France's notoriously willful drivers were begged to take a leaf out of British motorists' handbook on Thursday, and behave in a "courteous, cautious and civil manner."
"Why can we not drive like the British?" asked the popular daily Le Parisien on France's sixth annual Road Politeness Day -- ? in itself a notion that all those familiar with French roads would unhesitatingly describe as something of a contradiction in terms.
According to the French Association for the Prevention of Bad Behavior at the Steering Wheel (AFPC), which organized the day of leafleting and safety demonstrations: "British drivers stop systematically at pedestrian crossings and, in exchange, British pedestrians do not take it into their heads to cross the road anywhere else."
This is just one example of the kind of exemplary motoring that saw a mere six British citizens in every 100,000 killed on their country's roads in 2003, compared with more than 9.5 in 100,000 French, it said.
"British courtesy behind the wheel is legendary," said Delphine Arbonne, the AFPC's London representative. "Add to that a preventive policy in place since the 1970s, and you have the safest roads in Europe."
New radar speed traps and an unprecedented police crackdown cut the number killed on France's roads to just over 5,200 last year, compared with more than 8,000 five years ago. But Frenchmen remain Frenchmen.
According to a survey carried out for the AFPC, 87 percent of Gallic pedestrians say they "often" or "sometimes" have difficulty crossing the road at a crosswalk.
The same percentage consider themselves "good" or "very good" drivers, while 37 percent admit parking illegally "often" and 40 percent confess to regularly jumping traffic lights.
More than 22 percent use their mobile phones while driving.
Perhaps most revealing on the eve of Easter weekend, traditionally one of the most deadly on France's roads, more than 60 percent of French motorists say their fellow road users -- though not themselves -- are "rude, aggressive, selfish and quick to insult."
France may cherish some rather outdated illusions about the British gentleman driver. But, it seems, it still has some way to go before it rids itself of the kind of attitude summed up by the late Francoise Sagan, who was once given the last rites after a car crash.
"You can always die getting hit on the head by a flower pot," Sagan said. "But to die suddenly in a fast car -- for a Frenchman, that's a fabulous death."
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