Driving in France

Trip Start Apr 30, 2004
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Trip End May 09, 2004


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Wednesday, May 5, 2004

The 17-mile road over the green coastal mountains is charming. This is a typical French byway with the traditional plane and poplar trees planted on either side making a shady avenue. For tourists, they are part of the fabric of France - tree-lined avenues throwing dappled shade on to country lanes. For local authorities, they are a menace. Over the past 30 years they have felled thousands of maples, planes and poplars because of fears that they distract drivers and cause accidents. About 750 people a year are killed on tree-lined rural roads. The writer Albert Camus died in 1960 when he drove into a tree. But the policy may be about to change. A government crackdown on drunk-driving and speeding cut the carnage on French roads by almost 20% last year, leading campaigners to argue that booze rather than bark is the real problem. People are at last realising that the trees are not what cause these deaths, it's drinking and speeding that are the real problems. If you tackle them, the deaths drop. Unfortunately the only way to widen these French roads is to cut down one entire side of the venerable avenue. Fortunately this is now rarely done. Either they make a divided highway (one road in the avenue, one outside) or just remake the road outside of the avenue. The remainder are surfaced right up to the tree trunks, meaning the road stays quite narrow, but maintains its characteristic French ambiance.

Our country drive is soon over as we arrive at Le Luc and join the A8. La Provençal Autoroute runs right across Provence from the Italian border to Aix-en Provence, which is our next destination. The 50 miles to Aix are done in less than an hour at a cost of € 6.50. Contrary to autoroutes in the U.S. and U.K., autoroutes in France are built by the government, then administered and maintained by private companies. ASF is the company that runs the auto routes in the South of France. Cost is about € 0.65 per kilometer, somewhat higher than equivalent tolls in the U.S.A. As a matter of interest, the autopistas in Mexico (and the only autopista in Guatemala), are run on the same system.

Upon arrival in Aix, we must find somewhere to park. The historical centre is mostly traffic free, so we must select one of about 10 large car parks dotted around the perimeter of the city core. After a bit of confusion, we finally enter a parking lot, lock up the car and walk into the darkening administrative capital of Provence http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/aix/aix.htm.
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