“There were two policemen waiting for me who were so well-dressed in their uniforms – LA shades, shiny leather boots and pristine white trousers that looked more like tights - it felt like I was walking towards ‘performers’ from a porn movie rather than two officers from the law,” he says.

“I was summoned over for a prolonged and tedious interrogation during which I had to produce every piece of documentation relating to me short of bank statements and shopping bills.”

Meanwhile, our regular writer Jon Bryant relied on good old British charm when he moved to France five years ago. “I was driving around a roundabout, lost, and accidentally went through some red lights.

A policeman pulled me over and said to me ‘Vous êtes doux’. I'd only just arrived in France and thought it slightly odd that a policeman was saying I looked nice/sweet. I just replied, ‘merci’.

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’Non,’ he said angrily, ‘Vous etes d'ou?....vous etes d'ou? Where are you from?’ ‘Oh, Angleterre!’ I replied. He tutted and waved me on.”

While you may not be grateful for your own meeting with a gendarme, it seems their hard-line attitude has made a difference to French drivers’ reputation for erratic driving. Brittany Ferries’ Stephen Tuckwell says: “The French have changed their driving habits from one of reckless disregard of any speed limit to one of disciplined adherence.

"It is rare to witness a French car speeding. This means that the roads are a lot safer than they used to be so, together with the low density of traffic in western France, this makes driving and discovering hidden places in Normandy and Brittany a delight.”

If you only have a few days spare, don’t give up on a driving holiday over the Channel, follow Radio 2’s Sally ‘Traffic’ Boazman’s example.

“If I am feeling a bit France-deprived, I will drive down to Dover, get on a boat and I will drive from Calais down to St-Omer. I will just go to the market and have lunch and come back or I will stay in a chateau for the weekend. The drive is quite lovely in places and I always have this feeling of ‘Gosh, I am back here and it’s so lovely’.”

And if that’s not enough to tempt you, Jeremy Clarkson, the king of driving himself, admitted on Timesonline that “France has everything anyone could ever want from a holiday destination and, of course, it’s right next door.“

Bonne route!

France Magazine’s Driving in France book (£7.99) is available from www.francemag.com/drivingbook, WHSmiths and Amazon. It includes information on planning your trip, rules and regulations and the best routes from north to south.

Carolyn Boyd is editor of France Magazine, Britain and North America’s best-selling magazine about all things French. Go to www.subscription.co.uk/france/T069 to get three issues for £3. To find out more or to buy a single copy (£3.99) see www.francemag.com. Follow France Magazine on Twitter, or join France Mag on Facebook.

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