h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's interesting to compare French drivers with the British. The French certainly drive too close behind you and much too fast for the conditions which most British are eager to tell you - but they are much better motorway drivers, in that they will pull back to the inside lane after overtaking which the Brits are terrible at doing - middle lane driving really does not exist in France as it does in the UK. I often go over to our cottage ( http://www.lagite.co.uk on the Western Loire border) and am surprised by how courteous the French driver is compared with our counterpart in the UK - but I suspect it's just a matter of time till they have the traffic density we have here.

middle lane driving does exist, but the worst culprits are indeed foreign drivers, of which there are a great many on french roads, expecially in summer.

it is forbidden to overtake such drivers on the right, and as such they can create serious bottlenecks even when conditions are otherwise good. so do remember to get all the way over to the right after overtaking, even if you will need to overtake again a quarter-mile further.

if you get into the extreme left lane to overtake, look very carefully behind first. even if speed limits are 130 kmh, and the general flow of traffic is closer to 140 (87mph!) there will be unfortunately be drivers who squat the left lane at speed well over 100 mph.