By Car

The Autoroutes of France are a great way of getting to one part of the country to another. They are in perfect shape, the places to stop (aire de répos) are always very well organized - in Summer they often have activities for children - but there is one backdraw: péage. That means that you have to pay to use the autoroute, you get a ticket when you go on the autoroute and have to give the ticket and pay when you get off. It is always possible to pay with creditcard so you don't have to have small change in your wallet.

Freeways (autoroutes) are mostly in good conditions. They have 3 lanes in each direction and speed limits are 130km/h (drops to 110km/h when there are bad weather conditions). As in the rest in Europe it is obligatory to always drive on the right. On the freeway this means that you always have to drive in the right lane and only use the middle or left lane to pass. It is illegal to pass a car on the left. However, this is not strictly respected by many French people as are the speeding limits: it isn't unusual to see people drive 150km/h or more.

In contrary to North America, people don't give directions using "north-bound" or "south-bound". If you're in Paris and you need to go to Monaco, prepare yourself for the trip by knowing all major cities you are going to pass. That way you just drive from city to city.  If you know in advance which cities you're going to visit you might want to get your driving directions from www.mappy.com.It's the most comprehensive mapping program around and some travelers don't move around France withour it.