DDK to CLM - watch your speed !

[hot66]

Before every Classic Le Mans trip, we usually have this warning about watching your speed when in france ... with their new laws it appears they are getting stricter. This along with the ban on satnavs with speed camera locations is going to make for a steady drive down

interesting thread .. read all of LowDrags posts, he lives over in LeMans & it is a scarey insight

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... out!&mid=0

[210bhp]

You all need to carry a breathalyser now as well as the other stuff, yellow jacket etc etc

Still wish I was coming


Regards
Mike

[Bootsy]

Is the breathalyser law now?

[hot66]

think it is from 1st July. Need 2 in the car.

Been told cheapest place to buy is at the ferry / tunnel terminal

[greeny27rs]

Igot one the other day. All the garages around the port sell them.

They are only about a euro apiece.

[neilbardsley]

Apologies we need 2 breathalyser?

Any confirmation on a posting a saw about filling up old cars at european petrol stations? What was the quick fix?

[hot66]

law requires you to carry one UNUSED breathalyzer kit ...... so of course , if you use one when asked by the plod / or after that lunch time glass of wine , you still need one in the car

So the French Police recommend you carry 2

Not sure what your asking ref petrol ?

[abm914]

1st of July of breathalysers - cheapest are French supermarkets or petrol stations.

Also make sure that you have your HiVis Jacket in the car (and not in the boot).

[23e Heure]

If you don't carry breathalysers on your July trip to the Classic, you will be fine.
I understand that the law starts July 1st, but les gendarmes have been instructed not to start charging fines until Nov 1st.
That said, there is already a big supply of cheapo disposable kits, so if you dont want to risk it, then the cost is minimal to get kitted up.


As for speeding. I've driven Le Mans and back in my 911 I think 12 times now.
I got speeding fines on 2 of those trips.
The fines were very small, but it does help to be polite and able to speak fluent French.
Travelling to Le Mans 15 years ago truly was a hoot, the roads were clearer and it was a more 'sporting' drive (there was no A28 back then, so there was jsut the twisty D438/338 from Rouen to Le Mans)
These days it's better to treat the trip ther/back as a moderate cruise, busy keeping an eye out for the bikes under road bridges, and les radars poking out from the back of Peugeot estates parked in hedges.

Save your petrol for the backroads around La Sarthe

[Bertroex]

I'd fill your cars up with relatively cheap UK petrol as well as in non-supermarket and motorway filling stations, petrol prices can be anything from 5 to 20 cts. a liter more expensive, depending on the location.

Also, in france a lot of motorway and official network places sell the Unleaded E10, which is the 10% bio ethanol which is not so good for our old fuel pipes.

1 litre of unleaded 95 RON in the UK: 131.9 to 137.9 in Nottingham
1 litre of unleaded 95 RON in France 1.69 Euros (about 1.37p)

http://about-france.com/travel.htm#fuel
http://www.energy.eu/

regards,

Bert

[barryb]

Hi

I paid €1.55 for 95 unleaded this morning. If you are buying petrol in France try and use the supermarkets E.Leclerc, Super U etc. Steer clear of Total,Avia and Elan which can be 20c a litre more expensive. The E10 pump is clearly marked and all stations carry at least 95 and most 98 and 95.

Barry

[abm914]

Some more info re breathalysers from the IAM:

Half of motorists are unaware that the breathalysers they will soon need to carry in France must be certified to the French NF standard, according to the IAM's (Institute of Advanced Motorists) latest web poll of 2300 respondents. Compulsory from 1st July, the easiest way to tell if the breathalyser complies with the French legislation is to make sure it has the blue circular NF logo, the French equivalent of the BSI kite mark in the UK.

Other findings show that 82 per cent of people think that the new regulations will have no effect on reducing drink driving, as intended by the French authorities. Only 13 per cent said that the new regulations will reduce people driving over the limit, and 70 per cent said that drivers will only carry them to comply with the law, and will not change their behaviour.

Despite a general scepticism about the impact these new regulations will have, compliance is set to be high. Seventy-five per cent of respondents plan to take the breathalyser kit with them. Only seven per cent said they didn't plan to. Eighteen per cent didn't know or hadn't thought about it.

The legal limit in France is 50 mg per 100 ml of blood, lower than in the UK (the UK limit is 80mg).

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: "Agree with the changes or not, from July 1st you will face a fine if you don't carry an NF approved breathalyser while travelling in France. While these are a good way of being sure you are safe to drive, if you're going to drink don't drive, and beware the morning after effect.

"We will be looking forward to seeing the evaluation of what impact this new legislation is having. Support is likely to be higher if people can see that carrying a breathalyser actually reduces drink driving."

AlcoSense Breathalyser managing director Hunter Abbott said: "There are a lot of products being sold as "French Breathalysers" which will not satisfy the Gendarmerie. If the product you buy has the French NF logo on it you'll be OK, otherwise the Gendarmerie will not accept it and may treat you the same way as if you do not have one at all. AlcoSense NF Breathalysers (Redline R1) are one of only two single use products on the market which are on the Official Securite Routier approved list. If you purchase a product not on the list or without the NF logo, it puts you at risk of breaking the new law."

[saxon]

Be very careful my brother got caught and our friend too on our way back from Le mans 24/hr both got fined 90 euro's on the spot fines .

[sjm]

I drive in France a couple of times a year, and will certainly comply with this...BUT, two things spring to mind:

1. Apart from this thread I haven't seen anything anywhere about these new rules. I'm not expecting the French to make it easy for us of course (too much money to be had from completely innocent unsuspecting Brits for them to consider that!), but is it not reasonable to expect some kind of official notice from French authorities? They know there are thousands of Brits driving there each year... Which leads to my second point...
2. My only experiences of French Police are bad, and illegal! I did the Cannonball Run a few years back (yes, I know this is waving a red flag to a bull etc.) and almost all of us were stopped by the Police. Fair enough if you're caught speeding - my mate was driving my car at the time and we were caught at 7mph over the speed limit on the autoroute. Nothing too heavy really. But speeding is speeding so we pulled over, apologised in rather poor French and agreed we had been going 7mph over the limit (all this of course while other cars, mainly French cars, were going past much quicker. In fact, we were travelling in the inside lane when we got pulled over - so there were clearly plenty of other cars going past us quicker...but of course they were French so presumably invisible... . We were generally balled out by these two cops who then told us the fine we had to pay there and then was €270, "or we take your car, we have already taken lots of your cars today". Ok, seems like a big fine but faced with the choice of seeing the local judge and possibly losing my car we paid the fine. We got the paperwork and drove off. We checked the paperwork and it was a receiot for.....€90. Thieving French ****! So it was obviously a €90 fine, plus €90 each for the two cops who pulled us over.

When we got to the hotel that evening everyone was telling tales of being ripped off by the Police for similar amounts. Oh, apart from the guy in a Diablo - he had also suffered one of the cops having a kick at his car and knocking a camcorder off the dashboard and breaking it on the tarmac.

I don't think much of the French Police. And this latest change to the law seems more like opportunism than a genuine effort to improve driving standards. Apologies to any French people reading this - I have no problem with the French, but French traffic police are, in my humble opinion thieving belligerent scum.

Phew...off for a cup of Horlicks I think...

[sjm]

Be very careful my brother got caught and our friend too on our way back from Le mans 24/hr both got fined 90 euro's on the spot fines .

And also, reading the above again - what date does this come in to effect then? Surely the French Police aren't getting ahead of themselves and taking money when they shouldn't be? Perish the thought....

(er, off for that Horlicks anyway...)