Surely I should be judged on my driving. 
I did say I moved back over to lane 1 after passing. 
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Not 'arf, when your vehicle is not a car but a fully laden LWB van/16 seater coach [16 seater coach/refrigerated meat truck etc. I’ve driven these and more all over Europe.
People who have never driven a medium+ commercial vehicle have no idea of the danger they induce by overtaking into the vehicle’s ‘safety zone’.
The other dangerous habit that car drivers have when following a commercial vehicle is trying to overtake on roundabouts. I very rarely found this in UK but in ES and FR it’s very common - trying to nip thru’ on the inside or worse, round the outside just as the larger vehicle is about to take an exit.
Ah, I didn’t think of the second point.
I grew up next to the M1 and M25 junctions. Kind of overlooked it.
…and then they cut back in really sharply. They must be taught that, most do it.
Ha ha this comes up at least once a year. I have said it before, there should be no lanes on roundabouts, and in France, unlike the UK, there is some effort to stop overtaking, when a dual carriageway is reduced from 3 or 2 lanes to one before entering to stop it.
And in France HGV drivers are taught, and tested on, using the outside of roundabouts, using their left indicator if not intending to use the first exit, and switching to the right one once passed the last ignored one. The left indicator is ‘to inform drivers entering’ that they should give way, and to inform those following, not to overtake.
No idea if car drivers are taught the same, perhaps someone here has passed a test in France?
I’ve been wondering about that since I came to France. I tend to hang back anyway but it did make me curious.
Many years ago when OH learned to drive, we lived in Aberystwyth. The nearest roundabout was in Newtown, about 40 miles away. Fortunately, navigating a roundabout was not mandatory for the test.
Always the best plan whatever the rules, an artic driver is well bent in the middle on a small roundabout to the extent, modern wide angle mirrors notwithstanding, that small vehicles might be out of sight to the driver and the first thing that makes him aware that you are there, is the crunching sound as his large trailer wheels roll over your bonnet. 
Having seen some “interesting” dashcam footage online it seems that having a car wedged under the cab is not always obvious to the driver…
Yes, I remember that, and it is feasible, the angle of sight of the driver through the bottom of his screen can be insufficient to see a small car.
I think that car had pulled in front of the lorry into the driver’s blindspot, been spun sideways without ever becoming visible. A similar thing happened to me some years ago, but I did stop because I could just see the edge of the small van’s roof bobbing up and down at the very bottom of my screen. That was on an A road in UK not a motorway and the van, had pulled to a stop and then, with a change of mind, suddenly pulled away again across my path.
A bit like when I park my car in front of another using the mirrors to back up to it. When I think that is close enough, I stop, and get out, so often surprised at the large gap I have left.
I thought that you well well-assimilated into the French way of life, David. The correct procedure is to reverse until you feel a bump (possibly accompanied by the sound of bending metal). That’s how you know it’s time to stop
Indeed not. The Scandies [whichever] have trialed ‘paint free’ junctions and found that there are fewer accidents thereon.
Quite the opposite in Bristol where I have always maintaned there has been a deal behind the bike shed bewteen the highway dept and the road paint ‘supply & fit’ co. Lines, dots, dashes, arrows …
[quote=“_Brian, post:71, topic:50534”]
reverse until you feel a bump.[/quote]
Not advisable if you have a tow ball.
I did that one time -a tight fit into a parking bay. The merest teeny bump. Returning some time later, when I pulled away there was another sound. I got out to find the rad grill of the car behind hooked off by my tow ball. The grille being plastic, the ball had eased between two horizontals without damage.
As I was detaching the grill from my tow ball the driver of the car got out. He’d been there all the while!
The grill was retained by nodgets into holes. Push-to-fit. I went round knocking these nodgets back into their holes. The very last one, round the corner at the end, was broken. The grill was securely in place, just as before, but the driver made a thing about this broken fitting.
Perhaps he hoped there would be a cash compensation arrangement but I did it the ins co way.
“Ah well yes, you see it’s yer nodgets guv’nor. Dodgy things those nodgets…”
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I had that experience in my TVR. The V8S was tested by ‘Motor’ mag and declared a genuine supercar [in performance, anyway] 0-60 in 4.6". Faster to 60 than a Testarossa. Faster to 100 than a 308QV.
Rural Somerset - I came up on a line of cars behind a caravan. Long straight ahead. Foot to the floor - Wha?! Where did they all go?! Empty road ahead of me!
It was the first time I’d really experienced the grunt of that 4L V8 in a GRP body the size of the original MX5.
In 3 years I never got pinged for speeding but down in west Devon there were very few cameras. The 50 miles from Sourton Down on the A30 to past Exeter on the M% - no cameras. 
But then, a comment in the TVR CC mag “Talking power to weight - the m/c lads know all about that”
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French learners go on the motorway.
There was somewhere, I forget where, that everybody parks without setting the handbrake just so that parkers can shunt them back and forth in order to fit into the gap.
French drivers don,t seem to have the first clue as to how dangerous tailgaiting is,one solution is to flick your fog lights on,the offending driver will think you are braking and back off while you drive off normally,hopefully they might get the message,but i doubt it.
Paris.
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The driver behind…an E-bike.
Wasn’t sure what I was approaching this afternoon, but knew horses were pulling it. I assume this was a modern traveller, with a pair of good-looking well-cared-for horses.
On seeing the video later, I wondered if the traveller was going to overtake the E-bike. Is that allowed? Maybe they were together…
The background noise is my car heating fan. Cold day.
Looks like an E-bike to me.