Ruen
People rate this town highly. Stunning catherderals etc...

Yeah? Well try driving round it!

I got in ok, getting out was a nightmare. Followed the signs, followed a map - and still ended up where I bloody started.

Couple that with the fact that it was the weekend of the Bastille celebrations and you can't get a hotel for love nor money either.

Got royally bollocked by the misses when we pulled up at one hotel in time to see a poor chap being taken away in an ambulance after having suffered a heart attack. I perhaps shouldn't have suggested that as they now have a room free.....

Finally got through it and arrived where I was supposed to 8 hours later. On the way back, I figured that perhaps I'd just been unlucky, or read the map wrong (this was pre-gps days).

Nope. The same frigging story on the way back - only this time I saw two coaches with UK plates and a Rugby motif on the site - I figured they'd be on their way to Cherbourg and followed them. For hours.

They were on their BLOODY WAY to the match, NOT, as I had hoped, on the way home.

Another 6 hours late for a bloody ferry.
(dchurch bah, Fri 30 Oct 2009, 19:37, 5 replies)

rouen
There is a knack to crossing Rouen from north to south. There is a sneaky lane-change required part way across, which is very badly signposted and as soon as you see it, you have about 2 seconds to get into the correct lane despite any other traffic in the way before it shears off. If you miss it, you are fucked, but once you have it sussed, its plain sailing.
(dave likes cheese, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 10:03, closed)

Fair play
(and I realised I spelt it wrong too after your reply!).

Nowdays I drive straight through Paris instead of going across the top and down - I find it easier. In fact, I'd find it easier to reverse around Paris than forwards through Rouen.
(dchurch bah, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 11:31, closed)

Paris
I tried that, and all was going well until a stub axle snapped off my trailer in the middle lane of the Paris ringroad. I could only see about half a mile of jammed traffic visible behind me as everyone filtered past, but from the traffic news on the radio, a fairly decent proportion of paris was screwed up that day.
(dave likes cheese, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 13:17, closed)

It's not all bad
My great great great grandparents moved from there to - wait for the punchline - Gravesend. Also, if you know where to find it, there's a MacDungalds - proper food among all that foreign muck!
(The Jannie, Sun 1 Nov 2009, 16:43, closed)

Aaaaargh
When I was 12 we went on holiday in the west of France, and drove down from Calais. We were stuck in Rouen on the hottest fucking day ever driving round and round for 2 hours. I'm sure it's pretty and lovely, but not from the back seat of a Vauxhall Astra in 30 degrees heat, it's not.
( milkybarnick is calming down Boris on, Sun 1 Nov 2009, 23:40, closed)