Travelling - Speeding

We are driving to Val Thorens, how keen are the police on speeding, whats the max speed without getting banned?

Speed limit is 130km/hour on the motorway, which is 80mph. Like here, there's an unofficial 10% tolerance, so I reckon on doing about 88-90mph all the way down. I still find I'm far from being the fastest thing on the road!

You'll go for miles without seeing a gendarme at all. They seem to spend most of their time causing traffic chaos in towns by waving their arms around in their tight-fitting uniforms.

Don't blame me if you get nicked! I'd take it easy once off the motorways, however. They seem a bit more keen here. The road up to Val Thorens is good but winding. Expect ludicrous over-taking manoeuvres from the French on hair-pin bends.

I love driving to the Alps. The build-up of expectation as you approach them is fantastic, particularly as the snow starts to appear. Enjoy!

Mark Allison wrote:

You'll go for miles without seeing a gendarme at all.

You don't need to see them, they installed lots of speed cameras on the main routes. Of course, if it's a nice day, they still mount radar speed traps, so they'll pursue you with either a motorcycle or an Impreza :D Occasionally they will patrol the peage toll booths spotting folks in a special hurry )

Mark Allison wrote:I love driving to the Alps. The build-up of expectation as you approach them is fantastic, particularly as the snow starts to appear. Enjoy!

my husband won't do it any more because it's sooooo depressing having to drive all that way home :cry:.
glass half empty?

I used to drive down to Spain from Calais, sometimes going via Dijon, and other times via Rouen - east or west of Paris. We usually ended up going down the motorway from Clermont Ferrand, which while it was being finished was great, but now they have installed all sorts of speed cameras, radar and the like. I havent been down there since the bridge at Millau was opened though, and used to enjoy the drive down.

I havent driven to a ski resort from the UK though.

I have seen many speed traps on the N roads in France, not on the motorways, but have seen people stopped at the peage barriers and issued on the spot fines.

I was told that some of the motorway peage sections calculate your average speed between barriers, and if you are over a certin % over the limit, they do you there and then for money. The tickets are usually time stamped, but I am not sure if this is true, as even at 90-95mph you find people flying past you.

I'd just be a little cautious, especially once you come off the autoroutes.

Tony_H wrote:I was told that some of the motorway peage sections calculate your average speed between barriers

Pretty sure that's an urban myth...

What les flics most certainly do is park the radar/car where you can't see it (which is why most people are unaware of them), clock your speed as you pass and then radio your number through to their buddies who are waiting at the next peage - 5 or 10km ahead. The last peage before Calais, coming back, is a prime spot and you regularly see them there pulling cars from the queues.

On the spot fine, as Tony says, and if you haven't got the cash they escort you to the nearest cash machine - which can really spoil your day if you've been hooning up the autoroute to catch a particular train...

Admin wrote:

Tony_H wrote:I was told that some of the motorway peage sections calculate your average speed between barriers

Pretty sure that's an urban myth...

What les flics most certainly do is park the radar/car where you can't see it (which is why most people are unaware of them), clock your speed as you pass and then radio your number through to their buddies who are waiting at the next peage - 5 or 10km ahead. The last peage before Calais, coming back, is a prime spot and you regularly see them there pulling cars from the queues.

On the spot fine, as Tony says, and if you haven't got the cash they escort you to the nearest cash machine - which can really spoil your day if you've been hooning up the autoroute to catch a particular train...

definitely an urban myth :D you need one of those gong/klaxon things they use on QI :D

The maths of it defeat the idea, to hold an average speed between two peage tolls over 130 kph would be amazing. I can cheat and know from the years we spent in Germany how hard it is, moving from around Heidelberg to the Swiss border travelling at 200 kph or more on unrestricted sections you'd struggle to ever average 120 kph. It's just a handy place to stop you without disrupting the traffic, then people without good French don't quite understand what's happened and that's the source of the story I would guess.

I'd echo the ‘be cautious’ sentiments.

Not sure what it's like on route to the Alps, but I was in Rennes over the summer and a French colleague who was driving us to Saint Malo was having a whinge about the increase in the number of fixed speed cameras in France in general. We kept (more or less) to the speed limits, just in case )