french driving

This morning, on our bike ride to work, I was stopped at a crosswalk, waiting to cross. Cars were going by at the typical formula 1 speeds common in France, and I noticed a strange thing: there was a car in the bike lane across the street. This is not necessarily unusual, because he was using what Chloe and I call the "French Parking Pass": your hazard lights. Parked on the sidewalk in front of a fire hydrant? Fine as long as your hazards are on. Parked in the middle of the road blocking traffic? No problem with the blinkers on.

Anyway, when the little walking man turned green, I watched as this car CROSSED THE STREET BY DRIVING IN THE CROSSWALK. It then continued driving down the sidewalk and into the road, partially blocking the bike lane as it did this.

The strange thing about this is that it didnt seem that odd to me: I'm no longer
shocked by French driving! This brings up an interesting question, though: why are the french (they are certainly not alone in this) apparently completeley unencumbered by the laws of the road? I think the answer can be found in the motto of the French Republic: Liberté , égalité , fraternité . This motto is taken much more to heart than, for example "In God we Trust", and in most parts of French life its rather refreshing. When applied to driving, its a little less so:

Liberté  to do whatever the hell you want: the road signs are just humble suggestions, which should not impeach on your liberté to drive in reverse at 100 kmph against traffic on a one way street to get into a parking spot. Égalité  of right of way (when you dont have it): the road belongs to all of us, so even though the law states that the person in the roundabout has the right-of-way, égalité argues that we all have the right of way, and I am affirming that by lurching into the roundabout and cutting everyone off. Fraternité : ok this is where my theory fizzles; there is simply nothing approaching fraternité on French roads. But two out of three ain't bad.



No blog about life in france can be considered complete without a post on the driving, so thats out of the way.