Americans who have an American driving license have the right to drive in France for one year. After that, they must either exchange (temporarily) their American license for a French license, or take both le code de la route (“The rules of the road”, the written exam for a driving test) and the driving exam. I wanted to exchange my license but only certain states are eligible and my state wasn’t one of them. So I just kept on driving with my American license. Actually I don’t drive very often so it wasn’t a big deal. After all, I wasn’t even sure I was going to stay in France for very long. But after 6 years it started looking more likely that I’d stay, especially with a baby daughter, so I signed up for le code. I first tried to sign up with an English driving school but it was 3x more expensive and my company refused to pay for it. They said their budget for the year was over (it was in October) and that I could try again next year. Since I had a month of vacation planned for the birth of my daughter, I went ahead and signed up with a normal (French) driving school. 300 euros for le code. If I had known when I signed up that a year later I would still be studying for le code I would have just kept driving illegally with my American license!
I was really surprised at everything we had to know. Questions like “If you’re going 80 Km/hr, what is the distance required to come to a complete stop?” Or, “At 130 Km/hr what is the minimum security distance?” Now I was just two classes short of a minor in math and I was having a hard time with these questions. I studied reading the book, and I did over 30 practice exams (1 hour each), most with a professor. Over 40 hours of instruction total. I was still making 8 mistakes out of 40 questions, and the maximum amount of mistakes allowed was 5 in order to take the official exam. But since my tuition was only for one year, I was out of time. So with nothing to lose, and another year’s tuition to gain, I decided to try.
It wasn’t just the mathematic formulas that were different, all the rules are different. For example, in France there is priority to the right. That means if you’re driving straight ahead and a car approaches form the right, you have to slow down and let them pass. Now that may sound strange, but guess what? It is not strange, it’s insane! Every time you pass a street on the right, you have to slow down to check and make sure there is not a car coming. Personally I think the rules date back to before the automobiles, when people cruised around in horse drawn carriages. Then it was easy to stop and let the carriage to the right pass in front of you. But now days, with cars going fast, this priority to the right is pretty difficult. Add in different signs, tons of useless rules, roundabouts, etc. and you’ve got enough differences to blow your mind.
There were hundreds of mostly kids and a few of us older people. I couldn’t believe the questions, they were so easy. No mathematical calculations, just common sense. I had only 2 mistakes (you’re allowed 5). There were 4 people from our driving school and only 2 of us passed!
So then I took a driving evaluation with the instructor. He was very nice and told me everything I needed to work on. At 43 euros/hour he recommended 3-4 hours. So I got my wife’s brother, who is a very serious driver, to practice with me. After 4+ hours with him I was ready. Another hour and a half with the instructor and I was ready. I passed the test with ease.
In closing I want to point out something quite ironic about this whole process: Americans are allowed to drive for the first year without any training whatsoever, without even knowing the rules. Yet after a year, when we are more familiar with the rules and laws, we’re not allowed to drive. I don’t see the logic in it, but that wouldn’t be the only thing in France that isn’t logical.
And while it may be hard to believe, that’s how it took me 1 year to pass my driving test!
Maybe the idea is that you can ahve your accidents with French Flair?