Paris traffic

To come to Edinburgh I drove all the way from Catalonia. I am frequently asked if it isn't hard for me to drive on the other side of the road with a "continental" car. The truth is that is not hard, after a couple of days with scary moments one becomes used to it and drives happily around. The only problem is to pass other cars in standard roads and to pay in tolls, parkings or drive thrus. For all that a co-pilot is highly appreciated.

The thing is, that on the way up I drove thru Paris to have a quick glance of the city. With the help of my GPS device everything went fine, I drove in front the Eiffel Tower, around the Louvre or along the Champs Elisees. The problem came when I headed towards the Arc de Triomphe, there you can find one of the most dangerous roundabouts I've ever seen. As you can see in the map provided below, twelve (!) avenues meet at the same point. It is just insane.

There are no road signs and everybody thinks the roundabout of their property. For the non 'Parisien' is one of the most extreme driving experiences one can have, every five seconds you suffer a near crash. In fact, there is a non written agreement by which if there is a wreck each vehicle affected pays its own bill, no insurance companies are involved.



I even made a video of the Place de l'Etoile experience: