Parker Happenings...: Driving in Paris

Remember how I said driving in Paris would be a post of its own, well, here you go. I am going to tell you why I think driving in Paris is a horrible, frightening, hair raising experience. But... I lived to tell it. :D

First off, it is super crowded there. Devin, having driving in New York, thinks it is about the same traffic wise. But in Paris, they drive wherever they want and the majority of the time, the roads don't have any lines.

Here in Utah, where we would have one lane with one car in it, they would try to fit 2 cars in it. Now the cars in Paris are smaller, and a lot of them drive those Smart Cars, but still... you could literally open your window and touch the car next to you. I wouldn't suggest it though, because motorcycles, they can drive down the middle of the road in between the 2 cars that are trying to fit in one lane.

You know how cars in the left lane turn left, and cars in the right lane, turn right. Well, something got messed up in Paris because cars in any lane can turn whenever they want. If you are driving in the left lane, and the car next to you in the right lane wants to turn left, you better drive faster to get past them, or slow down so they can pass you, otherwise plan on turning left with them. They basically just cut you off. It was funny to watch cars in front of you having to turn left because the car to the right of them wanted to go left. It wasn't funny though when it happened to me, and Tom Tom (GPS) had to recalculate to get me back on track.

There are round-a-bouts everywhere in Paris. I tried my hardest to avoid all the round-a-bouts I could, because, there are no rules for round a bouts besides going in one direction. They will fit as many cars as possible in a round-a-bout. You just drive in, drive close to the car in front of you so you can go where you want, and be prepared to slam on your breaks. Oh my gosh, it was horrible. I hated them. I would have a panic attack and get so stressed and nervous every time. lol.

One thing I did notice there. When there is red light, doesn't matter where you are at, you stop. You are probably saying 'duh' now, but, stop lights are placed so random in Paris, sometimes you would wonder why there was even a light there. Or if you are in the middle of the road and the light changes to red, you don't try to go anywhere, you just stop dead in your tracks. This was so funny to me. For example... I was in a supposed lane, wanting to go left, the car to the right of me wanted to go left, and the car to the left of me wanted to go straight. Then the light turned red. So, we all stopped. Now we have cars on the left side of us going straight, or trying to turn left. We had cars in front of us, on both sides of us, and we are stopped dead in our tracks. What would you do? I would panic and then go with the flow of traffic and then let Tom Tom do the rest.

Traffic in Paris at night. Don't drive at night. Traffic is heavy at night and definitely scary. In this picture it doesn't look that bad, but it is! At least on this road they have lines. See that motorcycle that was in front of us. Well, he just passed us on the left and was headed to the right of the car in front of him. I can't believe I didn't see any motorcycle accidents there.

This picture is on the freeway. I just wanted to take a picture to show you how the motorcyclist can drive down the middle of the road. Notice the car moving to the right. When you see a motorcycle coming down the middle, the cars move over so the motorcycles can drive by.

Just me, standing in front of a Smart Car. They are so small it was funny to see them everywhere. I would definitely get one if I lived there though. If I had one while I was there, I would have had more parking opportunities than I did. And where I did park, I would have been parked better without having my back tire on the curb.