spender

I'm off to France soon and wondered how much fuel costs, is Optimax widely available and what are the speed limits?
Anyone help?

Cheers

Spender

Treacle

Not sure about optimax availability . Fuel is much cheaper on the continent despite the terrible exchange rate. Speed limits are all in Km be aware! (no intending to sound patronizing).Read up on what documents you need to take with you, i'm pretty sure spare bulbs are essential as are TWO emergency triangles.For spain your V5 and MOT documents needed to be carried, so i imagine france might be the same. Above all don't crash, you will be blamed (IMO, not from experience just from others).
Have a great trip, make sure your aircon is working 42 degrees yesterday.
Treacle

douglasb

Speed limits on motorways are different when it's raining (about 20km/h less IIRC). You should see speed limit signs fairly soon after the ferry/tunnel which make this pretty clear.

Again, not wanting to be patronising, but have you taken care of masking headlamps so the dip pattern doesn't dazzle people on the "wrong" side of the road?

Doug

STi-Frenchie

Forget Optimax, 98 RON is commonly available - usually labelled Sans Plomb 98. Cost is cheaper than in the UK and the supermarkets have it so no worries there.

Speed limits are 130 for motorways in dry conditions, 110 in the wet (km/h that is!). If you are off the motorway and going through villages then stick to 50 km/h - you'll notice when to drop to this speed as each village/town/city has it's name on a rectangular panel surrounded with a red border and the name of the place in black, all on a white background. When you leave the village/town/city you'll see another panel with the name of the place but a diagonal stripe through it...then you can speed up to 90km/h which is the legal limit outside built up areas.

Watch out for the "priority on the right" rule. Thankfully a lot of this has disappeared but you DO need to be aware that even though you may be on a "bigger" road which looks like a main road, you may not have priority, so take it easy when passing through villages and watch for signs saying "priorité a droite".

Be VERY, VERY careful about your speeding - it's summer, it's fecking hot, and the gendarmes are not messing about. 10km over the limit, no problem, 20km over the limit and you'll get a tongue lashing, 30km over the limit and it's a hefty fine, 40km and above over the limit and they will take your licence. There are no Gatsos - all speed traps are mobile. If you are pootling along and drivers are coming towards you flashing their lights, it's not an appreciation of your scoob, it's a warning of impending gendarmes. Flash back to let them know you're aware.

Being from the UK you might not lose your licence but be ready for a ***seriously*** heavy fine if you go 40km+ over the limit and get caught. Mobile speed traps seem to be on the increase and very much the fashion this year...although I've yet to see one when I've been going uphill and booting it.

Remember to wave or flash your lights at all other scooby drivers

And...very important as well...remember that french drivers have forgotten what their indicators are for !!! Expect the unexpected.

Lastly - just last year, the authorities introduced the law that motorists should stop at a zebra crossing when a pedestrian sets foot on it. Natural reaction in the UK but just be aware of sharp braking french drivers as they struggle to get used to the idea.

It's like Carmageddon out there

Best of all - enjoy the fantastic roads, and if you are coming anywhere near me (French/Swiss border) let me know ! What's your route?

STi-Frenchie

This might also help avoid the speed traps Radars Online although I don't know how accurate/up-to-date it is, but worth a shifty anyway.

spender

thanks for the info guys, beam deflectors and warning triangles ready and waiting, I've found the info on speeds so that's covered, you've said 98 Ron is widely available so I'm pretty much sorted.
I'm doing Calais to Agen tomorrow (avoiding Paris). 500+ miles of driving on the wrong side of the road.

STi Frenchie, thanks for the tips - should be safe at 80-90 mph on the M ways then.

Spender

[Edited by spender - 8/15/2003 9:40:09 AM]

mikeDaBike

I've just been to France and caned it everywhere on the peage's - only saw one set of police the whole time and most people were driving well over 130kmh

Driving in Paris is quite "interesting" - don't mess about, just indicate and go - if you don't you'll never get anywhere!

Stevie

80 mph is the speed limit, so you ought to be ok.

From experience, I go to the Souuth about 3 times a year, and you can usually sit at 100mph quite comfortably, any more and you should pay even more attention. Even at 100mph you will still get passed by Henri in his 17 year old renault 5 doing 110!

LeMans

I go to France several times a year.

You only now need beam deflectors if you are in an EEC country for in excess of three months. You do however need a GB sticker, spare bulb kit and a warning triangle. A first aid kit and a fire extinguisher is however also recommended.

I have just returned from France last week and was caught speeding on the motorway doing 175 kmh (110 mph) (speed limit was 130 kmh/83 mph). There is an instant fine of 90 Euros but they do not automatically take your licence away for doing 40 kmh or more over the speed limit. You will be fined 90 Euros automatically but more dependant upon your speed.

When at Le Mans in June I spoke to someone who had been fined 300 Euros for 193 kmh/123 mph and someone else who was fined 450 Euros ! for 211 kmh/135 mph and neither of them had their licences taken away despite being 63 kmh and 81 kmh over the speed limit respectively.

However, take note, the French gendarmes now have unmarked police cars with vascar as I found out and on an increasing number of the "payages" that's the toll booths on the motorways the time you go through the first one has the time printed on it and when you go through the next the machine automatically calculates the time, the distance and the speed. If you have broken the speed limit excessively between the two, the lights flash and bells ring and the police are called over and you have to pay your speeding fine. They cannot ascertain what your maximum speed was between the two points and only calculate what your average speed was.

