Safe Speed Forums

I'm off to France on Saturday, to the Med near Montpellier and taking the car with me. This may sound a daft question but do any speeding tickets issued by cameras abraod ever find there way to your door-step? Do you get points on your British licence? If not should(would you) declare them? What if your stopped by the police? You have to pay the fine there and then don't you? Points?

Obviously I'm hoping not to fall foul of the law, but if you don't get points I wanted to see how, if at all, my driving was improved not paying as much attention to my numerical speed. After all, isn't a SS tag line "You can't measure safe speed in mph(or kmh)"

Any other advice before I go? Never driven abroad before, I'm planning to brave the Peripereque(sp?) but is this wise?! I've heard its a bit of a handful apparently.

Cheers

There are still very few fixed cameras in France, and they can't so far put points on your UK licence. The police tend to prefer on-the-spot fines, which can be a bit steep, but again no points.


IME (as a passenger) the Peripherique is a bit hairy - perhaps better to find a route giving Paris a wider berth.

In general driving in France is great - the roads are quiet outside the major cities and maintained to a far better standard than in the UK.

Hope you've got aircon - it gets a bit hot at this time of year

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Nope! Taking the Capri. To be fair with the sunroof and windows open it circulates the air pretty well and isn't overly nosiey but I do long for air con....

Thanks for the quick reply - I may go the easy way and avoid Paris, but was told the route down through Clermont-Ferrand was nicer if you can get through Paris that is! I'll have a think. Ferry was cheap £80 return from Dover, thought that was pretty good. Just hope we get there, I've had a few jokes about the fact the car's so old we should be doing it for charity. I'm confidant in the old girl though....

Usually an on the spot fine for johnny foreigner - and if you were really pushing it - they confiscate the car...

No reciprocal points system yet - only operates between Swiss and French and Swiss and Germans as far as am aware.

Try www.radarfixes.com as this gives complete locations of all known traps in France - you click on the part of the hexagon you intend to drive through and Lo! they tell you where!

Also - google for bison fute - this gives you a set of radio frequencies to tune inot - these give details (oops in F=F=French opf mobile traps - but also gives all data of traffic jams and snarl ups in English, The website itself gives advance warning in French and in the Englsih version of traffic jams, road works, locations of restaurants and snack bars, service stations, weather, road conditions and anything else you need to know. It is worth a gander.

My other fave site is RADARFALLE - they also list speed traps in France (Northern and borders, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Northern Italy..) You have to pay to post - but they will do you a map for your 7 Euros and telll you where the speed traps are and what the speed limit is.. and you get the usefulful gadgets of scam detectors (legal in Germany) and toms toms complete with the the scam location overlays at discount to members. Jolly useful site ....

But for your purposes Capri (by the way my sister-in-law owns one of these... ) - radarfixes and bison fute should work well for you.





Oops 16th? You've chosen RED weekend ... Peripherque and paris should be quiet aas they'll all be on the autoroute de soleil and blanche - heading South .... So you should be OK this weekend Paris -wise. I'd hit Paris first on that basis - but stay just outside and take train in and Etoile is not wise - even in quiet patch. Also check out where the Tour is likely to be as you travel. south ... as this can lead to serious traffic hopd up. I got caught in Savoie once - took me 3 hours to drive 3 miles to the hotel in Savoie once because of this.

Think you'd be best to take a look see for a day in the North - surprisingly beautiful - you could spend a day at Arras alone - and then spend Sunday heading South after the main rush. But check out the "bison fute" site first - as this will tell you which roads are likely to be on red alert for heavy trraffic on this particular weekend as it follows Bastille celebrations and the start of the VACAMCES!

They are also very hot on seat belt wearing and drink driving - so be prepared for trafpol along same generous levels as Co Durham "larking around" as 'e calls it!

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

Oh forgot to mention - as you travel along autoroute - beawre the tall things at the side - radar speed traps and they fine at the peages! You should see the typical sign though

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

Have to say on my recent visit (Normandy) I don't recall seeing any trafpols at all.

