driving in france

After Barcelona we caught a train to Montpellier in the south of france to start our Provence-Cote d'Azur roadtrip.

We didn't stay long in Montpellier. It seemed like a nice enough town, perhaps with a somewhat gritty vibe. A good portion of the roads in town were under construction - i think they were laying tramtracks or something. 

Cool door fixtures!

We picked up the rental car the next day and headed towards Avignon. Joe did all the driving although it was no less stressful for me! We were driving a manual car (which he hasn't done for years), on the other side of the road, through unfamiliar streets with unfamiliar road signs. We spent about 30 minutes in the Europcar parking lot, just driving around in circles, practicing parking and changing gears (and stalling a few times). We were there for so long a Europcar staff came out and asked what the hell we were doing. It was a bit embarrassing, and we left soon after.

Once on the road though, it didn't seen so bad. We were able to throw our backpacks in the boot, stock up on food and water that we didn't have to carry from room to room, and driving is a whole lot easier than walking, especially when we travelled 1400 kms! (for which we were saved by having a GPS app and usb car charger!) 

Perhaps because we were avoiding tollroads, we drove through an awful lot of roundabouts in France.  There was also a good deal of narrow roads without centre marking but very close to ditches on either side - a bit unnerving.  Driving in towns and cities can be hellish, even with the GPS... If you ever go to Nice, avoid driving there at all cost unless you think circling around town in the maze of one way streets, never quite able to reach your destination is your idea of fun! But more on that later.

Driving in the French countryside is nice though, there are many beautiful treelined roads.

 Spectacular lookout points too! 

Stressful but worth it!