As a rule of thumb on the motorways however, if you travel under 155kmh/100mph (limit 130kmh/83mph) they "tend" to turn a blind eye.

On the rural roads the local gendarmes do enforce speed limits more. If you are flashed by an oncoming vehicle it is probably a warning of a speed trap but don't expect it to be around the corner. A colleague of mine did a mile or two after being flashed last month and then carried on ignoring the flashing he received and the speed trap was about five miles on - he was doing 75 kmh in a 50 kmh limit and also got a 90 Euro fine.

STi-Frenchie

LeMans, were you on UK plates when you got stopped? Might explain why you didn't get your licence taken away (if so, I'll be out looking for a set of UK plates )

I was watching the news the other day and around the Nevers area the gendarmes had set up mobile speed traps. Within an hour, they had stopped 30 drivers and had taken 5 licences. So, as you say, the rural gendarmes are a bit more ruthless.

jhdee

Just one point to add -- you don't need a GB sticker if your number plates have a GB/Euro emblem.

Have a good trip !!!!

jhdee

tmo

I was in France last Friday and yes plenty of the 98ron available, but prices are not that much cheaper now i paid (after shopping around)1.02e/ltr @1.38e/£ that equates to 74.6 ppltr

V-techland

Went to Le Mans earlier this year, tried to stay off the main moterway routes/ tolls where possible.

Roads are so long and straight we regularly had the car up to 150mph

The police seemed to be relatively tame (when you saw them), but a friend had his licence sent the the British embassy for doing over 160 Km/h about 100 mph so its a bit of luck/chance thing really.

The fuel we found was between 1.05 and 1.17 Euros per litre which at an exchange rate of roughly 1.3 is about the same as the UK.

If you are sensible, plan a good non motorway route, and only speed when you deem it be non hazardous to yourself or others, you'll have a blast.

Enjoy your trip..................beautiful country but odd people!

NACRO

quote: "although I've yet to see one when I've been going uphill and booting it"

I saw them- I thought what the f**k is this lunatic doing in the middle of the road waving at me. I was driving up a dual carriageway, no junctions, no other car, no people around. I didn't see the sneaky 70 kph sign and assumed it was 90kph like all other roads of this type I've seen (still no excuse for the spedd I was doing but 3rd gear and a heavy right foot equal higher speeds then you might first imagine)


Turned out he wasn't a lunatic but a gendarm with a suicidal manner of stopping errant motorists. His buddy with the radar clocked me doing 118kph in a 70 kph zone. The were not amused. I salvaged what I could from the situation by pretending not to speak French, pretending not to understand their feeble attempts at English and paying up with a cheesy grin and *just* managing to avoid the temptation to tell them to keep the change from the 100 Euro note I handed over. All in all I think £60 odd quid is a bargain compared to the points I would have got in England. The best thing was the look on their faces as I accelerated away with gusto!

Bakerman

Do Calais to St Tropez (and the other way) in one go overnight regularly and have yet to see a speed trap - but it is overnight so what do you expect. Recently sat at around 120mph+ for most of the trip with no bother at all.

If only the average UK driver would drive like the average French driver and the UK motorways would be great !

On a good run like that it only takes 7-8 hours from the Med to the Channel - now that is the way to travel.

France is fantastic to drive in, both the drivers with their 'who dares wins' attitudes and the ability to cover distance rapidly.

LeMans

STi-Frenchie,

I live in Guernsey so my car doesn't have UK reg plates but Guernsey ones which have numbers only. We also have GBG rather than GB and do not have the Euro number plates as we are not part of the EEC.

When I was stopped for speeding it was at the same time as a French driver and he did have his licence taken away from him, so obviously you do if you have a French licence.

Whilst writing this post, digressing slightly but still on the subject of driving in Europe, a group of us are planning doing a track day at Spa Francorchamps at the end of September.

Anyone interested please reply to this post or send me an e-mail: stuart.butler@heritage.co.gg

Finally, on the Le Mans comments, during Le Mans week the local gendarmes generally seem to tend to turn a blind eye to speeding other than in the city itself. A group of us go every year (this year Lotus, Cobra, Porsche, Westfield, Mini Coooper and my Scooby)and I must admit we do drive around at rather high (but safe) speeds that would almost invariably always get speeding fines normally but only on open roads. Its about the only place that you appear to be able to drive faster than the speed limits permit and not be fined during this period...but I am sure there are some that would tell me otherwise...if you haven't been I cannot recommend strongly enough to go as its a brilliant experience.

stu200

iTrader: (1)

Did 200kph on the Mulsanne straight just the other week ... must get the photo off the digicam It's also kind of wierd going round to Arnage and finding a fully banked S-bend bit of the circuit as you come round the corner out of the trees

As an aside, I've always wondered what the roadsigns with a white diamond containing a smaller yellow diamond mean - anyone any ideas ? I thought it might signify "priority to the right" zones, but haven't a clue really.

Jza

DONT USE YOUR RADAR DETECTOR

They get seriously pissed off.. and thge £400 fine EVEN IF IT WASNT SWITCHED ON stings a bit....

Jza

STi-Frenchie

Stu200, those signs mean that the road you are on has priority.

STi-Frenchie

Talking about roads....

STi-Frenchie

...just going round a corner

stu200

iTrader: (1)

I was close then

camk

The white and yellow diamond means that you are on the MAIN road so essentially you do not give way to the right unless give way is painted on the road.