Driving in France

hondavfr

I was in France over a month ago driving a hired car and got a speeding ticket on the motorway. I got the details in the post today so be careful if you are driving out there. I was only 8 KPH over the limit.

skibum

Where did you get done? They did you for 138Km/h.....
I was there last month, drove from Barcelona to campsite in Languedoc, to Andorra and back, did a lot of driving, most of the time when I was on, or around the speed limit I was getting passed out by every thing form twingos to transits, never saw one cop or speed trap.

Whats the story, did the hire company take the fine out of your credit card?
How much was it for?
Was it a speed camera or did you get stopped by the Gendarmes?
Thanks

mikedragon32

Approaches to a lot of cities in France are literally one speed trap after another. I reckon Strasbourg is the worst. I swear they're within a few hundred meters of each other! I've never seen anything like it.

Not all autoroutes are 130kmph either. Long stretches of the A6 near Nice are 100 or 110...

skibum

Meant to say that I have seen plently of the fixed speed traps on the motorways and secondary routes, they are always signposted warnings that they are ahead.

The only manned speed trap i have come across was outside a village near roscoff.
Surprised that they would do you for 8km/h over the limit, maybe it was raining at the time? Brother in laws brother is a Gendarme and he has a good attitude to doing speeders (mainly their style of driving, road conditions etc) but his pet peeve was speeding in the rain... only right too.

John C

skibum wrote: »

Meant to say that I have seen plently of the fixed speed traps on the motorways and secondary routes, they are always signposted warnings that they are ahead.

The only manned speed trap i have come across was outside a village near roscoff.
Surprised that they would do you for 8km/h over the limit, maybe it was raining at the time? Brother in laws brother is a Gendarme and he has a good attitude to doing speeders (mainly their style of driving, road conditions etc) but his pet peeve was speeding in the rain... only right too.

Here in Germany there is also speed limits for when the road surface is wet and not just when it is rainining. This speed limit of 110 k.p.h in France is very likely similiar. However people are tempted to revert to 130 k.p.h. when the rain stops.

olaola

There is definitely a change in catching speeders in France. I don't think in about 5 years of travelling on the Autoroute we had EVER seen a Gendarme - until last year! When we were clocked doing 158. We saw them in the bushes, and then saw a sign for a peage. They nabbed us at the toll booth, and fined us for the pleasure No hassle though - very quick and as pleasant as you can be when fining someone for speeding.

I did hear that they have started bringing in the penalty point system, which is why they're more on the ball re: speeders etc. Or maybe they had it, and are starting to enforce it more. Anyway, definitely more of a presence on the roads than before.

Ponster

olaola wrote: »

There is definitely a change in catching speeders in France. I don't think in about 5 years of travelling on the Autoroute we had EVER seen a Gendarme - until last year! When we were clocked doing 158.

158 !

Last year someone who was clocked doing 164 in a 110 zone lost their licence on the spot.

Someone was 'flashed' yesterday doing 178 km/h !

Fratton Fred

skibum wrote: »

Where did you get done? They did you for 138Km/h.....
I was there last month, drove from Barcelona to campsite in Languedoc, to Andorra and back, did a lot of driving, most of the time when I was on, or around the speed limit I was getting passed out by every thing form twingos to transits, never saw one cop or speed trap.

Whats the story, did the hire company take the fine out of your credit card?
How much was it for?
Was it a speed camera or did you get stopped by the Gendarmes?
Thanks

I drove from Calais to Paris last week, I basically se the cruise control to 85 MPH, sat back and kept out of everyone else's way!!

olaola

Ponster wrote: »

158 !

Last year someone who was clocked doing 164 in a 110 zone lost their licence on the spot.

Someone was 'flashed' yesterday doing 178 km/h !

It was on the Autoroute - so the limit was 130 anyway.

hondavfr

Whats the story, did the hire company take the fine out of your credit card?
How much was it for?
Was it a speed camera or did you get stopped by the Gendarmes?
Thanks

The car hire company took the money out of the credit card,it was only 25 Euro but i was not sure why the money was deducted until the last day. I was doing 98 in a 90 speed limit area on the motorway I was driving from Lorient airport in south britanny towards Nantes.It must have been a fixed camera. I was been careful as i heard that they dont tolerate speeding anymore over there but not carefull enough.The day i got caught was the day i arrived and it was hot and sunny so was probably looking forward to getting to the campsite.Its no big deal at 25 Euro but i wouldnt like to be going 30 - 50 over the limit as the fines may be greater.

Ponster

Here's a list of the fines based on what speed over the limit that you're doing.

More than 50Km over the limit leads to an automatic 3-year loss of licence.

gandalf

In France most of the speedtraps or areas where speedtraps are located are clearly signposted.

The only Police manned speedtrap that me and the missus saw last year was in Normandy just outside Caen on the way to Bayeux (admittedly in an area where the speed limit dropped going through a little hamlet, ie a very sneaky location). We were there and in Brittany for 3 weeks at that time with 5 other weekend trips over taking a rented car from Paris CDG to Caen as well.

We're just back from France from 2 weeks ago again from around the Caen area and again the only speedtraps we saw were clearly signposted. Not a Police manned one in sight.

Ponster

gandalf wrote: »

In France most of the speedtraps or areas where speedtraps are located are clearly signposted.

And they by law have to be signposted in advance.

In fact, in part of the same law, the constitution had to be changed in order to allow machines to fine humans (i.e. apply the law)

gandalf

To be fair it works well except for those bloody 75 drivers or Paris S*** as the missus calls them

Ponster

gandalf wrote: »

To be fair it works well except for those bloody 75 drivers or Paris S*** as the missus calls them

Not actually owning a car I wouldn't know about them

babaduck

The one positive thing I have to say about French speed traps is that they are INCREDIBLY well signposted - it's always 90kph on the approach to any major town & you are guaranteed at least one camera on the way in...

My Garmin Satnav very kindly beeps and reminds me of approaching speed cameras in France which has kept me out of a whole heap of trouble over the past few years.