Getting to Monaco avoiding France....

[berlintaxi]

batmanreturns said:

I'm just trying to find out if i get pulled i'll get the fine or end up in the clink for the night as we have a child on oxygen and i can't afford to not collect them from the airport as by then her oxygen will be getting low until we get to our accommodation.
thanks

I may be wrong, but I think the French has some large buildings called Hospitals which will have Oxygen in an emergency.

If it was a hire car any chance the hire company have copped for the fine if you didn't pay it, did you actually receive any speeding tickets?

[Amateurish]

batmanreturns said:

but having been to france many times they like to pull a brit and check documents etc even if you are not speeding.

Rubbish

[Geekman]

batmanreturns said:

I was caught in a French hire car not a UK one.

I've got no plans to speed but having been to france many times they like to pull a brit and check documents etc even if you are not speeding. What i'm trying to establish is if they do this to me and i flag up on their database can i just pay it there and then or will be get a more severe punishment? Also, when does a speeding fine 'drop off' their system if anyone knows?

Ah, that makes more sense now. Unless the fine is absolutely vast I'd just pay it: I'd imagine you're unlikely to never enter France again in your entire life.

[Gaspode]

batmanreturns said:

I was caught in a French hire car not a UK one.

I've got no plans to speed but having been to france many times they like to pull a brit and check documents etc even if you are not speeding. What i'm trying to establish is if they do this to me and i flag up on their database can i just pay it there and then or will be get a more severe punishment? Also, when does a speeding fine 'drop off' their system if anyone knows?

Blimey, I don't know what sort of thing you get up to in France, I've been going at least once a year for over 20 years on bikes, in camper vans, and in sports cars , in groups and on my own, and I've never experienced being stopped just for a document check. What were you doing to attract their attention?

[Foppo]

Gaspode said:

batmanreturns said:

I was caught in a French hire car not a UK one.

I've got no plans to speed but having been to france many times they like to pull a brit and check documents etc even if you are not speeding. What i'm trying to establish is if they do this to me and i flag up on their database can i just pay it there and then or will be get a more severe punishment? Also, when does a speeding fine 'drop off' their system if anyone knows?

Blimey, I don't know what sort of thing you get up to in France, I've been going at least once a year for over 20 years on bikes, in camper vans, and in sports cars , in groups and on my own, and I've never experienced being stopped just for a document check. What were you doing to attract their attention?

Driving to fast?

[Gaspode]

Foppo said:

Driving to fast?

It was the 'even if you have not been speeding' bit that caught my eye. Plenty of uk cars get stopped for driving too fast, some of the guys around Le Mans drive like complete idiots, but I've never come across people being stopped for a doc check just out and about for no reason. I suppose it might happen, but my belief is that drivers who get stopped have done something to attract their attention.

[paulwirral]

Amateurish said:

Rubbish

Exactly this , I've been stopped once in 12 years for docs and when I asked why the gendarme explained they were training the guy in the car and I was the first English person they had seen so they wanted to show him what do do with a passport , never asked for anything else .
Drive within the law and there's no reason for them to stop you , so they won't , they will wait for someone who is breaking the law so they can definitely fine them .

[heebeegeetee]

Amateurish said:

batmanreturns said:

but having been to france many times they like to pull a brit and check documents etc even if you are not speeding.

Rubbish

I've been going to France for 30 years and its never happened.

[paulwirral]

Amateurish said:

Rubbish

Exactly this , I've been stopped once in 12 years for docs and when I asked why the gendarme explained they were training the guy in the car and I was the first English person they had seen so they wanted to show him what do do with a passport , never asked for anything else .
Drive within the law and there's no reason for them to stop you , so they won't , they will wait for someone who is breaking the law so they can definitely fine them .

[RicksAlfas]

Document checks are on the up though even for the locals.
I've been stopped in a sleepy Breton village in a French reg car.

Clearly once they spot the OP in a UK reg car they will have him in the Foreign Legion before he can say "mais non".

It is still the most bizarre thread though! I'm surprised the OP hasn't got a false passport and some revolving numberplates.

[Amateurish]

I've been driving in France regularly for 20 years in French and Brit registered cars and on the few occasions I've been stopped, I had been doing something obviously wrong. And every time the police have just stopped me to have "a word". No hassles.

[audidoody]

News flash: I have just spent the last two days driving from Le Shuttle terminal in Coquelles to Port Grimaud in SoF in a British-registered vehicle- a distance of some 850 miles at an average of around 80mph.

