You know there is a wheeze told to me some time ago about the Froggie traffic cops. The French don't like the English, but they do have a bit of love affair with the Scots (because the jocks are anti-English, and because of history: Mary Queen of Scots was exiled in Frogland for some time).
So, the thing is when motoring through Vichy driving a Brit-registered car, make a point of having a large Scottish flag sticker stuck on the bootlid. If you get stopped, make a point of pointing to the flag, mention you live in Edinburgh (or another Jockanese city), that you hate the English, and chances are, you will get off with a warning!
This was told to me about 10 years ago, so next year I did just that and got a blue/white saltire stuck on the boot. I got stopped by the Frog rozzers only once, just outside Marseilles, and did my best to talk in a jock "hoots-mon" accent. And, by golly it worked! :) :) Let off with a warning. :) :)
Don't know it will work now though, with speed cameras and whatnot.
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with Racism like that I wonder why we don't like you! ;)
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Pity they couldn't summon up the resolve to get to Iraq. I'm sure Baghdad's traffic conditions would have benefited.
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But on the other hand - if you are law (and speed limit) abiding, and it reduces road deaths by 30% then perhaps it's not a bad thing........?
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The cheek of the the French expecting us to obey their laws...don't they know about Waterloo? Rah Rah
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Hmm, if a french driver gets pulled whilst over here and issued a ticket I bet a pound to a penny he can rip it up without any fear of being persued for it in the future!
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I very much regret the references to 'Jocks' and our (alleged) dislike of English people. Would you, perhaps also advocate putting on a French accent if you decide to travel up to Scotland? If you carry on in this vein it might become advisable.
Graeme
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I, too, am dismayed at the attitude displayed to not only the Scottish, but the Welsh and French too.
I have spent many holidays in the Highlands and can safely say that every single native that I met was polite and friendly and showed not one ounce of this supposed "Sassenach" hatred. In fact, so enamoured am I with Scotland, I now proudly carry the Saltire on the back of my car. Guess that means I'll be ok if I ever go to France.... ;-)
Cheers
Rob
"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast."
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Welsh guy in work has a (mass produced, I assume) Tee Shirt saying (in Francais) "I'm Welsh not English" - so there must be some truth in the theory.
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Its amazing how people think they can say what they like about other Europeans with complete impunity. I travel and work in Germany quite a bit; when I mention that to other people in the UK, they come out with the most dreadful comments about 'k****s', 'n***s' etc. and immediately start quoting the typical German stereotypes. Similar comments about black or Asian people would land them in jail.
In fact most of the Germans I meet (and French for that matter) are as friendly, honest and well-mannered people as you'd ever wish to meet. TBH, I now prefer to work with Germans as opposed to English - there's less back-stabbing and office politics, they just get on with the job.
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Je ne suis pas anglais, je suis gallois.
When I worked in France I had a Scottish boss. His daughter was (is?) at uni in Bath. When he went to visit her, his French registered car was ticketed.
Being a polite sort, in a bolshie kind of way, he sent a French cheque to cover the amount. He didn't get a reply and he didn't cash it.
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I once hired a car for a month in France using American Express. When it came to the time to pay the garage realised they did not do American Express! They borrowed a slip from a local hotel and filled that in. They got paid by Amex but I was never charged.
What this has to do with the flicvs I don't know, but still.......
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Can confirm French police seemed very active with radar etc en route back from Le Mans last weekend, although they often are on the Sunday as the lads set off for the blat back to the ports.
Varying hearsay stories about being let off or fined enormous amounts have been heard.
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So does this mean we are all inherently racist, or not?
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Correction: nationalism is not racism. If the day comes when there is some grey Euroman whose philosophy is hugging all those around him and celebrating how we are all the same like some ghastly saccharine Paul McCartney song, I hope, and the probability is I won't, be around to see it.
Folk memory is a powerful thing and it is not always as well to expunge it. Try plumbing the depths of Filipino feeling about the Japanese occupation even today, they suffered worse than most occupied European countries in WW2 and yet far fewer tears were shed for them than for the traitorous French. My ex who was a kid during the Japanese occupation of Manila still remembers things that would make your hair curl, or ask a Korean how he feels about the occupation of his country.
These memories and the desire not to repeat them are the best bet for peace in the future and when these feelings pass the time will be ripe for a new generation of evil to be visited upon a populace grown soft, compacent and and spineless through socially engineered PC. 9-11 was a taste of that.
No one has an obligation to like anyone else and neither should he/she be compelled to, either by law or by guilt-inspiring propaganda. Thus isn't racism it's human nature. Doesn't mean you go round chucking rocks through windows, merely that you hold your own opinions as is your right. Man is still a tribal animal.
