Thursday, 20 November 2008

The roundabout that isn't

Whenever I give people directions to our place, I tell them to come up the hill and turn right at 'the roundabout that isn't a roundabout'.  It looks like a roundabout, it has arrows that tell you to go around it like a round about, and has five roads leading onto it - but isn't a roundabout.  Why not? Because you don't have the right of way on it - which means you have to give way to anyone on your right who isn't on a stop sign.  In France, you give way to all traffic on your right (unless they have a sign telling them that they don't have the right of way) even if you're cruising down a straight road.  It's a bit nerve-wracking.

The roundabout that isn't, is clearly confusing to everyone here and there's a lot of stop-starting and hand signalling (not always so polite) as people work their way around it. There's also a fair amount of glass strewn around it at least once a week so it pays to be careful.  The only ones who seem to be happy with it are the taxi drivers - don't get the rules wrong in front of one of them or you'll definitely get tooted and sworn at!


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