Any advice for first T350 trip to France
Discussion
I have a major continental trip planned in the summer. Taking the T350 to France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. So I have arranged a 48 hour trip to France to put some miles on the clock ahead of a service. Is there any sound advice from PHers out there on using the Chunnel, M. le Plod, does & don'ts? I've checked insurance and taken out RAC cover. All suggestions welcome. Reeckoning on covering around 800 miles including the drive to & from Folkestone.
Nailed On,
I'm a Griff driver but I regularly do the kind of trip you're about to do, so here's a few words words that might help you.
Chunnel should be straightforward, best way to cross over as very little chance of damage to your car from door dings as you all go line astern in the train. There's fuel just outside the tunnel at Calais, but it's a bit dear and always busy, if you can hold on fill up at the next one, which is some 40 miles down the motorwary.
Lots of French plod out and about looking for customers these days, especially on the road back to Calais these days, watch out, but frankly they are so good at their job if you do get caught just pay up and go on your way. They are very reasonable about it, and nothing will go on your UK license. If you really really hoon it you can end up getting banned and a hefty EUR 750 fine, so keep the Vmax runs down to a minimum.
French motorways are all toll roads so have some cash, or if you have the time and are ultra cool you can get a LiberT transponder to stick on your windscreen that will bypass all the queues and bill your CC directly. The French are fine about sending a transponder to a UK address. It really speeds things at the toll booths.
If you can get off the motorway's on the N roads or the D roads, you'll have more pleasure, but be prepared to double your journey time.
Lot's of 98 octane in France, not always so in Switzerland and Italy. Buy it when you see it.
Swiss are not in EU fully, meaning they have customs border controls and the officers have no sense of humor at all. If you buy wine in Italy and you carry it back through Switzerland they will make you pay import duty when you enter the country. You get a refund when you leave, but it's a major PITA. They all speak good English if that helps, you'll have to pay to use their roads if you haven't paid in advance as well. It's not much but it adds time.
Swiss = Gestapo for speeding, really if you can avoid getting into trouble this way that's the best, enjoy the car / scenery in other ways. They have a lot of tunnels
Hefty on the spot fines for minor offences are the norm.
Lovely country though.
Italy, much more relaxed plod (in my experience so far), but Italian drivers are the worst in Europe, be prepraed in your T350 for some seriously bad tailgating from white van man / boy racer man / etc. Once you get used to it though you can beat them at their own game, it's pretty wearing though at times.
If you've got your car sorted, sounds like you have that's all good piece of mind. make sure you've got the little things like spare bulbs, fuses and whatever else goes wrong in a T350. Silly to call roadside rescue if you can fix it yourself. Griff's probably break in different ways to T350's so I'm not much use there.
Don't know exactly which route you're taking, but if you have time could I suggest the Schlumpf collection in Alsace, likely to be on your route at least once I guess. See: www.culturespaces.com/schlumpf/ind">www.collection-schlumpf.com/www.culturespaces.com/schlumpf/ind
If you can cross the Alps though be prepared for some of the most stunning roads you'll see in your life.
HTH and have fun!
Cheers
John.
I'm a Griff driver but I regularly do the kind of trip you're about to do, so here's a few words words that might help you.
Chunnel should be straightforward, best way to cross over as very little chance of damage to your car from door dings as you all go line astern in the train. There's fuel just outside the tunnel at Calais, but it's a bit dear and always busy, if you can hold on fill up at the next one, which is some 40 miles down the motorwary.
Lots of French plod out and about looking for customers these days, especially on the road back to Calais these days, watch out, but frankly they are so good at their job if you do get caught just pay up and go on your way. They are very reasonable about it, and nothing will go on your UK license. If you really really hoon it you can end up getting banned and a hefty EUR 750 fine, so keep the Vmax runs down to a minimum.
French motorways are all toll roads so have some cash, or if you have the time and are ultra cool you can get a LiberT transponder to stick on your windscreen that will bypass all the queues and bill your CC directly. The French are fine about sending a transponder to a UK address. It really speeds things at the toll booths.
If you can get off the motorway's on the N roads or the D roads, you'll have more pleasure, but be prepared to double your journey time.
Lot's of 98 octane in France, not always so in Switzerland and Italy. Buy it when you see it.
Swiss are not in EU fully, meaning they have customs border controls and the officers have no sense of humor at all. If you buy wine in Italy and you carry it back through Switzerland they will make you pay import duty when you enter the country. You get a refund when you leave, but it's a major PITA. They all speak good English if that helps, you'll have to pay to use their roads if you haven't paid in advance as well. It's not much but it adds time.
Swiss = Gestapo for speeding, really if you can avoid getting into trouble this way that's the best, enjoy the car / scenery in other ways. They have a lot of tunnels
Hefty on the spot fines for minor offences are the norm. Lovely country though.
Italy, much more relaxed plod (in my experience so far), but Italian drivers are the worst in Europe, be prepraed in your T350 for some seriously bad tailgating from white van man / boy racer man / etc. Once you get used to it though you can beat them at their own game, it's pretty wearing though at times.
If you've got your car sorted, sounds like you have that's all good piece of mind. make sure you've got the little things like spare bulbs, fuses and whatever else goes wrong in a T350. Silly to call roadside rescue if you can fix it yourself. Griff's probably break in different ways to T350's so I'm not much use there.
Don't know exactly which route you're taking, but if you have time could I suggest the Schlumpf collection in Alsace, likely to be on your route at least once I guess. See: www.culturespaces.com/schlumpf/ind">www.collection-schlumpf.com/www.culturespaces.com/schlumpf/ind
If you can cross the Alps though be prepared for some of the most stunning roads you'll see in your life.
