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Contre-allee


Teamedup
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All you drivers, how do you cope with the contre-allees. The other day I missed my turn onto one and what a carry on I had getting to where I wanted to be. No u turns allowed on the main dual carriage road and anyway, I couldn't have got across even if I had been able to turn. I really don't know what to make of them, although sometimes they seem like very handy areas for parking.
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[quote user="Teamedup"]All you drivers, how do you cope with the contre-allees. The other day I missed my turn onto one and what a carry on I had getting to where I wanted to be. No u turns allowed on the main dual carriage road and anyway, I couldn't have got across even if I had been able to turn. I really don't know what to make of them, although sometimes they seem like very handy areas for parking.[/quote]

Hi Teamedup

Could you explain what contre-allees are. Just in case I come across any. [:)]

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[quote user="Teamedup"]I am more than a little curious as to how you have managed to avoid seeing or using contre-allées in France, if ofcourse you are a driver.[/quote]

I didn't say I had managed to avoid seeing or using them. I just wouldn't have known what to call them.

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Or the ones you make an awkward turn into against the traffic because you've seen a parking space and then when you get there it's handicapé and you now have to make a left turn against traffic in the middle of a set of traffic lights...

(St Hilaire du Harcouet, every time Julie wants to go to Maison Maison)

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I had never seen or heard the phrase contre-allée before, but now that I've looked it up, I can say fairly confidently that there's nothing uniquely French about it.  It appears to mean a road that runs parallel to a main road but separate from it and with limited access from it, the idea being to prevent local visits, deliveries, etc, from causing obstruction to the main-road traffic.

If that's what it is, there are plenty of them in the UK (and elsewhere).  I think I've heard them called "service roads".

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Hmm not quite the same though. AND contre-allée are also used in big towns and even in some smaller ones to turn left, not that they look as if they have this important function, but they do. And I know that if I miss them, my 'main' road can whisk me off in directions I really do not want to be.

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