Also never bothered putting on the headlamp beam deflectors (does this confession mean I will be extradited?). Never had the headlamps on, though.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Depends on region - we noticed more gendarme in Paris at Easter ... and in the Savoie on way up North - we went to Appenzell through Holland, Germany and into Switzerland and returned via ferry across Lake Geneva and up through France to Paris (Wildy shops wimmin ) We are off to Biarritz when kids break up for summer hols. Plan to cycle when there ....

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

Not good enough I'm afraid - the air coming in is HOT!!
Get a trigger spray (garden variety, 88p in ASDA) fill with water, and use it to spray yourself down! Carry plenty of mineral water (buy it there, it's cheap) and get one of those silver reflective shields for inside the windscreen whenever you stop - and one for the rear screen too.

Signage on French roads is appallingly late - apart from Paris, and major cities, you often only see signs when you get close. Not a problem on Paeage, but it is on local roads. Also at junctions!!

TRAFFIC LIGHTS. Look for repeaters on the post, low down, and learn the sequences, there are slight differences to ours.
Gendarmes are separate from the local police, and in some cases can be stroppy. I was once targeted for an on the spot fine, for allegedly driving through a red light! The French drivers in front and behind me were not stopped. I got off when I proved I had no CASH on me, only credit cards - go figure! They do use their guns, and are thought to be trigger happy, but you should be OK as long as you have not robbed a bank!

Carry ALL documents relating to your car - as somebody pointed out, they are prepared to confiscate your car, and may well leave you at the roadside!
Finally, French drivers in general have NO IDEA about indicating or positioning on roundabouts, (To start off, they go the wrong way round ) and they will ignore any attempt on your part to behave properly, and regard you as an idiot!

Things might have changed in the last year or so, but French road mapping is not as good as ours. If you buy an atlas and it shows motorway under construction, it's very often long finnished, even if the map is new. The Ordanance Survey is a godsend we often overlook!
Service Stations are found on tourist routes, but elsewhere, are little more than a toilet block (should we tell Capri about French toilets folks, or just let him find out for himself? ) and some seats and tables to eat your snack on. They are indicated by the prefix Aire de ...... such as Aire de Brocialande, or Aire de Mont St. Michel.
Place names on road signs are often abreviated, so if you go local, watch you understand the town you are looking for, may look nothing like on the signage! (Some place names are inordinately long!)
Finally, watch the fuel prices, and opening times!! NO Fuel on Sundays in most small towns, and prices vary from region to region, even from the same chains of supermarkets. Many shut from 12.00 midday to 2.00 pm in rural areas, but there may be a self serve chip and pin machine. Some supermarkets have card machines, which only take the stores own card. Diesel is GAZOLE and petrol is ESSENCE Dont go and fill up with parrafin by mistake!! Many small rural garages are still manned pumps, so check before you go and help yourself!

By the way, if you want to overtake, Mrs Capri may well be called upon to say whether it is safe to do so. I hope you can rely on her judgement!! If not, you can sometimes fit a small clip on mirror to the A pillar, facing forward. It only works on some cars, but at £3 in Halfords it's worth trying. There is one in Motorworld which has a sucker and will stick to the glass.
Enjoy - and email me if you want any more info - my parents live in France! With reference to above - take your own toilet paper if you like Double Velvet or Andrex. If you still use old copies of the TV Times, then French botty floss should prove adequate.

_________________
Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I forgot about those loos. Mrs Capri had better cross her legs. My wife refuses to use them...and will cross her legs but unfortunately does not suffer in silence We then have to stop at a service station where she has to queue in agony and then pay one whole Euro for the privilege...

French drivers do not obey red lights, are clueless at roudabouts (but they usually give a Gallic shug, mouth a couople of "Bof" - and blame the Belgians and the Swiss )

At night - most l traffic lights flash amber - this means you treat as normal junction and cross if same to do so.

