If you are driving in France or Spain, get a GPS gadget. We have Thomasina, our trusty TomTom, and couldn’t do without her. We might still be driving around Charles de Gaulle airport if we didn’t have her!

Roundabouts are tricky in Spain. If you want to turn left on a roundabout you need to go all the way around the roundabout. Do not tell the driver to go right around the roundabout, it confuses him and things get tense.
Many roundabouts have lots of roads coming in and out of them because of the large numbers of one way streets. When Thomasina tells you take the third exit, does she mean exit or street? Because a road that is coming one way into a roundabout is not technically an exit. If you think it is confusing reading this, try driving it!

Give way to your left……to your left dear…..GIVE WAY TO YOUR LEFT!!

Whoever is in charge of roads in Spain obviously doesn’t have much faith in drivers’ ability to know what side of the road they should be driving, love these cute signs painted on the road

The relationship between tourist maps of towns and cities, where streets are, and where they go, bears little resemblance to reality. This applies to walking and driving. Do not expect to read the map before you set off and actually get there in a reasonable amount of time. You will get lost at least once a day. This can cause great angst to the guardian of the map.

 

Thomasina does not recognize bollards across streets and insists on sending you down said streets.

Many streets are paved and narrow and look like a pavement,

street names are on the side of buildings, not conveniently marked on a sign post, so it can be very difficult to work out where the bloody hell you are (or words to that effect!)

If at all possible, check things out before driving in large towns. Otherwise park when you get there and don’t get back into the car until it is time to leave. Walking gives you an excuse for patatas bravas and a bucket of beer.