Driving in France: Rules of the Road and Road Signs
Renting a car is a great way to see a new place, especially if you want to get to out-of-the-way places and avoid the limitations of train routes. Getting from one major city to another is a breeze by train, but if you’d like to get off the beaten path a bit or just have more say about when you travel and how long you spend in each town, a car is your ticket to freedom.
Before you drive in a new country, it is very important that you familiarize yourself with the rules of the road and the signs you will encounter along the way.
In France, as in the U.S., drivers move along the right side of the road. Unfortunately, this similarity gives foreign drivers (from the rest of continental Europe as well as North America) undue confidence; they assume that driving on the same side of the road means the rules of the road are the same.
Now, I have driven on the left in Ireland and New Zealand, and though I was slightly terrified, I was definitely paying attention. Even though you may be driving on a familiar side of the road in France, it’s important to stay alert and pay attention to the signs and signals around you.
Right of Way • Traffic Lights • Roundabouts • Road Signs
Right of Way
Céder la priorité (To give right of way/to yield)
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The rules of yielding are slightly different in France than they are in the U.S. As a general rule (unless otherwise indicated), you must always yield the right of way to the driver coming from the right. This is true of unmarked four-way intersections, T-junctions, and roundabouts.
Some intersections (especially T-junctions) are marked with this sign to remind drivers that they must yield.
A car stops to yield to traffic from the right.
The rule applies whether or not this sign is present, unless otherwise indicated. When a regular yield sign (without an x in the middle) is present, you must give way to traffic coming from both directions.
Traffic Lights
Les feux (de signalisation)
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Thankfully, traffic lights work much the same way in France as they do in the U.S. The main difference is the positioning of the lights. In the U.S., many of our intersections features large, overhanging traffic lights. In France, traffic lights are attached to poles or building at the right side of the road, and sometimes difficult to see (when you aren’t looking for them). It is therefore very important to pay attention to your surrounding to make sure you don’t run a red light!
Roundabouts
Les ronds-points
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In small traffic circles without signs, the right-yield applies. This means (unless otherwise indicated), traffic within the circle must yield to traffic entering the circle.
Most larger roundabouts are fitted with a combination of two signs:
The first appears in (or just before) the roundabout and indicates that you are, indeed, about to enter a real roundabout in which you must yield right of way. The second appears to the right of each driver as he or she enters, indicting they must give way to traffic already in the circle.
Road Signs
Yielding
A standard yield sign is an inverted red triangle. Any image appearing below a yield sign (such as a bicycle or motorbike) means that the yield only applies to the operators of those vehicles.
Yield to drivers in both directions.
A sign like the one below may appear under a small yield sign, indicating the distance to the yield sign in question.
If a sign like this appears below a yield sign, it indicates the distance to an upcoming stop sign.
Thankfully, stop signs look exactly the same in France as they do in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.
A stop sign overrules the general laws of right of way. At a four-way stop, you still yield to the right. At a two-way stop or T-junction with a stop sign, the drivers without stop signs will not yield to you; you must stop fully and yield to all other traffic.
Many old roads in France are quite narrow and require indication of right of way between two-directional traffic. This sign indicates that you must give way to oncoming traffic (pull over).
This sign indicates that you have the right of way and that the oncoming driver must pull over.
Keep in mind that other foreign drivers may not understand this sign, and proceed with caution.
Warnings and Danger
As mentioned above, this sign is a reminder of the established rule that all drivers must yield to traffic coming from the right.
Yield to traffic coming from the right.
As a general rule, signs indicating danger or warnings of any kind are enclosed in a right-side-up red triangle, such as the one above. Everything from depicted warnings of winding roads, loose gravel, and draw bridges to pedestrian, school and deer crossings are indicated in a sign with a red triangle.
Passage pour piétons
Look out for signs with the word piétons, as this means “pedestrians,” and can indicate that people may be crossing the road.
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Do Not Enter, Wrong Way, etc.
All signs indicating a prohibited area or direction appear in a red circle. A plain red circle simply indicates no access to an area by cars coming from any direction.
Do Not Enter
This sign means “Wrong Way” (i.e. - when turning the wrong way onto a one-way street).
Any other signs that appear in a red circle can be interpreted by the picture within. If a bicycle, motorcycle, car, truck or other vehicle is prohibited in a space, it will appear within a red circle.
This sign means No Passing:
This sign means No Parking:
This sing means No Parking and No Stopping:
Places where parking is allowed will display blue signs with a white P. In general, blue signs indicate that something is permissible or obligatory (i.e. - pedestrian/bike/horse paths).
Road Work
In general, road work signs in France look much like they do in the U.S. and other countries. Key words to look out for are travaux (road work) and déviation (detour). Everything else will be indicated with images or arrows.
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Anne has studied and spoken French for over a decade and has lived in both France and Francophone Cameroon. She strives to write lessons that reflect her real experiences and represent the way people really speak.
