{"id":6497,"date":"2013-09-18T15:53:35","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T15:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/?p=6497"},"modified":"2014-08-24T17:29:43","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T17:29:43","slug":"car-spotting-cote-dazur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/","title":{"rendered":"Car-spotting on the C\u00f4te d’Azur"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The French Riviera – ‘a sunny place for shady people’.<\/p><\/div>\n

On holiday in France we\u00a0couldn\u2019t help but notice that the French\u00a0attitude to parking was a little more laissez-faire than at home.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I came home from holiday in France recently with a new appreciation for the\u00a0French way of life. The French are not too in your face. They are polite but\u00a0friendly and at the same time not too overbearing (my attempts to string\u00a0together a few sentences in French may have helped to break the ice on more\u00a0than one occasion).<\/p>\n

I saw this same cool, relaxed demeanour in the sensible approach to car\u00a0ownership. In the city, small cars rule. The city streets of Nice were lined\u00a0with a medley of small, compact hatchbacks with only the rare SUV or saloon\u00a0on show. I saw every small hatchback from the Holy Trinity of French\u00a0carmakers from the last twenty five years and more Renaults 5s and Peugeot\u00a0205s than you could shake a baguette at. Battered, but definitely not giving\u00a0up any time soon.<\/p>\n

This brings me to the next point. The French seem to be less obsessed with\u00a0the size and age of their car. Aside from the clapped out Renaults, there\u00a0are loads of Smart cars and Fiat 500s here and MEN DRIVE THEM. And that\u2019s\u00a0completely okay. No smirking or finger wagging or guffaws of \u201cthat\u2019s a chick\u00a0car\u201d. That\u2019s how comfortable they are with themselves.<\/p>\n

Of course this part of France is a millionaire\u2019s playground and lots of the mare living it up in their luxurious pads in the hills around Nice and\u00a0cruising around Cannes and Monte Carlo when the sun goes down. I had to stop\u00a0by at some of the luxury showrooms to gawp at the cars. Porsches, Ferraris\u00a0and Maseratis pepper the streets of Cannes and Monte Carlo. The locals don\u2019t\u00a0seem to care but the flashy metal will stop most tourists in their tracks.<\/p>\n

While I appreciated the sensible approach to car-buying and the lack of SUVs\u00a0in the city, I was less keen on the French attitude to parking. It\u2019s typical\u00a0laissez faire with a sort of anything goes attitude. I watched in horror as\u00a0a gent parallel parking in a Clio reversed into the car behind as if it was\u00a0the most normal thing in the world to do when parking. This sort of bump and\u00a0shunt approach to parking was everywhere. Cars sat on each other\u2019s bumpers\u00a0on the city streets, packed in like sardines. Each car bore the wounds of\u00a0this sort of car-parking warfare \u2013scrapes, scratches and dents adorned\u00a0bumpers.<\/p>\n

With space at a premium it\u2019s no wonder the French love Smart cars and the\u00a0Renault Twizy could be a big hit here \u2013 I spotted two in just one day.\u00a0Arriving back in Dublin and sitting behind yet another SUV I couldn\u2019t help\u00a0but think the French have it right when it comes to cars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

19th September, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On holiday in France we\u00a0couldn\u2019t help but notice that the French\u00a0attitude to parking was a little more laissez-faire than at home. I came home from holiday in France recently with a new appreciation for the\u00a0French way of life. The French are not too in your face. They are polite but\u00a0friendly and at the same time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1433,1432,503,1434,569],"yoast_head":"\nCar-spotting on the C\u00f4te d'Azur - wheelsforwomen.ie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The French attitude to parking is a little more laissez-faire than at home particularly in the C\u00f4te d'Azur\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Car-spotting on the C\u00f4te d'Azur - wheelsforwomen.ie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The French attitude to parking is a little more laissez-faire than at home particularly in the C\u00f4te d'Azur\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"wheelsforwomen.ie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wheelsforwomen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-18T15:53:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-24T17:29:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/monte.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"wheelsforwomen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"wheelsforwomen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"wheelsforwomen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/370813e71db1d9739be435d00fa88350\"},\"headline\":\"Car-spotting on the C\u00f4te d’Azur\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-18T15:53:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-24T17:29:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/\"},\"wordCount\":521,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Car-spotting\",\"C\u00f4te d'Azur\",\"Featured\",\"French Riveria\",\"parking\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wheelsforwomen.ie\/index.php\/car-spotting-cote-dazur\/\",\"name\":\"Car-spotting on the C\u00f4te d'Azur - 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