Club Arnage

On my road trip over the weekend I had a look at this months Evo at a petrol station (always an interesting read, shame I didn't have any change)

The editors foreword(?) mentioned one of the road tests being cut short by the driver being clocked at 40km/h over the limit, he got an immediate 15 day ban in France & had to fly home & another guy had to fly over to pick up the car (an AMG Merc if I recall correctly) I may be glad I'm not currently due to be driving this year... ::)

There's a link to a similar discussion on the PH forum...

http://tinyurl.com/qlomp

There was an Audi R10 article with some  ;) Se6r1n9  ;) stuff & a "Le Mans preview" in there too, didn't have time to flick through them, may pick it up for some light reading in 3 weeks time...

Chris, to this day i havent yet been stopped on my bike or in the car speeding.

I have been flashed by their static cameras.....

But all the frenchies FLASH you miles before the event, and by then, youve virtually stopped !!

So are you volunteering to pay any fines resulting from your advice, Robbo?
I've been pulled once - no-one flashing the other way. So has my wife, ditto. Total cost 180 euros - £120. Both of those were a few years ago and things are much stricter now. You can get flashed in a motorway service area - no-one's going to warn you.
Have fun, but take care.  :)

Two years ago I remember on the way home down a long straight hill just before Gace, the police had set up a telescope (monocular kind of thing) at the bottom of the hill. So if you at the top of the hill, so much as touched the white line down the middle of the road. They would do you.
I think they like stopping people near Gace because of the proximity of the cashpoint for fine paying purposes.

Is there a website anywhere that lists out the locations of all these cameras etc.

Personally I tend not to push my luck on the N roads as they are notorious, peage though is a while world of fun.

Jem

According to this thread, Michelin does

http://tinyurl.com/n5tys

We started a page with the camera sites on...

http://www.selfpreservationsociety.net/info.html

Shows most of the ones we have found.

I have been lucky on the bike the last 15 years, not got stopped for speeding.
And as for the white lines i try not to touch them, more like 2-3 feet the other side of the whilst passing a wall of trafficor poping off the odd lorry going down or back to Le Sarthe.

where is Gace ??????? have to put a red cross on map !!!

On the N138 about 25k north of Sees.

Another favorite place, and where I got done with a mobile radar a few years back is in Mortree, which is between Sees and Argentan on the N158 - the road back to Caen.

Del

I must confess to using my sat nav to warn me of the fixed camera's, that worked really well last year. But i did see a lot of traps being set on the run out of Calais. Thought it was then probably wiser to slow down a tad and take an extra 10 mins to get there. KPY gave me a good route the other side of Rouen where we only saw 1 trap on the way back on the monday.

Andy

Please help all us locals (and fellow LMers) by flashing your headlamps when you spot the flics. Ta! ;)

I have a speed camera overlay which i use with Tom Tom which runs on my iPaq. All the info you require is at

www.pocketgpsworlkd.com (http://www.pocketgpsworlkd.com)

which is an excellent site for sat-nav.

The latest french camera overlays are available from

www.gpspassion.com (http://www.gpspassion.com) 

which is a french site but I'm sure some of our french speaking persons can navigate it quicker than me.

Both sites require registration

I used to use pocketgpsworld.com but have moved on to poi warner now, seems to be pretty up todate.

ACO website also has up to date list.  Click on "Club" on opening page then you see the "Control de Radar" and click on that.  It's in French but is easy to follow.  No reg needed.

If you do a route plan with Mappy it shows the cameras too.

I am traditionally a late arriving at the circuit and on the occasions that I have travelled down Friday or Saturday morning from Calais, then I have noticed a good number of traps and plenty of UK registered vehicles pulled over with the owners apparently handing over lots of beer vouchers. So as I am driving down on Saturday this year I will once again be very careful to stick to the limit. And as another little word of warning, I have seen the French plod being alerted at tole booths to cars that have put in to fast a time down the motorway,  :-[ and there ain’t no 'tom tom' or any other device for that matter that can protect you against that. So if you have inadvertently crept beyond the limit, either slow down or stop at motorway services, that will soon bring your average speed back down. Bon voyage.   

