, unlike ours. Road surfaces variable, many as bad as ours, others billiard table smooth. Autoroutes excellent. Fuel stations few and far between off the autoroutes, mostly supermarket located. 98 octane available at all the ones we stopped at.
Brittany Ferries to Caen comfortable and reasonably priced. Normandy has much to offer and makes a pleasant short break from the UK. We got a weeks luggage in the boot with space to spare and we go well equipped. Need to plan the next trip now, Brittany perhaps.
One item of advice - it’s possible to park in front of the palace at Versailles which is great but so is the price - we paid €21.60!
Also note that card payments now pervasive, I think we used cash once. Keep a few euro coins for the occasional parking meter though, a couple didn’t like my card.