Current "safe" speed(ing) limit on French autoroute?

[Kolbenkopp]

Gents,

silly question if I may: but what's the current "safe" speed one can go currently on a French autoroute? Safe as in not getting your car impounded or your first born put up for adoption...

I know the limit is 130 (in dry weather), I also know they've added loads of cameras and that they upped the fines in general. But what speed can you currently go over and get away with just paying x €?

Any input -- grand merci !

[N111BJG]

Last week I rode down from Calais to Pyrenees, some of the group being on hipster naked bikes struggle over 130, so mostly we were cruising slower than that which seemed to be about the norm for all traffic. So the majority seem to be abiding to the limits, so going very fast will be noticeable. Not that we saw much Policing it was like a UK motorway.

[Bill]

I don't know about higher speeds but you can get away with 5% over before the fines start with a fixed camera or 10% for a mobile one.

[Plate spinner]

At 140/150kph you’ll be going with the flow if it’s a quiet stretch.
Very occasionally will you be overtaken by someone going 160kph+ but not often.

And be careful on the way back, last 50km to Calais they like to look out for those who are running late for a crossing...

[madcal]

The summer was followed by a police Renault for 10 minutes at an indicated 142km/h. Not pulled over. Usually set cruise to 137 and have never had an issue.

If it rains they take the 110 extremely seriously.

Roadworks almost always have a camera hidden at start or end.

Did get my number plate put on a gantry sign though: AVnnXXX TROP VITESSE. Fortunately the firm which runs the autoroutes is not on speaking terms with the Police so it was just a shaming attempt. But it did make me slow down!

[Macron]

There is no "safe" limit +1kmh over can see you fined. And they fking love fining Brits. Leave earlier and stop driving like a tt.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[dcb]

Kolbenkopp said:

Gents,

silly question if I may: but what's the current "safe" speed one can go currently on a French autoroute? Safe as in not getting your car impounded or your first born put up for adoption...

I know the limit is 130 (in dry weather), I also know they've added loads of cameras and that they upped the fines in general. But what speed can you currently go over and get away with just paying x €?

Any input -- grand merci !

This

http://english.controleradar.org/speeding-fines.ph...

says serious speeding doesn't start until 50 kmh over. Less than that
is the usual EUR 90 cash in hand. So that's 180 kmh in a 130 kmh limit.

For practical travel, I set my cruise on 150 or so kmh. French coppers
don't bother at that level and the cameras don't seem to understand
English plates.

Which makes for civilised travel, wafting through the French countryside
at 100 mph or so.

[Bill]

dcb said:

... the cameras don't seem to understand
English plates.

As I found to my cost this year.

[deckster]

dcb said:

...and the cameras don't seem to understand English plates...

This is most definitely not true. French speed cameras are well capable of getting fines sent to British drivers and they've have a huge crackdown in the last year or so. Yes the big fines/confiscation don't start until a decent speed but nonetheless I'll be setting the cruise at 130 from now on and just going with the flow.

The days of wafting down to the Riviera at warp speed with nary a concern for Les Flics are long gone.

[PSRG]

The traffic in France definitely travels slower than it used to...a few years back if you sat at 130kph you were the slowest on the road, now that’s the norm and few people go much quicker. I stuck the cruise at 136kph at was one of the quicker cars on the autoroute des anglaise a couple of weeks ago!

[Raino144]

137 is the top end of avoiding a penalty altogether - depending where you live the French can refer you to local authorities above 160 - car impounded at 180.

There are so many unmarked, private enforcement cars knocking about now it’s just not worth it any more...

[Exige77]

Macron said:

There is no "safe" limit +1kmh over can see you fined. And they fking love fining Brits. Leave earlier and stop driving like a tt.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

So 1 Km over means driving like a tt ?

This is PH which is a car enthusiasts forum,

Better hand in your man card on the way out.

[ncjones]

They really have clamped down over the past couple of years. If it's quiet and dry I now tend to stick to an indicated 90 mph, which feels so slow on the autoroute.... slowing down a mile or two before the tolls... and accepting I may have to cough up a €90 fixed penalty if stopped or caught on camera.

Only frequently overtaken by the Swiss, who probably think the French fines are the bargain of the century.

[MC Bodge]

deckster said:

The days of wafting down to the Riviera at warp speed with nary a concern for Les Flics are long gone.

Sadly departed. I'm glad that I experienced it. Things were changing a few years ago. I - allegedly- narrowly missed being spotted doing a reasonable rate of knots by a gendarme hiding behind a tree with a camera on the road back to Calais. Wife had told me to slow down as we were "not in a rush" ...The Golf GTI that I had been catching up with was surrounded by said Les Flics at the next peage.

Spain are quite keen on discouraging exceeding limits now too, as I discovered this year...

[Raino144]

ncjones said:

They really have clamped down over the past couple of years. If it's quiet and dry I now tend to stick to an indicated 90 mph, which feels so slow on the autoroute.... slowing down a mile or two before the tolls... and accepting I may have to cough up a €90 fixed penalty if stopped or caught on camera.

Only frequently overtaken by the Swiss, who probably think the French fines are the bargain of the century.

On a day trip Geneva - Chamonix a couple of weekends ago, I drove past 4 - yes four hidden gendarmes in the day. There will be many Swiss bargains that day...

[832ark]

Raino144 said:

137 is the top end of avoiding a penalty altogether - depending where you live the French can refer you to local authorities above 160 - car impounded at 180.

There are so many unmarked, private enforcement cars knocking about now it’s just not worth it any more...

I the olden days I was stopped in excess of 180kmh, got away with a 100 euro fine, not any more. I tend now to sit at a GPS 85mph which is actually plenty as the traffic levels tend to mean maintaining a much higher average than in the UK. Not as much fun as doing c.550 miles in 5 hours though!

[anonymous-user]

I have to say generally, if you are doing proper distances across France, then sitting close to the legal limit (just above) is quicker overall because you are starting to get to speeds where aero drags starts to really count, and hence economy and therefore range plummet as the speed climbs.

[anonymous-user]

I’ve done a reasonable amount of autoroute driving. In the dry, setting the cruise at 145kmh has been fine.

[perdu]

Bill said:

dcb said:

... the cameras don't seem to understand
English plates.

As I found to my cost this year.

Me too and mine were the old silver letters on a black background too so the system reads all types

[NDA]

I've recently come back from France... in the old days I would regularly hit big speeds - these days it's not worth it. I set my cruise control at 130kph and it felt fine.