Driving in France

It's easy to drive in France.  Sure. The French drive on the right and they have cars that work like ours, even if the car names are a bit strange.  You rent the car, they throw you the keys, and off you go.  Then the education begins - narrow roads, traffic circles, strange signs that mean nothing to a North American, weird rules to the road, huge difficulty in finding road signs, and to top it off, amazingly aggressive drivers.  On this last point, we have seen people do things that I have never seen back home.  So, easy to drive in France, yes.  But it's even easier to get into an accident or to get lost.  My personal opinion is that no North American should be given keys to a car without reviewing a booklet of road signage and driving rules and customs.  Here's some observations and thoughts:

1. Get a GPS.  We rented one with the car.  It may not be perfect, but it easy to use and the display is very readable.  It provides a huge confidence booster when, at speed, you're trying to figure out which road to take in an urban area.
2. Cars can not turn right on a red light.
3. A car entering from a road on the right MAY have the right of way even if you are on a bigger road and have no signage to say you don't have the right of way.  This is incredible and seems to make no sense.  I looked on the internet to figure this out, and the stated feeling is that no one could figure out why this rule exists, and why signage can be absent where this occurs.  In many locations there is signage, but not all locations.  Once you understand how this condition is covered in signage you have half the battle won.  It is where this condition exists in the absence of signage that it is very dangerous.
4. Driving too slowly will encourage some around you to drive extremely aggressively.
5. Slower traffic stays to the right.  The French practice this well and are very unhappy with slow cars in the left lane.
6. The French definition of a reasonable gap between moving cars is about a quarter of that in the GTA.  To their credit, they seem very skilled at moving in tight spaces at speed.  Kind of what you would see on a race track.
7. Roundabouts work really well as long as you enter with confidence and are not too slow.
8. Roundabouts are everywhere and in curious sizes and designs.
9. There is no grid system of streets in most places with the exception of large cities.
10. The super highway system works very well.  However, they are all tolled.  Our trip from Capestang to Bordeaux cost approximately 30 Euros for around 400 km.
11. Why talk to someone when you can use a horn!  And what the heck, use it again.  Why not again. Ok, never stop.
12. Fill the gas tank with the right type of gas!!!
13. They have micro, no nano, gas stations.  I can't believe how small they can be.
14. Be good with a standard drive car, starting from a stop, on a near vertical incline, with a car 2 inches from your rear bumper.  If you may not be good with this one, forget driving - take the train - way less stress.

So far, the driving experience has been ok, but interesting.  The best idea of all for successful driving, have a copilot to help navigate.