HTH and have fun!
Cheers
John.
Done it loads of times. Advice below is good. French Police are exceptionally busy with speed traps these days so be very careful (so much so that our next trip will be a tour of the GERMAN castles - France is becoming a PITA).
Only place to be careful is the speed humps at the bomb sniffer/photo taking thingy you cross driving to the tunnel boarding queue after checking in/shopping. Zero MPH and gently does it on those!
Only place to be careful is the speed humps at the bomb sniffer/photo taking thingy you cross driving to the tunnel boarding queue after checking in/shopping. Zero MPH and gently does it on those!
fairclp said:
On the French Autoroutes they can measure your average speed between booths and you will sometimes see M. Le Gendarme at the booths.
Yeah I found that out, in particular they do so on the Reims - Calais run. But 2 countermeasures seem to work. The LiberT transponder if you have one bypasses most of the average speed checks. If you see plod next to the booths then they are checking. I peel into the LiberT lane at the last moment and head off into the distance.
Other, more reliable method: fill up with petrol and nosh at a service station before the tolls and take your average speed down that way.
Once you've got through the booths without getting nicked there's often a crowd of plod loitering around, never does any harm to nail it away, so long as you do so safely and keep it under 130kph.
Cheers
John.
When I've seen plod at tolls booths (and it is often btw), they've got a speed trap about 1-2KM before the toll booth and their mate has radioed ahead 'le rosbief in le rouge sportscar' etc. Very often used at the last toll going North on the A26 dashing for Calais. Last toll is 25 or so miles away from Calais, dark blue estate car parked on shoudler a few ks before toll. Kerching.
I've never seen them watcing the time stamps. Besides, they'd need a few seconds to work it out since the toll booths don't light up with your average speed like a drag strip timing board (oops better not give them ideas).
OR
Usually they stand there and leer into your car looking for radar detectors and other similar equipment as its very illegal in France and they get very upset if you're using these.
I've never seen them watcing the time stamps. Besides, they'd need a few seconds to work it out since the toll booths don't light up with your average speed like a drag strip timing board (oops better not give them ideas).
OR
Usually they stand there and leer into your car looking for radar detectors and other similar equipment as its very illegal in France and they get very upset if you're using these.
Disturbing how we get sidetracked into speed trap avoidance countermeasures.....
Another trap, not personally caught this way, but shotgun once while it happened to my boss, on the same A26 but heading into France not out was for a car to be positioned on the hard shoulder with a wheel removed aparently looking like an innocent broken down vehicle. Only for it to conceal a flic with his radar gun and his mate already has the engine running waiting to catch you up.
Trouble is once you've seen les flic's it's normally too late. Nowadays they just seem to position themselves on right hand bends in the road, so you are blind to them on approach and frankly that's as good as any way to nab you.
At the booths they've actually got to see the ticket to get your time.
Another trap, not personally caught this way, but shotgun once while it happened to my boss, on the same A26 but heading into France not out was for a car to be positioned on the hard shoulder with a wheel removed aparently looking like an innocent broken down vehicle. Only for it to conceal a flic with his radar gun and his mate already has the engine running waiting to catch you up.
Trouble is once you've seen les flic's it's normally too late. Nowadays they just seem to position themselves on right hand bends in the road, so you are blind to them on approach and frankly that's as good as any way to nab you.
At the booths they've actually got to see the ticket to get your time.
Thanks for all the info. folks. It does sound like M. le Plod is something of a menace now. I will leave RoadAngel at home. My main concern is briging the P&J back home safely. So I will watch the speed, and certainly use some of the N roads where possible. My multi-country trip is in July so I will report back on progress then.
Latest is that I drove 800 miles in 2 days. SP6 was purring like a beauty. Absolutely no probs at all. Over 20 mpg. A great ride, and only kissed the one pothole! Chunnel was fine, and managed to bring homw exactly 6 bottles of plonk due to the 'huge' boot. Did have all the skiwear in too! Looking forward to Italy for sure.
I made it as far as Calais last time I went to France in my T350c back in August... it is still in the garage now 
The trip was meant to take me to the Stelvio Pass stopping at the Nurburgring on the way there and back. I ended up coming back to England and picking up my trusty SEAT to complete the journey.
Just make sure you have decent enough European breakdown. Mine was pants! Also a good idea to get the car checked out before the trip.
My car doesn't seem to like France, the first trip I made (to Le Mans) it overheated and the second trip a month or so later it overheated again and died
Good luck!
The trip was meant to take me to the Stelvio Pass stopping at the Nurburgring on the way there and back. I ended up coming back to England and picking up my trusty SEAT to complete the journey. Just make sure you have decent enough European breakdown. Mine was pants! Also a good idea to get the car checked out before the trip.
My car doesn't seem to like France, the first trip I made (to Le Mans) it overheated and the second trip a month or so later it overheated again and died
Good luck!
NailedOn said:
I have a major continental trip planned in the summer. Taking the T350 to France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. So I have arranged a 48 hour trip to France to put some miles on the clock ahead of a service. Is there any sound advice from PHers out there on using the Chunnel, M. le Plod, does & don'ts? I've checked insurance and taken out RAC cover. All suggestions welcome. Reeckoning on covering around 800 miles including the drive to & from Folkestone.
Its going to be more than 800 miles if you are going to Italy. Lago Maggori in North West Italy is nice for a stopover.
Might be worth seeing if you can fit a spare engine in the boot - just to be safe.
We did it easily in a Griff500 a few years back mind.
Bennno
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