Getting ready for France

Submariner1

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Funny how picky the French have become regarding stuff you must have with you.

Personally I think they should concentrate more on teaching folks to drive and major on their L Test, they are appalling drivers.

And their concept of bump parking ... beggars belief.

Hi Viz jackets ... for gods sake!
And I must take a set of D1S Bi xenon bulbs ..... just in case ...;)
 

Dell

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The only problems we have had were a few years ago with the caravan,we were traveling along going to French alps when I noticed two police bikes behind,they followed us for about ten miles, then one of them passed and slowed back down to same speed as us,so we had one in front and one behind for about another ten miles,I said to my wife we are going to be stopped in a minute,then the other one passed us and I said here we go,they drove away.
I am sure they thought it was funny to wind us up.
The other time they were going to fine me because the high viz were in the boot,and we could not get them without getting out the car,but I climbed over seat folded back seat down and got them,copper thought it very funny and let me off as long as I moved vests to pockets behind front seats.
So make sure high viz vests are grabable without getting out of the car and one for each person in the vehicle.
 

Botus

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Breakdown cover for Europe as well -

Spare Litre of oil for all those high speed roads . It's all 80mph on the toll roads -

you need to look into this.... real breakdown cover for any vehicle is now super rare (some of the "best" will get you to a garage where it'll stay rotting and you'll never get it back) and the euro cover you once had with AA and RAC has been totally gone for at least 5 years

I thought high speed was the other side of 180 (MPH) not 80 ?
 

Wighty

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you need to look into this.... real breakdown cover for any vehicle is now super rare (some of the "best" will get you to a garage where it'll stay rotting and you'll never get it back) and the euro cover you once had with AA and RAC has been totally gone for at least 5 years

I thought high speed was the other side of 180 (MPH) not 80 ?
80 feels fast when you always drive at 70 buddy .
My euro cover is what it is , that's my budget . In an ideal world I'd have the best available .
 
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Dell

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I had full European cover for £49 a year including home start used it in France but now I have a MB service plan it includes European breakdown cover although I have not used it.
 

Botus

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I wish mine was cheap.... if one gives a registration plate (thus single vehicle), its newer than 8 years, its done less than x miles, you are only going to break down in certain countries and you really don't mind no one ever showing up... or some animal hiding it in a garage you don't even know where it is... and or are happy with 4k to fix it... and or never repatriate the car to the UK if its worth less than 10k etc. then its cheaper

for any car or bike (I have 3 of my own), or the idiot you went with has no cover and you want to go home and or have a roof over your head, to use a garage that might have half a clue and if they can't fix it, will actually get you and your vehicle back to the UK and the insurer generally gives a **** its £250 !!!

I said go shove it and looked everywhere else... then ran back and said actually you're the only ones actually offering ANY real breakdown cover for ANY vehicle you're way cheaper than everyone else
 
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ajlsl600

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lk we have had many similar exeriences ,we never book ahead and never use toll roads unless by mistake , fifteen plus yrs going to portugal ....
 

Gkinghorn

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I had full European cover for £49 a year including home start used it in France but now I have a MB service plan it includes European breakdown cover although I have not used it.

I used the Mercedes one in France last year .. it is nowhere near as good as the UK ... I had to shell out money for taxis to get to the hire care , about 70km away ..and then get stuck with the most god awful Renault monster thing ...spent 20 minutes teaching it’s satnav English and to stop binging at everything ... honestly a car came behind you it binged , you passed a road sign it binged it seemed .. cars came beside you ..it binged ... drove us nuts..


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Gkinghorn

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Just got my device from APRR (as we are in France and Italy it works for both).

Reading it says you should put it on that hatched bit on the windsceeen but it’s not present on the Merc (not on mine anyway). Assume it doesn’t matter where it goes really on the windscreen .... am I right?


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Wighty

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Just got my device from APRR (as we are in France and Italy it works for both).

Reading it says you should put it on that hatched bit on the windsceeen but it’s not present on the Merc (not on mine anyway). Assume it doesn’t matter where it goes really on the windscreen .... am I right?


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I think it's because some cars have reflective coatings on the screen , there are normally black dots around where the rear view mirror attaches to the screen , this is where mine is fitted . If it doesn't work in France from that position , you can wave it out the window , but I'm sure it will be fine in that position
 

Gkinghorn

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I think it's because some cars have reflective coatings on the screen , there are normally black dots around where the rear view mirror attaches to the screen , this is where mine is fitted . If it doesn't work in France from that position , you can wave it out the window , but I'm sure it will be fine in that position

Yes the rear view stuff obliterates the dotted area so there’s only plain glass ..I will find out I guess ...


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d215yq

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Funny how picky the French have become regarding stuff you must have with you.

Personally I think they should concentrate more on teaching folks to drive and major on their L Test, they are appalling drivers.

And their concept of bump parking ... beggars belief.

Hi Viz jackets ... for gods sake!

Hmmmm.....In my British car I got stopped for moderate speeding and was the only one let off (all the French guys stopped got tickets but they probably realised they couldn't enforce it and weren't going to march me to a cashpoint for 62km/h in a 50 zone). In my Spanish car they set a trap for a badly signed dual carriageway where I crossed a solid white line as realised I was in the wrong turn off lane at last minute. Again everyone French stopped got a rticket and with me they just explained not to cross a white line and although rude (chucking my documents in the passenger seat and telling me to go) atleast I got no fine. They didnt even bother looking for all the kit nor notice that I had no headlight reflectors in UK car (which I do have anyway but in the boot and not the passenger compartment) and just expired MOT sticker (Spanish car).

But both times I was obviously sorry, tried to speak French (even though that's so bad we ended up talking English the first time and Spanish the other time) and obviously wasn't doing the typical Brit of trying to recklessly speed/overtake "coz it's a foreign country I can do what I like", which is probably where all the heavy handed stories come in.

The Hi viz/warning jacket is needed because on the continent you don't have big hard shoulders so car is usually left partly obstructing L1. The 2x warning triangles are very useful when someone breaksdown on a mountain road with blind corners.

As for them being appalling drivers, they do overtake more riskily than I would like but are much more aware in general partly because priority is less clear and so you have to know what others are doing. I'd say the average UK driver is much worse even if less dangerous.

Bump parking is definitely part of the culture and people will not give a shiny new motor any sympathy in that regards - in fact more often than not the shiny expensive motor is doing the bump parking. It's just normal so just be aware of that and don't park in any street in any built up area. Must say it's lovely not having to worry about such stuff having grown accustomed to this over the last 5 years. Another thing is in many continental towns there are no traffic wardens, only council owned tow vehicles so don't leave it parked illegally assuming (correctly) that they won't be able to trace the ticket ;)
 

-ralph-

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bikers must have reflective stickers on their crash helmet of a set size

Only if the crash helmet was bought in France, in which case the stickers would have been in the box. Loads of websites including AA / RAC etc have been giving the wrong advice on that for years.
 

Botus

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Only if the crash helmet was bought in France, in which case the stickers would have been in the box. Loads of websites including AA / RAC etc have been giving the wrong advice on that for years.

you found an old post...
this suggests you do need them, but probably of bigger interest is do you need to upset a French plod already desperate to stich you up and how with most English people's appalling language skills do you successfully debate the point?

https://www.drive-france.com/products/motorcycling-france-helmet-stickers/

from that website

The Law

Several people have contacted me and said "my mate lives in France and he says it's only for locals not tourists on motorcycles".

I can find absolutely no evidence of this. By evidence I mean an official French website pointing to government legislation that actually says this. All official motoring rules that I've seen makes no distinction between residents and tourists it just says "All Motorcyclists".
 


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