France info (1 Viewer)

May 7, 2011
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motorhoming since 1979
Borrowed from another website.
FRENCH ROADS IN AUGUST
Together with July, August is one of the busiest months on the roads in France with 16 days forecast as possible problem days - these are the 1st , 11th & 22nd (forecast as extermement difficile), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 10th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 25th, 28th, 29th & 31st (which are forecast as “tres difficile”) & the 5th, 7th, 12th, 14th, 17th, 23rd, 24th & 30th(which are forecast as “difficile”). All these days are mainly centred around the August weekends with the coming & going of holiday traffic.



FREE PARIS PARKING ENDS
PARIS city hall has voted to stop offering free parking throughout the month of August. Only drivers with a disabled badge or the owners of an eco-friendly vehicle will still be able to benefit from the perk, which has been a long tradition in the capital when it is deserted for the summer holidays. Parking costs for non-residents currently stands at between €2.40 and €4 per hour, and is limited to two hours at a time. Fines are €17.

NEW RADARS INTRODUCED
A new laser radar was set up on the A6 near the péage at Fleury-en-Bière on a stretch of roadworks and can check all vehicles passing in both directions. Its advantage is that it is built into a reinforced box and has its own batteries so can be moved to a new site and installed very quickly without the usual delay of several days for calibration. Another machine will be installed at Redon in Brittany in a few days and a total of 50 will be in use by the end of the year. France has been toughening up its range of anti-speed measures with Citroën Berlingos and Dacia Sandero Stepways being the latest to be fitted with a behind-the-numberplate rolling radar. They join a fleet of several hundred Peugeot 208, 308 and Renault Méganes which aim to catch drivers speeding well in excess of the limits. In 2014 they accounted for four million of the 19million vehicles flashed.

BEWARE FAKE €50 NOTES
GROWING numbers of fake €50 notes are doing the rounds in France - and across the rest of the eurozone - authorities have warned. €20 and €50 notes are the most popular denominations for counterfeiters, making up 90% of the fake notes seized by police in the first three months of this year. The ECB says people should routinely check the notes they are given - how they feel and whether they have a watermark and hologram. Notes up to €20 have a bright strip through the middle. Above €50 the strip changes colour when moved against a light.

AND BEWARE FAKE GENDARMES!
HOLIDAYMAKERS in France are being warned about gangs of fake police or gendarmes who are forcing cars to pull over on motorways before making off with valuables. Gendarmes in the Bouches-du-Rhône say they've been alerted to a growing number of raids on vehicles - mostly between 2.00 and 6.00 in the morning and targeting foreign drivers. In an unmarked car with a flashing blue light, they pull alongside their target on the motorway and order the driver to stop in the emergency lane. Dressed in plain clothes, but sometimes with a "gendarmerie" armband and cap, they claim to be from France's anti-drugs squad and demand to search the vehicle. Some drivers have reported having torches shined in their face to disorientate them, before the thieves speed off with money, mobile phones and luggage. Police say a real search will never take place by the side of a motorway because it is too dangerous. Drivers would always be escorted to the next service area. It is also very rare for police to carry out spot checks in plain clothes and unmarked cars.
 

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