Managed 17 years here in France now with just one speeding fine, 118 kmh in a 110 going around Limoges on the Autoroute. Remember seeing the camera and grabbing a handful of brake to get down from about 160. Paid the fine and never heard anything more. Been stopped for a document check once in that time.
Head down on the French Autoroute doing about 145 kmh on the clock on my Fireblade. Could not see behind me very well with a bit of luggage on the back - suddenly got a mirror full of Police car ! Thought pants, here we go. They came right past and they just casually looked at me as they came past. this little Peugeot 308 full of Police bombing along the road - looked funny.
Probably. But in my imagination they were chasing after some robbers - doing proper Policeman stuff Talking of cops and robbers - Film: The Racer & The Jailbird - French film with English subtitles
I suspect Brits are more likley to be relieved of their licence on the spot in the future rather than chased for speeding fines.
Your absolutely right. A 308 police car is not aimed at motorways traffic offenders. On our motorways, specific gendarmerie units do that. Not the police. So military, not civilians. And they are usually riding motorcycles or « fast » cars. They have used some nice models in their history. Renault Alpines, Subarus, … https://www.turbo.fr/photos/50-ans-de-voitures-rapides-pour-la-gendarmerie/photo/558461
You also have to realise that whereas in the UK you have the police, we have Police and Gendarmes and they are very different. Gendarmes are, as Guillaume says, part of the military and are a national force, they are all armed.
That’s bang on for Switzerland. My sister was fined £850 (whatever the SF equivalent is) for doing 60km per hour in a 50. Later the same day she got a nail through the side wall of her rear tyre. She spent an unplanned grand that day But she did note the police were very polite and chatty whilst fleecing her…
Doesnt surprise me. Whilst they were processing us, they complimented our peleton. They even offered to store our bikes in the gendarmes quarters adjacent garage whilst someone drove over with a trailor from uk to pick up the bikes AND gave us a lift to our hotel in Troyes afterwards.
Like we say: « Law’s hard, but that’s Law, and no one is supposed to not know the Law ». On a side note and off topic, national police is armed as well here in France, no exceptions. Back 20 years ago, most larger towns city police (police municipale) didn’t use to be armed. Today, facing Islamist terror, most mayors have armed their police. Some are actually better equipped than National police. All geared up tactical and shit, like they’re patrolling the streets of Mossul or Raqqua. Islamists are making us regress back to dark ages. Shame on them. « From now on, city police has a new friend ». That’s the city of Béziers, early 2015.
Whenever we are in the french alps, the plates of the dickhead cars/bikes always have swiss flags. We avoid swiss like the plague. We go around it from GEX via Bellegarde towards Le Grand Bernand. Avoiding the caravan of BMW tourers with swiss flags acting like mobile fucking chicanes. Who seem to like blocking and generally being twats. German, dutch, french etc are always nice n freindly. Swiss can do one, the nazis.
I think the consensus here is don't get stopped by the French authorities whilst speeding. Next time I am trying to set a land speed record about 2 miles past the last toll booth on the A25 returning towards the Channel Tunnel (and I had seen them hiding in the bushes on my way down and made a mental note not to get caught by that..... doh) I am just going to keep going with my throttle wide open and not stop, and not have €750 lifted out of my account from an ATM and not pay a further €330 to be bed flat bed transported to the Channel Tunnel as they took my British license - I too was banned in France for a statutory 1 month - I would have been in gaol if I were French the Gendarmes informed me! 255 kph was what they had on their Radar gun. They'd caught an Aussie doing 180kph earlier and delighted in telling me that I was at the top of the daily leader board for that day .... Having paid the f***ing fine on the spot, they had the audacity to keep writing to me to tell them that I owed them €750 for speeding after the court case from which I was absent. After the third demanding letter, I sent them a copy of the receipt and never heard from the authorities again. I've since met people who paid the fine a second time. The French judicial systems aren't that joined up it would seem.