Now then to motoring: anyone here got a Kia Sedona? There's a promo here right now and they look good value for money. I read the HJ write-up but would like a personal opinion from a user if there is one.
Thanks.
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I think that has probably covered it.
So back to motoring please people.
Mark.
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I have always found the French extremely polite, at work and when I'm on holiday in France. I do find that on autoroutes I'm the only one sticking to the speed limit about 82mph, the French seem to have two speeds flat out or stop!
VD5D.
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RE; Growlers comment on KIA SEDONA. Just watched the BBC News Thurs lunch time, I think I'm right in saying it was bottom of the pile in crash tests. Might be worth checking it out.
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Is the concern over the harshness of the penalty, or the increased risk of getting caught? Probably a bit of both I suppose.
Driving in over the last two weeks I have seen three speed traps in the rural part of the commute (1 "hairdryer" in a village, and two cases where a car had been pulled by a Volvo T5). Over the last three years I had only seen two others on the same route. The penalties haven't changed, but you can bet I keep a much more watchful eye on the speedo now.
If it had been announced that the fines had been elevated to the French levels, I doubt that would have had the same level of affect on me personally, but then I do not speed that often.
I think an increased number of dayglo jackets around the place would have a greater effect on more people, compared to a few individuals being hammered in the courts, with the "but I'll not get caught" attitude that can prevail.
Chris TD
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Certainly the only times in the past that I have seen speed traps in France, I knew about them in advance thanks to the locals giving me the headlamp flash as I approached - in one case about 5 kliks in advance! The French public don't like the police anyway, and traffic cops even less so. On a motorway it's different, of course, but I've yet to see a radar trap there - and they would have a field day with the 150kph brigade [usually Parisian number plates :-)] Of course they can get you at the tolls by checking your average speed - but if you've been giving it serious hammer and averaging over 130kph then you should take what comes if you get caught.
About time they did something, I guess - although it's unusual to see an accident in France (due probably to the size of the country in relation to ours) when you do spot one, it's usually a nasty, and the stats would seem to bear that out.
Did they ever get around to that daft idea of chopping down the plane trees on either side of rural roads in the South, because motorists hit them when they lost control? Destroy the countryside for the sake of a few numpty drivers? I should coco!
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The usual thing on autoroutes is timing between 2 peages. My brother was on a bus and it got pulled (I think that the police clamp down more on HGVs and buses esp the latter as they have had a number of dreadful crashes in recent years).
As for speed traps on the autoroute, I have seen 1 or 2. There was a sneaky one (hidden out of site) on the autoroute leading from Calais and I saw a biker cop on the hard shoulder on the Reims-Germany autoroute.
In the years that I lived in France, the strangest time I got stopped was in the middle of a forest on a D road (single track, no markings) where the copper checked what I had in my (saloon) boot. When asked why he was doing this he said something about the IRA and that he was looking for explosives!!
I was also only ever pulled 2 other times. Once at a peage, because I had a lot of wine on the boot and he wanted to know what was in there and once when leaving a petrol station on an autoroute. I saw the 3 coppers talking to each other discussing whether they should pull me or not (presumably because I had a GB car).
One of the hottest places to be pulled in France is on the RN10 going down from to the Spainish border (San Sebastian). There are an inordinate number of UK cars pulled!!
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I read recently that timing between peages was an urban myth, and that it is not done. However police will often set up a speed trap at or near a peage as it is a convenient place.
The Dutch can teach us a thing or two about speed cameras - see www.tuftufclub.com/english/index.htm, and roam round the links. Mad.
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Yawn yawn yawn! Same old story from last year, almost as predictable as the French air traffic control guys going on strike. Trotted out again to make us us behave on the Autoroutes, I wonder if the French know about it..........
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Driving and in a hurry in the USA some years ago, I had not realised that averaging 85 mph between turnpike toll-booths was likely to land me in trouble! Fortunately, my very British accent got me out of hot water.
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i think its good that the french police stop and prosecute a selection of brits and their own nationals
now the british police if you visit dover and watch the police stops on the way out of town will only ever stop brits
foreign drivers never get stopped, will never get prosecuted, and are pretty much imune from our anti car driver culture (unless they actually kill someone or something of a serious nature)
belgian coppers take the bike away on a truck until a foreigner such as brit has paid something as trivial as a speeding ticket (which is more of a big deal there as they dont hand them out like raffle tickets like they do here), british copper stopping a belgian biker will almost always let him off with a warning
british drivers are the soft underbelly and easy target
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Miat,
I have to correct you on this one. My partnership is one of many in the UK that act as agents for Companies in other countries. There is a steady trickle of foreign drivers through the practice
ranging from lorry drivers involved in tacho offences through to
holiday drivers involved in injury bumps. Speed detection offences are few and far between. There are differences in the laws between Euro countires which probably make it easier for the Belgian Police to whip someone's bike away. A recent example was an American tourist who turned onto the incorrect side of the road leaving a dual carriageway, a head on accident occured with minor injuries to the local. American was nicked and kept in a hotel overnight (minus her passport)- she appeared in Court last Thursday, pleaded guilty and fined a £100.00.
