IT would be fair to say that when it comes to transport innovation France has never really been at the cutting edge of technology.

As long as you don't consider the Montgolfier brothers or Louis Bleriot, that is. There was also that fellow at Citroen that gave us some iconic vehicles like the traction avant in the 1930s, but then he negated them all with the 2CV. Of course there was also the TGV train, and the Concorde that they had a 50 per cent hand in.

Okay, the theory doesn't quite hold water, but for the sake of argument I would like to look at some of their less successful forays into the transport world. The first being of course the insistence on driving on the wrong side of the road. This was, like so many other things, due to Napoleon, the size of his wagons and the need for drivers to stop in the middle of the road and chat to each other, a custom carried on to this day.

Most likely they are stopping to chat about the latest accident caused by some minor routes having priority to pull out on to main roads. As you are merrily bowling along an A-road at maximum legal speed you may well be confronted by somebody pulling out in front of you, with the full weight of righteousness behind them. If the road is not one that is familiar to you, the only way that you can know that they have priority is the fact that there is no solid white line in front of the end of their road and no Give Way' triangular signpost.

Of course you can only know these things if you have ESP, but if you hit that car it will be your insurance picking up the tab.

The other great priority faux pas was the old roundabout system. Besides being late adopters for Tarmac, preferring cobbles, and refusing to fit cats' eyes because they wouldn't pay the British royalties, France was also very late to adopt the roundabout. But when they did, they made a stupendous error in giving priority to people joining the roundabout. This was brought home to me when travelling behind a Renault 4 which was broadsided by a motorcycle that was happily going round the circle. Luckily the Renault was basically a biscuit tin, so it was rather like driving into a tin pillow and nobody was seriously hurt.

Late adopters are not necessarily bad adopters. Having bided their time, they can often prove to be extremely enthusiastic. Anybody watching the recent Tour de France will be aware of this, especially if they were watching the Figeac to Toulouse leg, which passed through Gaillac. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have seen the finest roundabout in France, if not the whole world.

It is to be found next to the local Leclerc hypermarket, and it is a large roundabout set in a frame of Mediterranean umbrella pines. In the centre of the roundabout they have built a small pigeonnière (typical of the region) set in its own immaculately tended vineyard. The whole thing is a beautiful little symphony of form over function. Not only that, but being ever pragmatic, they do actually harvest the vines and make bottles of plonk out of them. They sorted out the priority thing and then they found a way to get drunk from the bit in the middle. Not cutting edge, but a great result. I'll drink to that.