With regard to the fixed camera sites, they are clearly marked on route planners but are also "advertised" as you approach them, you can't miss them either on the road side, very large and very grey.  So if you get "flashed" by one of these you deserve it.

The real game is spotting the mobile ones.  Last year, returning to Cherbourg on a very deserted country back road, me and a black Chevy in close formation were pushing on a bit up a hill only to come onto a well disguised mobile trap at the top of the hill, loads of gendarmes milling about, fortunately the trap was directed the opposite direction to our travel, what a relief.

of course the gendarmes setting the traps have all attended the advance urban camouflage course run by the foreign legion, they're good in fact very good.

best of luck ;)

Extremely good :(

Nearly got caught twice coming back from the Vendee last August.
First trap was set up on a road that run parallel to the motorway, but aimed at the motorway, with the bike cops sitting at a gate which led onto the hard shoulder.
Second they were hiding behind a bush between the services slip road and the motorway, cop bikes on the services exit slip road.


Warning for anybody using Calais. the speed limit on the ringroad , 110kph, has now been extended all the way to the Chunnel, and there is a speed camera on this strech now as well.


It's so bad that even the Belguims have slowed down a bit.

The other thing regarding speeding is......always carry your driving licence,log book,mot and insurance papers.

While on holiday in the Charante last year I was flashed by other motorists,so I slowed down.....and low and behold Mr.Gendarme was in the middle of the village.
He and his 5 buddies pulled me over to check my documents.

Be warned 3 years ago my mate got pulled for speeding.He was asked for his documents and could not find his driving licence.....so off the the local nick for 3 hours while they checked with the DVLA as to wether he was kocher.

The DVLA did not respond and he was told next ime "you will be fined 800 Euros's"

Wishy

I would take copies of all the documents as sometimes they want either the copy or the original to take away with them, it could hinder your journey home!

If one of our lot gets stopped, we all stop, get out of the car and try to be very french.... All bar one event, where the tail end car got nabbed, we have done very well.

Does that mean you push one of your vehicles across the carriadgeway and set fire to it.

Or i cause a road block trying to turn around. We cause enough hassle to get off some things

if you get nicked in france doing something like 25mph or so over the limit you get a few points which do go on your license and you also get an instant ban, no more driving for 2 weeks from that point, if you are on your own you are buggered you have to wait for someone to come and get you.

I will dig out the actual info on speeding and fines etc when i get round to it, but be warned its not as lax as it once was.

This from 2006 "Code Rousseau"  French Highway Code
Non-presentation of documents fine 11  - 38Euros
Excess of 1 - 19 kph over limit 68 euros on the spot or between 135 and 750 euros if you dispute it and lose.  1point on licence
20 - 29 kph over limit  135 - 750 euros, 2 points
30 - 39 kph  135 - 750 euros,  3 points, or possibility of up to 3 years suspension of licence,
40-49 kph 135 - 1500 euros, 4 points or suspension of licence for up to 4 years
50kph plus Automatic court appearance, 6 points, 3750 euros fine.

That having been said the only time we've been done, we were actually doing 30 kph over the limit but he wrote it down as 18 and just gave us the on the spot fine of 68 euros and no points. (English car, french reg, UK licence).  As in the UK - be polite, do a sort of shrug equivelent of "It's a fair cop" and generally they're OK.

Does anyone know when they will introduce the system whereby points obtained in France coudl be added to your UK license? I don't believe it's in effect yet but I know they are keen to do it!

Not that I have to worry as The Beast doesn't give me the opportunity to speed but several others in our team and members on here have the opportunity to in their exotic machinery!

Yes it's planned but no timetable set. When it comes in UK licence holders will also get points docked and will be pursued for speeding through radar cameras in EU countries. At the moment you needn't really worry about the fixed radars, but if you're caught in a mobile trap you'll have to pay cash. Locals get time to pay and points off their licences.


Are you bringing the wife this year?