The Job’s Not Over ‘Till the Paperwork is Done
“Three months?” I ask, unbelieving I’d heard right. My instructor, Guy, smiles. “Minimum,” he adds. Not only am I subjected to the rude awakening of driving school and two tests AGAIN in my short life, I won’t be able to take the final exam behing the wheel before the winter holidays. This is how it works in France, where it’s all State run: go to a driving school and submit ten forms of ID and a large fee (covering the lessons for the written, on the road lessons, and the cost of the exams), then the forms get sent to the Prefecture de Police, who stamp a date for the written exam no earlier than one month away. If you pass the written, you wait a minimum of two weeks to take the behind-the-wheel test. Sounds okay, and I don’t have to take a minimum of 21 hours on-the-road practice because I’ve already got a US license (only time it’s come in handy). But, there’s a delay with the paperwork of three weeks before I get my first exam, and then after I pass the written, Guy tells me that there’s a backlog of final exams. He explains it like this: “There are only four examiners. One is half-time, one is quarter-time, and another has been out sick since August.” So as of today, I still can’t drive (although I’m paying insurance for the car wasting away in the garage). But I’ve already learned a lot! Here’s the dirt.
Americans Are From Mars, the French Are From Venus
We may all drive on the same side of the road and stop at STOP signs, but that’s about where the similarity ends. The written test here is hard. Very hard. Only half of the 60 or so test-takers passed in my group. The young student from my school failed a third time, always by one question (there are 40 multiple choice, usually with one to three correct answers on each question, and you must get 35 completely correct to pass). The reason for this is the simple fact that the French love signs. There are more signs in France than in the US, by far, and some are so absurdly rationalized, that it’s no wonder most people fail the exam. A classic: the ‘yield’ sign with a bicyclist on it facing right means that bicycles will be crossing from the left side of the road, but a ‘yield’ sign with a bicyclist facing left means that bicycles will be crossing from the left or the right. Enough to drive us all mad. On many streets in France, there are no speed limit signs. This doesn’t mean ‘speed as you like’, although most do (more on that later). The type of road denotes the speed unless otherwise marked (in kilometers, by the way). So in city limits, the limit is 50kph, on national roads it’s 90kph, unless there is a median strip separating the two directions of traffic, then it’s 110kph. On highways it’s 130kph. On all of these, if it’s raining or you’ve had your license less than two years, subtract 10kph from the limit.