And do you know what?

1. I wasn't nicked
2. I didn't see one Gendarme.
3. I didn't see any British-registered vehicles stopped by the side of the autoroute by the Gendarmerie

OP- you're being a bit silly.

[bad company]

audidoody said:

News flash: I have just spent the last two days driving from Le Shuttle terminal in Coquelles to Port Grimaud in SoF in a British-registered vehicle- a distance of some 850 miles at an average of around 80mph.

And do you know what?

1. I wasn't nicked
2. I didn't see one Gendarme.
3. I didn't see any British-registered vehicles stopped by the side of the autoroute by the Gendarmerie

OP- you're being a bit silly.

You drove 850 miles without seeing a Gendarmerie???

A visit to Specsavers might be timely.

[Bluebarge]

bad company said:

Of course the French police will uphold their laws but I cannot see how they can justify targeting foreign registered cars while being more lenient with their own.

I will spend my hard earned where and when I want thank you.

If you actually read the links you posted you will see that they were concentrating on foreign-registered cars from countries who will not process fixed-camera fines ie those drivers that hoon past a speed camera at multiple leptons knowing that the fine will never reach them. French and Spanish drivers will be dealt with by fines landing on the mat.

But if you want to be a martyr, by all means stay away - makes the roads less crowded for me.

[bad company]

Bluebarge said:

If you actually read the links you posted you will see that they were concentrating on foreign-registered cars from countries who will not process fixed-camera fines ie those drivers that hoon past a speed camera at multiple leptons knowing that the fine will never reach them. French and Spanish drivers will be dealt with by fines landing on the mat.

Do you really believe that?

[Bluebarge]

bad company said:

Do you really believe that?

Based on 25 years of driving through France on Uk plates 2-3 times a year without once being stopped, but having seen quite a few French cars pulled up for assorted infractions - absolutely.

However, you seem intent on nurturing your paranoia so be my guest - I will carry on enjoying France and the French whilst you mutter darkly to yourself and assume that everyone is out to get you

[audidoody]

bad company said:

You drove 850 miles without seeing a Gendarmerie???

A visit to Specsavers might be timely.

Blue cars with flashing blue lights and sirens and lots of big writing in white on the side? Nope never saw any. And I have 20:20 vision.


OK. I lied. I did see a squad of riot police, French Foreign Legionaires, French Navy sailors, and the Fire Brigade. They were in the town square at Beaune for a Bastille Day civic ceremony. Does that count?

Edited by audidoody on Wednesday 16th July 14:17

[berlintaxi]

audidoody said:

bad company said:

You drove 850 miles without seeing a Gendarmerie???

A visit to Specsavers might be timely.

Blue cars with flashing blue lights and sirens and lots of big writing in white on the side? Nope never saw any. And I have 20:20 vision.


OK. I lied. I did see a squad of riot police, French Foreign Legionaires, French Navy sailors, and the Fire Brigade. They were in the town square at Beaune for a Bastille Day civic ceremony. Does that count?

Edited by audidoody on Wednesday 16th July 14:17

Only if they had you up against a wall demanding to see every document for any car you have ever you possessed, made you blow into a breathalyser and seized your car whilst banishing you from France forever,because you once failed to pay and display at a car park.

[bad company]

audidoody said:

Blue cars with flashing blue lights and sirens and lots of big writing in white on the side? Nope never saw any. And I have 20:20 vision.


OK. I lied. I did see a squad of riot police, French Foreign Legionaires, French Navy sailors, and the Fire Brigade. They were in the town square at Beaune for a Bastille Day civic ceremony. Does that count?

Edited by audidoody on Wednesday 16th July 14:17

Last time Mrs BC & I had the misfortune to be travelling through France we twice came across police with speed guns hidden in a corner by a motorway bridge. Both times the police were waiting at the next pay booth.

We have seen stuff like this too many times and anyway we prefer Germany, Italy and most of all the USA.

[berlintaxi]

bad company said:

Last time Mrs BC & I had the misfortune to be travelling through France we twice came across police with speed guns hidden in a corner by a motorway bridge. Both times the police were waiting at the next pay booth.

We have seen stuff like this too many times and anyway we prefer Germany, Italy and most of all the USA.

Oh yes. the police in the US would never use a method like that to catch speeders and they are always so polite and friendly, as numerous videos will show.