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100 quid is nothing for nearly killing someone!
and a lot less than i would have got for doing similar in the USA i can tell u for free, in a hotel? come on it would be a cell if reversed...
"Speed detection offences are few and far between" proves my point
all the other incidents seem to have been shunts or events that have forced plod to act
now compared to the stacks of brits getting points and fines for similar miles
i think you need to speak to some coppers in dover
it is common knowledge that a foreign licence is the only way to travel in this anti-car land nowadays
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Is there any evidence that French police time cars between peages? In many years of driving on the continent I have never seen any police or gendarmes pulling people at peages and if they wanted to they could pull 90% of drivers since if you stick to the limit you will be the slowest on the autoroute bar HGVs and caravans. Don\'t their toll tickets just have the date on rather than the time? Who works out the speed ? The bloke in the toll station? Can they do you if you pay by Telepeage or credit card as most French seem to? Does the Gendarme stand in the toll station and check your speed on his calculator? If it is automatically done by the toll station why don\'t we all get done and why is your average speed not displayed - they display the price? Many of the autoroutes are not tolled anyway and there are sometimes great distances between toll stations. Most tolls are also where you turn off the motorway - do they have police stationed at all of them or is it just an occasional random thing? Does any one know? Anyone been done in this way? I think it\'s pink fluffy dice
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I can have a go at some of these after driving in France many times over the last few years:
1) Is there any evidence that French police time cars between peages?
Only anecdotal in my experience.
2) In many years of driving on the continent I have never seen any police or gendarmes pulling people at peages...
I have - several times. And many more times have I seen the police waiting just beyond the peage apparently looking for specific vehicles.
3) Don't their toll tickets just have the date on rather than the time?
Sometimes they have date, sometimes time, sometimes both. I was careful to look for this after hearing about said myth last year.
4) Who works out the speed?
If it happens, presumably the police who are waiting. They radio ahead and give times. The peage toll booth people are simply low paid employees who take money and issue tickets. Nothing more.
5) Can they do you if you pay by Telepeage or credit card?
As the timing system (if it exists) has nothing to do with the peage employees and everything to do with the police, your means of payment is irrelevant.
6) Does Gendarme stand in the toll station and check your speed on his calculator?
No. In my experience one sits in the car and one runs around waving people over just beyond the toll booths. Presumably the one sitting in the car is doing the calculations.
etc. etc.
In my opinion, the French police can and do use the timing method on occasion, in the same way that the English police can time between two points and get evidence that will stand up in court. This is not a particularly common occurence and is likely to snare only the fastest drivers. As these seem to bomb around at 130mph+ on the autoroutes, I think my steady 90mph is likely to be overlooked.
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I was in France last week, saw one speed trap on the Rennes to Avranches dual carriageway on Saturday morning, just ripe for the English who come back on the afternoon ferry from Caen. Also, an English friend of mine who lives in France has a French registed car, was given an on the spot fine of 90€ and 3 points on his licence as his trailer had a different number plate, also French, but how were the police to know when they stopped him that he was English, unless of course they can obtain the details via computer link to their DVLC equivalent?
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"I can have a go at some of these after driving in France many times over the last few years:
1) Is there any evidence that French police time cars between peages?
Only anecdotal in my experience."
LP,
I too regularly drive in France. I have seen evidence of increased interest in driving offences but no evidence that they are "picking" on the English.
They are timing some between peages - only if they have a sighting of ton-up numptys who seem to think that all bets are off the minute you hit French soil.
The main problem with fines has been those who are still stupid enough to carry speed detection equipment. A colleague who I warned still persisted and got a hefty fine and the kit confiscated.
There is plenty of reasonable leeway for people driving sensibly within 10 percent or so of an already high "dry" limit.
The reasons for the clampdown: - the pressure from the French accident rate plus the largely correct assumption that there were many UK and CI motorists whose main reason for taking performance cars over was to turn the auto routes into a race track.
Despite this, France remains somewhere you can have a lot of higher speed driving pleasure without offending the plod - as long as you don't go silly. I have passed many of the police at 90-95 - seen others blasting past at 120 and who then wonder why they get nicked.
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I haven't driven in Belgium for a good few years now but when I did it was conventional wisdom the traffic police were corrupt (as told me by Belgians).
I wonder if that is still the case.
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The Gendarmes do appear to be cracking down on speeding. Juan Pablo Montoya has just been done by them and banned. (126 mph)
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/30...m
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