Périphérique in Paris is fun in the rush hour as changing lanes in nose to tail traffic is not easy. However, what you must remember is if a side road to your right has no Give Way sign / lines then you give way to the joining traffic, likewise on a roundabout, with no Give Way signs / lines, you give way to the traffic joining. Busy cross roads with no road markings are fun NOT.

Personally, I would rather drive 500miles in France then 50 miles in the UK as outside of the major cities, population and traffic densities are much lower, so driving is much more relaxed and enjoyable and their roads are generally in much better condition than ours with far fewer pot holes.
Navigation through Paris on their small roads is difficult using their Mitchelin equivalent of A-Z as every small district seems to have a Rue Charles de Gaulle, Rue Napoleon etc, but I'm sure it is a lot easier with Satnavs.
Motorbikes in Paris tend to filter through stopped and slow moving traffic at very high speeds.
Night driving is different as they don't have cats eyes in the middle of the road, but generally dashed lines on each edge of the road on busier roads and the only cats eyes I've seen over there are green ones, showing motorway exit roads. Toll booths are easy enough when you have somebody in the passenger seat, a pain when you are driving on your own.
You used to be able to drive very fast on their motorways when travelling late at night, as there were never any Gerdames around. Now there are lots of fixed and mobile cameras and harsh penalties.
Standard of driving is generally lower than this country, and to every Frenchman, his car is an extension of his pen*s. I've seen some mad and stupid driving over there and they do like tailgating. Very often they will tailgate you all along, a long straight and then overtake just as you are entering a blind bend.
