11 April 2010

I suppose it had to happen some time. An envelope with Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite embossed in the corner arrived with the usual trash mail. Thought it was the annual tax declaration form. But it was worse than that. We've been clocked for speeding in France! It's the most bizarre thing. You'd think being English, we'd know all about rain but in France it's crucial because there's a different speed limit when it's raining than when it's not.
The big question is: what speed to drive when it's just spitting with rain??
The Avis de Contravention says 'votre vehicule a ete controle a 121 km/h, pour une vitesse limite autorisee de 110 km/h'. French motorways have a limit of 130 km/h when it's dry and 110 km/h when it's wet. But, how can we argue on that specific day on that particular bit of road that it wasn't really raining at all?
Of course, with all things French, there's the usual mountain of paperwork to process. Because our licence is an international one, in order to add these new point(s), we need to obtain a French licence. And, to do that, we must take photos and every id we possess to the prefecture in Montauban.
I don't know what it is about so-called driving offences. Why treat 'ignorance' of the system by law-abiding people as a full-on criminality offence? Oh well, c'est la vie.......