A friend just called me from Chartres, he has just had his car impounded until he paid a 350 euro fine. But they have also taken his driving licence away and he must stay in France or get someone else to drive his car back to the UK. He is the only driver and his passenger is disabled.
I cannot drive that sort of distance and cannot get out to France anyway.
Any suggestions kind folks?
He has spoken to the British Embassy but I am not aware of the outcome. Any expats living in the Chartres area who could give him some help.
A friend is going out on Eurostar to Paris £190, then onto Chartres €13.20, spend a night in an Hotel €35 where the gendarmes dropped them off, the car is in a secure pound until someone turns up with a driving licence. I just rebooked the return journey on the shuttle and it has only cost him £9 extra.
We should be more like the French, yeah right
£240 train and hotel plus a €350 fine and a three month driving ban in France Ouch!
Not now Those speed limits are there for a reason, and he was taking the ■■■■ cos someone told him they don’t bother about foreign drivers, it is too time consuming
An expensive lesson and an even more expensive trip to a weekend race meeting
Not now Those speed limits are there for a reason, and he was taking the ■■■■ cos someone told him they don’t bother about foreign drivers, it is too time consuming
An expensive lesson and an even more expensive trip to a weekend race meeting
Not now Those speed limits are there for a reason, and he was taking the ■■■■ cos someone told him they don’t bother about foreign drivers, it is too time consuming
An expensive lesson and an even more expensive trip to a weekend race meeting
You misunderstood me but it doesn’t matter.
How fast over was he going?
Sorry Rob. I still have one, but I am still a bit immobile, certainly couldn’t manage allocking about in Gare de Nord and St Pancras.
The speed limit on a motorway is 130kmh (82MPH) & on the dual N10 it is 110kmh (68mph). My mate Rob was doing 132kmh, on the N10 just where it goes from duals into single track. 110kmh to 90kmh (56mph) It would have cost him much more if it was raining
The Continent has always seemed a place where speed limits for drivers are higher. Tourists have felt fairly immune, since they’ll soon be back home and out of the jurisdiction of the police force, and there’s no agreement between many countries for enforcing fines. But in France you’re no longer as free to speed as you once were.
The Penalties
Under new laws, foreign-registered cars caught by cameras speeding in France will be recorded on a national register - not good news if you’re planning on visiting regularly with your car.
Speeding can mean an on-the-spot fine of up to €375 (£260), and if you don’t have it, the police can keep your vehicle until you come up with the cash. If you’re caught going more than 50kph (31mph) over the limit, your car can be confiscated. Anyone caught going more than 25kph (approx 16mph) over the limit can lose their licence on the spot.
Not now Those speed limits are there for a reason, and he was taking the ■■■■ cos someone told him they don’t bother about foreign drivers, it is too time consuming
An expensive lesson and an even more expensive trip to a weekend race meeting
You misunderstood me but it doesn’t matter.
How fast over was he going?
Sorry Rob. I still have one, but I am still a bit immobile, certainly couldn’t manage allocking about in Gare de Nord and St Pancras.
I wasn’t on about you. Your initial post gave the impression that he’s had his licence confiscated - which he has - but I didn’t think it was purely from speeding, I thought it was invalid or expired or something.
The speed limit on a motorway is 130kmh (82MPH) & on the dual N10 it is 110kmh (68mph). My mate Rob was doing 132kmh, on the N10 just where it goes from duals into single track. 110kmh to 90kmh (56mph) It would have cost him much more if it was raining
The Continent has always seemed a place where speed limits for drivers are higher. Tourists have felt fairly immune, since they’ll soon be back home and out of the jurisdiction of the police force, and there’s no agreement between many countries for enforcing fines. But in France you’re no longer as free to speed as you once were.
The Penalties
Under new laws, foreign-registered cars caught by cameras speeding in France will be recorded on a national register - not good news if you’re planning on visiting regularly with your car.
