Le Mans Classic - Driving in France

[Charlie Farley]

Gents,

You may like to read this.
Seems if you are caught speeding and they fancy it, they can take your licence off you, on the spot, therefore you can't drive your car...
So much for 1945 eh...

 

[Ron R.]

Gents,

You may like to read this.
Seems if you are caught speeding and they fancy it, they can take your licence off you, on the spot, therefore you can't drive your car...
So much for 1945 eh...

Guess that's what we get for embarrassing them by saving their asses.:laugh:

 

[Charlie Farley]

You could always outrun their clapped out Peugeots.....
or however you spell that horror story of a car.

 

[Charlie Farley]

You know Ron, sometimes on this Forum, you basically post something of a Public Service information bent, and get jack shit response...
Sad.

 

[Ian Anderson]

Any
I had heard abou th this but I am not doing LMC this year

Hope you have a great time down there

Ian

 

On our way down to the LM24 earlier this month there was a long holdup on the Thursday afternoon on the dual carriageway north of Alencon. There was some sort of Cannonball style run down from Calais which the police took an unhealthy interest in, spoiling the fun of the stupid bu--ears driving at crazy speeds. The gendarmes, armed with machine guns coned off the outside lane by a rest halt services and were directing the culprits into a cordoned off section of the car park where there must have been upwards of 30 speeders.
Recent changes in French law allow them to seize your vehicle if you cannot pay the on the spot fine and depending on what speed you are doing over the 130 kph limit they have the power to permanently confiscate your car!

 

[Pierre-Louis]

As said by the journalist, this is only a giant revenue-raising system. Nothing to do with security (for instance, in France, around 4% of people killed in a car accident, were involved in a crash on highways, where you could find 90% of speed cameras...guess why !)

Usually, you get caught by a speed camera, and receive the fine by post few days later... But, until recently, this didn't work with cars registered in foreign countries : 5% of foreign cars on french roads, commit 15% of the speeding offenses, then 15% of all fines were unpaid... (intolerable loss of earnings !)

So simple solution, for the always impecunious french welfare government, to improve return on its investments : speed traps with on-the-spot fine on each border area... But since Nov. 2013, some European agreement was signed, deciding that a speed fine can be collected in any country member of EU, wherever the offense was committed.

Is this will be the end of british cars hunting ?

No ! So, why are British cars still especially targeted in North West of France ?
Simple again : have all european country ratified this said agreement ? No... United-Kingdom, Irish republic (and surprisingly Denmark) refused.:thumbsup:
(I want to see there, the famous pragmatism of anglo-saxon countries, protecting their interests, against the "politically correct" that is killing France...)

So tally-ho on these british drivers in North West on France, who dare refuse to get taken to the cleaner !

Just remenber : the french highway cops don't want to save your life, they just want your money and get good statistics (the word "security" is only used as make-up) ... As long as you keep that in mind, you can understand the french system and keep an eye on your speedo (which eye will not be kept on the road itself : who's talking about security ?)

Motoring spirit is a british concept : for french authorities, a car is only something noisy, polluting, dangerous, and incidentally source of revenue...only hardly tolerated as a transportation mean to get from a point to another.

 

[Keith]

As said by the journalist, this is only a giant revenue-raising system. Nothing to do with security (for instance, in France, around 4% of people killed in a car accident, were involved in a crash on highways, where you could find 90% of speed cameras...guess why !)

Usually, you get caught by a speed camera, and receive the fine by post few days later... But, until recently, this didn't work with cars registered in foreign countries : 5% of foreign cars on french roads, commit 15% of the speeding offenses, then 15% of all fines were unpaid... (intolerable loss of earnings !)

So simple solution, for the always impecunious french welfare government, to improve return on its investments : speed traps with on-the-spot fine on each border area... But since Nov. 2013, some European agreement was signed, deciding that a speed fine can be collected in any country member of EU, wherever the offense was committed.

Is this will be the end of british cars hunting ?

No ! So, why are British cars still especially targeted in North West of France ?
Simple again : have all european country ratified this said agreement ? No... United-Kingdom, Irish republic (and surprisingly Denmark) refused.:thumbsup:
(I want to see there, the famous pragmatism of anglo-saxon countries, protecting their interests, against the "politically correct" that is killing France...)

So tally-ho on these british drivers in North West on France, who dare refuse to get taken to the cleaner !

Just remenber : the french highway cops don't want to save your life, they just want your money and get good statistics (the word "security" is only used as make-up) ... As long as you keep that in mind, you can understand the french system and keep an eye on your speedo (which eye will not be kept on the road itself : who's talking about security ?)

Motoring spirit is a british concept : for french authorities, a car is only something noisy, polluting, dangerous, and incidentally source of revenue...only hardly tolerated as a transportation mean to get from a point to another.

Bravo - well said.... :thumbsup:

 

[David McGruer]

Hi,another thing to be aware of is that it is illegal to have speed trap notifications on your sat-nav in France.
Regards David

 

[OliveR]

No agree with you David.

You can use WAZE or COYOTE with no problem.

And for those who are coming to Le Mans Classic I recommend to use this applications.

From my side I have a trip of 375 miles to go to Le Mans and I'll use WAZE all long. I use WAZE since 2 years now and I can tell you that it works very well....

ROBY427

 

[Joey]

To all, Ihad a wonderful time DRIVING my 2005 FORD GT all through Europe, France had its quirks with toll booths every ten feet and the trap lights. Since our group was at classic LeMans 2011, most will remember.
I had U.S. plates so unless I return with the car, Im in the clear, did see many white flashing bulbs as we caravanned to LeMans. Was it worth it. Hell yeah!
My new book AROUND THE WORLD IN A FORD GT, can be purchased everywhere..........GTJOEY1314
P.S. I LOVE EUROPE.

 

[Pierre-Louis]

No agree with you David.

I use WAZE since 2 years now and I can tell you that it works very well....

ROBY427

Just keep one thing in mind. If you download the last update for Waze, notifications for fixed speed cameras are disabled, to comply with french new regulations.
It's quite easy to enabled them back, but you need to tinker a little bit into the guts of the application...

 

[Charlie Farley]

Somehow i missed the Le Mans Classic in 2011....:laugh:

 

[Mike]

I did 210KPH yesterday... a few times... I'll do it again next weekend... Glad I live here!

 

[OliveR]

You're right Pilou, you have to downgrade Waze application if you want the fixed cameras to appear exactly where they are. Otherwise Waze will specify a zone.

Mike, we can drive more than 210km/h in France don't worry. I've done it again yesterday.

For foreigners that make trips in France they take major roads where traps are installed so that's normal they think France is a big trap.

But when you take secondaries or smaller roads, there's (practically) nothing and you can drive as you want (with little help of Waze or Coyote...). And these roads are perfect for our cars with various curves and fantastic landscape and curiosity.

ROBY427