I hate France so much.

Narrow roads? I suppose so in a few very rural areas, especially in mountainous areas where building them was difficult and costly. Otherwise in quite a number of very pleasant holidays in France over the years,with groups of friends, I found most of the ordinary roads are at least a respectable two lanes wide. Hardly "narrow".

They have their equivalent of motorways (les Péages), mainly toll-roads (almost all of the UK's M-ways are toll-free), but not all of us used them. Outside of the large towns the traffic was usually quite light, too.

...

I think I have met only one rather chilly reception, when two of us had an evening meal in a small restaurant in the port town of Calais prior to catching the ferry home next morning. I think the problem was that this was something of a locals' ordinary eatery away from the masses of tourists and "booze-cruisers" (Britons going across the Channel on day-trips to buy lots of wine at lower than home costs). I can understand that as I live in an area with several seaside resorts and worse, second-homes. The staff were civil but rather cold towards us.

Otherwise my friends and I were generally welcome, and very much because we respected the locals and their way of life, we used their cafes and shops, and we always tried to speak whatever fractured French most of us could only remember from school lessons in the language.

Which to be honest had not encouraged me because it seemed all very formal, Irregular Verbs and trying to remember any noun's gender. (They were m, f or neuter, but these days...)

I don't know if the area helps. We were well away from the big cities and nowhere near the seaside and ski-ing resorts, but in places where the majority of the other tourists were French.

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One friend had a rather frosty reception once when trying to ask a farmer for directions. The Frenchman thought we were German thanks to the enquirer's Northern English accent! Once he realised we were all English he was really friendly and helpful.

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Similarly on holidays in Norway, where I found most younger people speak English at least passably - but they still genuinely appreciate it when you remember your Venglist og Tewsen Takk ( = S'il Vous Plâit et Merci Beaucoup).