Speeding can mean an on-the-spot fine of up to €375 (£260), and if you don’t have it, the police can keep your vehicle until you come up with the cash. If you’re caught going more than 50kph (31mph) over the limit, your car can be confiscated. Anyone caught going more than 25kph (approx 16mph) over the limit can lose their licence on the spot.
[zb] me, and I thought the cops were jobsworths over here. I can see my DL not staying in my presence very long if I were to drive in France. I generally do 90 on motorways, similar on DCs and 75-80ish on single NSLs (all if traffic/conditions allow of course), so I don’t think neither me nor my motor would last long in France.
Mind you, 16mph over the limit is licence-losing over here as well if you get a jobsworth, but more likely 3 points and a small fine, if not just a telling off.
Rob K: [zb] me, and I thought the cops were jobsworths over here.
Now when I was a lad…
No, I’ll start that again.
I think both Harry and Malc can say that they remember the 80s and the French cops relieving us of fines of FF900 (£90 at the time) for even the most trivial offences. I reckon half the ‘offences’ were made-up just because we had a GB sticker on the trailer.
Mind you Rob, £90 was a fair sum (over half of a week’s pay) in the 80s, and gaffers didn’t usually like paying it, which led to us having to ‘negotiate’ or be faced with getting parked-up having been relieved of our documents. (AKA ‘captured.’)
IIRC, the standard fine was FF600 in the early 80s, and it got increased overnight to FF900 (1985ish?)
To be honest I think he has got away quite lightly with a €350 fine. Usually when you are exceeding the limit by that much that the French impose an immediate ban, you would expect a fine of between €750-€1500.
I agree with GBpub, I lost my (French)licence for a month for doing 90kph in an 80kph limit. If you look at the new French registrations they are now National rather than Departmental ,there is now a national data base of all new registrations in ,I think Bordeaux and it will be linked to the DVLC so the flic can trace UK vehicles.
The outcome of this could be good. I may end up as a chauffeur at the end of this month as the FIM are running another major event, he could probably fly out but it is a long way in a taxi to the track and back to the hotels, the alternative is to hire a car at the airport but even Location Francaise are unwilling to rent a jalopy to a bloke without a brief
I might have to go over and drive the car, although it could be “marked”
I think he got off quite lightly too and it will give me great pleasure to keep reminding him
Harry Monk:
If they were half as keen to stop German tanks as they are British trucks and cars they wouldn’t have got themselves into all that trouble.
Harry Monk:
If they were half as keen to stop German tanks as they are British trucks and cars they wouldn’t have got themselves into all that trouble.
I love that too.
The pillock will never learn, his mate got flashed as they came into Rouen today. The car could be on a serious hit list in France.
@wheelnut, this will help cheer your friend up its about a Swiss speeding culprit who is really deep in the ■■■, have a READ-HERE also this ONEis even BETTER
My own google-free (short) translation of the key points of info:
In the Swiss Kanton of Freiburg, a 37 year old Swedish man was caught in a radar speed-trap at a speed of 290 Kmh on a stretch of road where the speed limit is 120 Kmh.
(He was travelling at more than 100 mphOVER the speed limit )
The 571hp sports car (a Mercedes SLS) was immediately confiscated, along with the guy’s driving licence.
Fines are calculated by a Court having regard to the offender’s net daily income and then applying a multiplying factor.
In theory, this driver’s fine could be as much as 1.8 million Swiss Francs. (approx € 780,000 or £ 649,080)
Returning from a family holiday in Spain I was passing Montpellier at approx 2am, roads were reasonably clear and I was doing 98mph (by Satnav not speedo). Got towards Lyon, just before the tolls on the south side, and my reg came up in lights with the words TROP VITO.
Now, I hadnt a clue what TROP VITO meant but had a damned good idea. Dropped the speed to 80 - 85 and carried on.
Ouch!
It would have cost him much more if it was raining 
No, I’ll start that again. 
