I really love these random stops.
If you’ve ever taken the A10 motorway France between Bordeaux and Paris, it’s about a 500 km stretch that is fairly straight and, thus, a bit boring. But seeing these golden signs along the road was always a small event for me as a kid. They act as sporadic milestones: every time you see one, you know you’ve made progress and entered a new region.
I'm British-Canadian so the European roads hold no fear for me. I'd say to any worried North Americans (roundabouts, kms, aires), just do it some time - France in particular is a chilled place to drive motorhomes (RVs if you must) and I've never had any grief. We avoid Paris and other dense urban areas, but the beautiful countryside and easy autoroutes make for an excellent tour. We're off to Norway next month and I hope the signage is as interesting.
EDIT: https://youtube.com/shorts/Fs8h9SRqJ5I?si=eZNm9p5HirXkknmU
I thought you were talking about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGvj7GZSIo
Actually it's pretty consistent all across Europe. Almost everywhere, every entrance to the roundabout has the yield sign [1]. Without the yield sign, every incoming traffic is right hand traffic and those already on the roundabout have to give a way.
Now the trick is that yield signs at the entrance are so common that drivers assume they are always there.
The answer is, it depends, pay attention to the signs! Most of the time it’s the car on the roundabout, but not always.
So if it's an actual roundabout (aka, "rond-point"), then normal traffic rules apply for intersections: Priority to the Right. Vehicles already on the roundabout must yield to cars entering it.
Often, you have what is referred as "Carrefours à sens giratoire", which can very much look like "rond-points", but priority is to the vehicles already on the roundabout. For this reason, there will be a yield sign at the entrance of the roundabout to make it clear there's a special rule that applies to it. Sometimes you have traffic lights as well.
Yeah but that's theory and theory only.
I would say that 99.9% of anything that look like a roundabout is a "normal roundabout" where the priority is for people in the center, not for the ones entering. This is currently the same than the rest of Europe.
Place de l'étoile is an exception, not a rule and the total number of roundabout like that in the country can probably be counted on one hand.
Even with one lane intersections North America usually uses "all stop" if there's any amount of traffic to regulate the flow.
I just hate multi-lane roundabouts in general but the French ones I dislike even more. There's a lot more that you need to keep track of, the traffic in the roundabout and the traffic that wants to enter.
We had to slow down to 80mph in France.
It is common courtesy to move over or match speed so they can merge more easily, but that's not the law.
These are cool indeed.
I think their placement is weird though. They really don’t tell you how to get there. Sometimes they are very far from the thing they advertise. And you really shouldn’t go off the motorway when you see the sign. It could be quite confusing when you actually are planning to go to that place.
Also a bunch of places that are shown in the sign are privately owned like zoos and recreation parks. These tend to be iconic ones but it still feels a little off.