Enjoy...!

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I drive moderately regularly in France, so here we go.

Le Periphique is a cross between the M25 and Hyde Park Corner in the rush hour. Most Parisians who drive in to Paris tend to use a car that can only best be described as a "sack of shit" that is worth no more than £50.
In the event of a minor accident on Le Periphique, the owner will simply get out (yes, they actually get out in the fast moving traffic), examine the already battered car, then simply shrug their shoulders, get back in, and drive away without a second thought.
Be aware that this is perfectly normal behaviour for them, and they are not trying to do a runner after an accident.

Whatever you do, do NOT "lane hog"
Lane hogging pisses the French off no end, and this behaviour is a surefire way to earn yourself a tailgater who will think nothing of driving 6 inches (literally) off your rear bumper at 70mph.
When overtaking, switch your indicator on, pull out, complete your manouver, and then get back in to L1 again as soon as safely possible.
While you are actually in L2 or L3 carrying out the overtake, leave your indicator on all the time so the other road users know what you are doing (confusing I know, but this is what they do over there).

IG has already covered the traffic light issue (yes, it's true, they take no notice of red lights at all), so watch yourself there.
Similarly with the roundabouts, they are nothing more than a "free for all", so good luck with that one.

I'm over there myself the week after next, so if you happen to notice a 1976 (P reg) Kawasaki Z900 which is outrageously loud (but still legal thanks to the Construction & Use Act), then give me a shout.


PS
I don't know which ferry operator you are using, but P&O are only charging me £24 return (with an overnight cabin) for myself, the Z, and a pillion.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Blimey theres a bit more to it then I was led to believe! Just to clarify it will be Sunday when I'm actually driving through France, we leaving Saturday and stopping overnight in Dover - Mrs Capri wants to stop off at BlueWater for some retail therapy "I've got to look good on the beach" is her excuse! At least I'll be refreshed a little for when I attempt France - its probably going to be a good 6 hour drive to get to Dover from Burnley. Will definatly have a look at those websites though.

Not so sure about Mrs Capri checking out the overtaking - she doesn't drive and has said "Why don't you just overtake" - this is on approches to blind bends and summits! Planning to go down virtually all on the motorway - may amble back if time permits.

Bit worried about all this about a red traffic light being somewhat advisory and roundabouts being every man for himself! Oh well fingers crossed!

I booked with P&O, I thought I'd got a good deal but £24 is a bargain!

Thanks very much for the info, I will certainly re-read everything that has been written and try to digest it all.

I have to question Gixxers priorities, and the size of P&O's cabins!

(with an overnight cabin) for 1. myself, 2. the Z, and 3. a pillion
Does the Pillion know they are third in the list?

_________________
Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I prefer the N roads myself (French equivalent of our A roads).
Although they are only 2 lanes wide, there is never any congestion, there are no tolls, and the average speed is still somewhere between 80-90 mph (even the HGV's crack along at 65-70mph).


Being an ex despatch rider, I managed to adapt to that way of driving in under 5 minutes .
Seriously though, I think it is reasonably safe to say that you will soon get in to the stride of things after a couple of hours or so.


If she was higher up the list than than my bike, then she would start taking steps to have me committed

_________________
What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

I still cant figure how your gonna get the Z in the cabin!

_________________
Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Just got back from my adventure earlier today - all went very well indeed. Was extremly impressed with how the car performed, never skipped a beat, didn't use a drop of oil or water and never started to overheat, despite waiting in long toll booth queues after spells at high speed. Not bad seeing as though its approching its 24th birthday.

