I’m somewhat embarrassed to think of the number of miles I’ve driven in Europe without fully understanding the Priorité à droite rules — that’s the French name, at least, though other countries have something similar. This means you should often give way to traffic simply because it’s coming from the right, even if, say, you’re on a larger road and other vehicles are approaching from a smaller road on your right.
When is this the case? This video is a good and detailed explanation, and is valuable viewing for anyone visiting France from the UK or US:
It’s also worth noting that the signs showing the name of a village, as you enter it, may also contain clues as to what is expected of you.
It used to be the case, I believe, that most French roundabouts also worked this way: when you were on the roundabout, you still had to give way to traffic approaching from the right. They changed this, though — I remember big signs when visiting in my youth that said ‘Vous n’avez pas la priorité!’ as you approached the roundabout — so I believe all French rond-points work the same way as the UK, now – but do post comments if I’m wrong!
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It feels utterly alien to us, but when you actually think it through there’s a great deal of sense to it: you (should) only ever need to look one way, and I think it has the effect of slowing traffic down as you need to be looking in to every junction.
My main experience of it is in the Netherlands where right-priority (rechts voorang?) is not universal. It seems to be in suburban and more rural areas. Pay attention to the signs and road markings more than ever.
I too am loath to admit how many kilometres I drove or cycled in NL before fully understanding it…