Minibus speed limit in France?

[thegreatsoprendo]

A group of us are travelling down to Chamonix in January to go snowboarding and due to the mental airfares, have decided to take a minibus down. My mate has arranged the hire of said bus and swears the speed limit for a minibus on the French Autoroutes is 50mph. However, having done a Google search, I can only find details of reduced speed limits for car and trailer combinations weighing over 3.5 tonnes.

So can anyone confirm what the speed limit is for minibuses on the French Autoroute? It'll take us 'til Easter to get there at 50mph!

[JMGS4]

thegreatsoprendo said:

A group of us are travelling down to Chamonix in January to go snowboarding and due to the mental airfares, have decided to take a minibus down. My mate has arranged the hire of said bus and swears the speed limit for a minibus on the French Autoroutes is 50mph. However, having done a Google search, I can only find details of reduced speed limits for car and trailer combinations weighing over 3.5 tonnes. So can anyone confirm what the speed limit is for minibuses on the French Autoroute? It'll take us 'til Easter to get there at 50mph!

AFAIK, any EU minibus (max 8 peeps! NOT a bus!) can do the same speed as any car...if a trailer in France can do 130kph then a minibus can!

[alfa dailey]

I think its the same as cars as mentioned above. I worked two winter seasons out in France and should warn you the French police love british tourists for extra cash - no seatbelt is 150 euro fine and no documents similar IIRC. A regular sight is french police pulling over rows of UK plated cars and vans and waving past all the esf instructors (who may have had a drink or two) in their renault 5s. In my experience French drivers like to make 'progress'in the mountains dont be suprised if a 1 litre citroen flyes past you on a blind corner..

>> Edited by alfa dailey on Wednesday 3rd November 18:22

[thegreatsoprendo]

Cheers guys, that's pretty much what I thought. I've done a pretty exhaustive search using two different search engines every search term I can think of, but I'm struggling to find any reference to the speed limit being different for minibuses in France!

My mate seems adamant that it's 50mph, though and says the bus is fitted with a tacho so if we dare stray over 50 we'll suffer a fate worse than death.

Am I right in thinking the speed limit for a minibus in this country is the same as for a car?