NickB

It is illegal.

jerry a. laska

For example, see:
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice...in-france.html

dand99

I just got snapped by a radar camera. I'd like to take care of this while I am still in France (am driving a hire car form National Citer)-

Does anyone know if it is possible to contact the French bureacracy that deals with this, and locate and pay up my upcoming ticket via my license plate number ? I have looked around the net but can only find an email contact (i am sure they will reply within the next 7 days....)

D.


I just rented a car here - recall seeing something about a Eur 1500 fine or so for using radar detectors (moral - do not mess with the government's revenue source)

Ikaz

You were doing more that 5 MPH over the limit. Here is a small explanation on how that speed is measured:
So you were caught at 117 km/h, I am guessing by an automatic speed box (speed adjustment is different if you were flashed by one of their cars with radars in them, that control you when they drive).
The software actually automatically adjusts your speed, so if it flashed you at 125 km/h, it would show 118 km/h

And on a lot of cars, the speed that the speedometer shows in higher that the real speed. So it might have been 130-135km/h on your speedometer, 124 km/h real speed and 117 km/h on the fine ticket.

I hope that I explained this clearly, here is one source of the French road safety organisation (in French):
http://www.actionsecuriteroutiere.co...s-vitesse.html

And they have a link to a table that shows the speed recorded by the camera, and the speed that they adjust it to (in French, as a word document):
http://www.actionsecuriteroutiere.co...%20vitesse.doc

dand99

And to answer my own question....

After a few phone calls I found this number: 0811102030
This gets you to a call center which deals with fines - I do not now if it's speeding tickets only or all fines.

- I could not skype it - it may be difficult to call from outside of France
- I got through to an operator after about 4 minutes of muzak
- I do not know how much English they speak (I spoke French with her)
- I was hoping to trace my ticket before it was sent (via license plate) but it seems that they cannot do that - you seem to have to have the ticket and it's serial number for them to look it up.

the website (https://www.amendes.gouv.fr/portail/index.jsp) seems to be for payment only.

D.

menton1

An update:

Just returned fro 3 weeks in France.

I tried, I really tried to pay the 3 tickets from last year. I lost the original paperwork that they sent me. Online, it was impossible to locate or pay the fines.

I go to NYC often, so in April I stopped in to the French Consulate on 5th ave and 76th st in NYC. They were very friendly and helpful, the first person went on the computer and tried for 15 minutes to find a site, but without the originakl paperwork and ticket #, it was impossible. They passed me on to a second person. She called someone, then tried some more on the computer, but nothing. She also told me that in France, the police have no system to check for previous unpaid tickets. (!!) So if I was stopped, she said, they would not know that I had other fines that were unpaid.

I said that I still wanted to pay. She said she would try to make a few more calls, that she would get back to me in a few days. (She never did).

Long story short, rented a car for 2 weeks, uneventful, same company (Hertz) No problems, nothing at all. Needless to say, I never went over the speed limits. Had my Garmin with me, it helped also. The speed limit changes suddenly from 90 to 50 to 30, so it was helpful.

I guess the moral is that it's not necessary to pay these tickets!! Lol.

orangeblossom

I just got notice of 3 administrative charges from Hertz giving the French police my information. Initially, I had no idea what the charges were four. After reading some of these posts I assume it was from a traffic camera. I still don't know for sure. I pretty much went with the flow of the traffic and figured that it was OK. Does Hertz get the ticket and then charge the credit card or do they just charge the admin fee (19 euros each in my case)? What happens next? Is there a way to find out what these charges stemmed from or should I just see if I get more information in the mail. Thanks for any advice.

UAPremExecflyer

Hertz, as the registered owner of the vehicle, will be billed.
You'll then receive notification from Hertz of the charges to you CC with an administration fee added.

menton1

That's not what happened to me-- Hertz billed me 20 Euro for having to provide the police with my name and driver license information. Then I got 3 bills from the French authorities for 35 Euro x 3 for traffic camera violations. As you can see, there were no repercussions for not paying, even though I really tried to pay!

(Read my posts of 12 October of last year and the recent update on 5 July 2013.)

MichaelBrighton

My advice is to take the train next time. I do it all the time and have never had to pay a fine, not ask for directions, nor search for parking spaces or tank stations, etc.

nrr

Make sure you are in possession of a VALID train ticket.
[I'm not sure of the current rules in France, but in Switz., (now) even on long distance trains, you are slapped with a large fine (=>60 SFR), if you don't are missing a valid ticket--used to be the case only on "commuter" line trains.]

MichaelBrighton

Well, yes, of course, I agree completely. However, since most train costs are far lower than auto costs, buying a ticket should hardly be a hardship.

nrr

On the commuter trains Switz. works on the "honor" system--they do occasional spot checks; on the "mainline" trains, (generally) each pax is checked for a ticket. In the past, if you didn't have a ticket (or had one, but it didn't cover your entire trip), you could just pay the difference (but NO fine)--now you pay the difference AND a fine.

MichaelBrighton

Riding a train without a ticket is theft of service, isn't it? Why shouldn't they make people pay a fine?

nrr

People (inadvertently) who DO have valid tickets, but miss a stop, and go out of the zone of validity would now also be fined.
[One of my "favorite" problems is a tourist who arrives at CDG, and has a railpass (valid for SNCF) can ride on line RER B from CDG up to Gare Du Nord, but even though RER B continues south (Chatlet etc), his pass is NO longer valid (the ownership changes from SNCF to RATP at G du N) and so would be riding without a valid ticket. Even exiting at G du N would present a problem--using a Correspondance exit (RER to RATP) would also cause problems.]