I mentioned in my original post that I wanted to see what effect paying less attention on my numerical speed and more on a true safe speed would have on my driving. However, I've found something worrying in my driving that I didn't think I would. This being that I still, possibly out of habit, kept checking my speedo. This wasn't an occasional reassurance check, but the religious checking that I would do in England. This may sound a little big-headed(it's not meant to be) but I hoped I could decide myself what was a safe speed without constant referal to a speedo. But I couldn't, I found myself needing to assertain my speed to judge bends, braking distances etc. This maybe simply because I'm not as good a driver as I thought I was, and need more advanced training. The other side is that because I passed my test in the camera era and never known a time without them I have been trained and conditioned to constantly refer to speedometers and speed limits to drive 'safely'. Perhaps I'm reading to much into it, but I thought it worthy of note.

Other then that we had a great holiday, all but one day was gloriously sunny and temperatures were about 35^C. Air-Con would have been nice, but neither of us found the heat seriously oppressive thankfully. The hotel was loverly and the resort was great(La Grande Motte). Just wish I knew a little more French other then the basics. Was even moderatly impressed with the French drivers, they gave me time and space and did not get irate when I was a little hesitate with the directions trying to thread my way through Montpellier. The drive down was a little tricky - went on the Periperique which was a little lairy but nothing horrendous. Took the motorway down through Clermont-Ferrond and Millau which was a hard work with all the mountains and sharp-bends. Was beginning to get a little tired by that time as well as I did the full France leg from Calais in one take. The Millau viaduct is stunning if a little scary! Coming back we went via Lyon-Dijon-Reims which although seemed a little further in miles we did it about 45 mins quicker as the speeds were much higher. Just got stuck in a bit of a tailback on the banks of the river trying to get throught Lyon.

Thanks again for the advice given before I set off, which was much appriciated.

I was down that way about three weeks ago - it's a smashing run down via Clermont, even if it is somewhat less than straight a lot of the time, and the Millau viaduct..! Wow! Took my breath away when I first saw it.

I did Dunkerque to Barcelona in one go last time.. I think I'll split it when I go next week, I'm getting a tad long in the tooth for driving 800+ miles in one go - even if it is great fun..

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

They knew how ot make cars back then!

Seriously - you do feel speed more acutely in these classics than in a modern car.

I would certainly consider advanced training - as Cyclist found p it helps a lot.




Less moisture - different kind of heat.



It does help. I speak German and French - but this is mainly thanks to Wildy and the family and their hospitality as a boy. There are some sites you can try to help improve things - and if you have kids

"pommes-frites" "Zut" (you have to pay for this one though - but for my younger kids... worth it.) BBC languages on line - excellent.

If you can - buy Michel Thomas course - guy is superb by all accounts. Guy is ex Resistance and survived by linguistic skills. He taught Princess Grace to speak French - and assisted Mel Gibson and other Hollywood stars to perfect lainguistic skills. Have one of courses - can recommend as "not scary"



I understand COAST/PARC are routinely taught and TV adverts remind


Glad you enjoyed and that the advice from here helped.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

And boy do they remind you.... everynight in Brittany - assume it is the same everywhere.
Each night, 9.00pm a driving personality narrates the safety message, and often examples of what has gone wrong are shown.

On "Road Wars" tonight, they put together a series of clips regarding not wearing seat belts.
The commentary said police officers were seriously concerned that the "Belt Up" message was no longer receiving the clout it once did on TV.

_________________
Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Very true, its not the most refined car at 80+mph but in a way thats a good thing as it feels enjoyable and keeps your concentration on the long motorway trips. Other then getting there and enjoying a great holiday the most satisfying thing is proving all my family and friends wrong who said it would never make it. I had confindance though, after all its very basic engineering so theres less to go wrong.



Yeah I was suprised, I was exepecting the driving standards would be worse but this wasn't the case. Certainly the majority of the drivers do drive fast on the mortorways, even at 80-85mph I was overtaken much more then I overtook but it never felt all that dangerous. This maybe because it was much quieter.



It certainly did help, thanks!

Just back from my tour of France and Italy. One thing I noticed this year compared to previous was how silent my (well disguised) BEL 550 detector was in France.

(PS. Only cams encountered in UK leg of journey was SPECS on the M6 roadworks!!! Shame as I was ready to give the bird to the CSCP guys....)