There are many rules in
The French are not revolutionary in the sense that they like change. On the contrary, they protect their traditions and their way of life against any change from authorities. Many presidents have tried to change some of the more ridiculous old rules from the Napoleon’s time without any luck. We have all sometimes admired/feared the French way of protesting though masses of tractors on the roads or through high jacking Spanish tomatoes trucks and spread the tomatoes over the highway. For those Frenchman not being lucky to take part in such things it is possible to show their importance and strengthen their human dignity by doing small thing every day. Parking the car is one of the most popular ways to show your individuality and mark you way through life.
The principles for parking in
- One basic principle is to park in such a way that you are to as much nuisance to others as possible. In that way you mark your place in history – for a short while anyway.
- Another principle is never to pay if you can avoid it. This principle is often in conflicts with the next principle.
- Always park where it is most convenient for you. This principle might sometimes be in conflict with number one. In those cases it is a matter of personality which one you choose.
- Never park where some authorities have decided you should park. Here the real creative can come up with the most fantastic solutions.
A little case study I made taught me a lot about French parking behaviour. Here is a report:
The first parking places that are taken are pavements, traffic islands and pedestrians’ crossings. Also popular are the grass inside roundabouts, lawns, street corners and other places that are not meant for parking. Surprisingly enough they never park outside driveway, a behaviour that seems to violate the first principle, but there is a difference between being a nuisance to just anybody and to somebody specific that owns that driveway. You do not do that! So, there is order even in anarchy!
OK – what happens if all these attractive but more or less unsuitable parking places are taken? You can always be boring and park in the street, preferably where it is forbidden to even stop, secondly where it is forbidden to park. If these places are taken and there is only dedicated parking space left you can park across two or three marked parking spaces and show that you are an individual and not a conformist that allow others to decide where you should leave your car. I have seen how real masters manage to park their car in such a way that they can prevent anybody to enter or exit the whole parking lot. This takes a very good mathematical and spatial intelligent to do.
In some places – especially at monuments and other attractions - it is not possible to park for free unless you are willing to walk a few minutes. I have seen parking lots that are half empty and still all places that are not meant for parking are full. That is off course the whole perimeter of the parking, the space between the rows, in the end of a row where there are no white lines, on the walkways in and out of the parking lot, and off course if there are any grass, flowerbeds or any other space unsuitable for leaving the car on. In the large parking lot of supermarkets – where it is free – many cars park on the elevated parts that divide the marked parking places rather than stand in the sparking squares.
One of the most amazing things I have seen was behind our apartment house in Sete where it was no stopping all day in the street. Off course there were always full of cars there. A couple of times a year we had these big celebrations in the town and Tour de France also passed by some years. At those occasions the police sharpened up the NO STOPPING with provisional signs saying NO PARKING and a little sticker that informed that this sign was valid between this and that date. That helped!
