Hope I haven't done the wrong thing here, DD, but I didn't want this to get lost in the speed camera thread - it's a bit of a specific request.
Saturday's Telegraph has just penetrated this part of SW France and Honest John has a letter from a guy who has spotted a lot of beige coloured plastic boxes mounted a couple of feet above the ground beside French autoroutes and he thinks they are speed cameras.
Although the number of scameras is increasing in France by the week I don't think these are they, but I have seen similar beige plastic boxes sprout beside ordinary roads as well in the last few weeks.
Does anyone have any idea what they might be for?
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Somebody will have to stop and look at one and see if it has lenses or glass windows in it! I am flying into L rochelle next month and driving inland - if I see one I'll stop and inspect it and report back> Additionally I will e mail this query to the friend I am visiting and see what he thinks.
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I'm driving from Calais to Rennes in Brittany on Wednesday, and will keep an eye out on this stretch. I'm not back for 2 weeks so you'll have to wait for the result. They do sound a bit like a standard letter box though....
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I passed one these a couple of weeks ago in a small village (about 20 miles east of Paris) , The box was on a tripod and was less than 2 feet from the ground positioned at the edge of pavement pointing to the oncoming traffic. A cable ran from the box for some 150 yards to a Police car that was parked out of sight in an alleyway leading off the road. ( I only saw the police as I drew level with them but fortunately was not speeding).
Presumably - the "box" relays a signal to the police when the speed limit is exceeded and they would simply pull forward and stop the offender. Could also be some kind of ANPR dev ice maybe.
Interestingly the police operating this were the "local" police in the white police cars, not the Gerdarmes.
Jacks
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Thanks AS and all so far. They are about the same colour as many French letterboxes - but letterboxes they aint. The ones I have seen are not in any sort of built-up areas and I don't think they can be radar devices. As soon as I pass one this week I'll find a (safe) place to stop and go back to examine it - if I don't get arrested!
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My friend in France, who lives South east of La Rochelle by about 40 miles says
"New on me, but will keep an eye out. There is a very large Gendarme presence on the roads here. Fines are an acknowledged source of revenue to the government.
French driving is generally abysmal, and I find myself driving very defensively. Be warned....."
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I passed one on the RN just north of Cahors (can't remember the number). It was large, beige, and mounted just off the ground on a short pillar. It had two 'windows' in it - so definitely a camera device IMHO.
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They are paranoia detectors. Inside there is a little camera and microphone, and a counting device. They count the number of people who stop to have a look at them. The authorities then combine this data with the number of participants in threads like this on motoring websites and using a complex algorithm, a small pebble, and a piece of garden twine they calculate the level of paranoia in the general population. When paranoia levels reach a particular point on the scale it will be deemed possible to increase the number of policies that would be unpopular in more "politically correct" times. You know, clamp-downs on political rallies, removal of "unsuitables," that kind of thing.
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Thanks Aprilia - and welcome back. That location is not too far south of where I am.
Hope you managed to park in Dax ok...
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I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but these devices don't seem to have advance warning signs, as normal scameras do in France - and if they are radars I want to be aware!
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On Mondays Jacks said
The box was on a tripod and was less than 2 feet from the ground positioned at the edge of pavement pointing to the oncoming traffic. A cable ran from the box for some 150 yards to a Police car that was parked out of sight in an alleyway leading off the road. ( I only saw the police as I drew level with them but fortunately was not speeding).
Surely that's got to be a camera or some sort of nasty?
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The boxes I have seen tend to be in open countryside with, apparently, no-one and nothing nearby. I will be out and about tomorrow so I'll keep an eye open for one and try to examine it.
This all may not seem to be much of a mystery but I'd like to know what they are and if I can make life easier for Backroomers on holiday over here then so much the better.
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At this rate when are setting up the South of France meet?
How about the Millau Bridge Visitor centre?
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pmh (was peter)
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Absolutely no problem - except the venue.
When I went over the bridge last the visitor centre was - guess what for France - closed!
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I guess you are talking about the new visiror centre which I believe has only just opened. The old one at the South side is under the bridge with access from the St Affrique - Millau N road IIRC.
p
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pmh (was peter)
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The one that flashed me on the N12 outside Rennes, is a big fat grey square box sitting on the ground in the middle of the central divider. Hard to spot as a camera as its not up high, and there was one warning sign about 100km up the road!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Just resurrected this thread for the sake of anybody interested other than I.
Been talking to the Mayor of our village this morning and he says the beige boxes are some sort of repeaters for the internet broadband service that is now linked to the electricity distribution network around here. I now have a newspaper article explaining that thanks to big business and the generosity of the French Republic I can now have broadband, cheap phone calls and unlimited TV stations. Maybe the time for my step into the 21st century has arrived.
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Perhaps they are a French variation of the traffic counting boxes we have, which are activated thru an air filled rubber pipe/tube laid across the road?
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Sorry to have to re-activate this one when most of your holidays are now history but yesterday I had the chance to stop and examine one of these boxes. It was mounted on a metal post in a big concrete base, had no windows or openings, just an aperture for a hex key to open it and a hole in the bottom from which two (screened I think) cables protruded.
Don't think it could be a scamera, which is good news. Maybe it's a traffic counter that works by telemetry or something. Normally for these sort of things in the middle of nowhere there's a solar panel, but not this time.
I have pix, if anybody is sad enough to be as interested as me.
I guess the message is that French scameras still look pretty much the same as UK ones, but not made quite as visible.
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It couldn't be their version of DS2 could it?
Did the lines go into the road? I know here, there's a metal post on a fast dual carriageway with cables set in the road from it. (Like the ones that would trigger a red light camera - completely level with the tarmac) and Mr Plod can park up, plug into the post and then can zap you going over the lines.
At least I think that's how it works anyway.
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I guess the message is that French scameras still look pretty much the same as UK ones, but not made quite as visible.
However they always have an advance warning sign, specific to the camera, not just the area.
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pmh (was peter)
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I've just noticed TVM's post which mentions that there was a warning notice about 100kms. up the road - I should think that constitutes adequate warning!
P.
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Yes, pmh, but it would be nice if they always put a speed limit repeater near the warning sign as well.
I'll go back and examine the thing again to see if there's anything else nearby.
Not that I'm becoming obsessive, you understand...
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I drove from La Rochelle to Rochefort last week and my Via Michelin route map said there was a speed camera at some point on the route but I never did see it so I can't comment on beige boxes!
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It is there! My parents live not far from Rochfort and I drove from Calais to them then onto St Tropez (big country that France place is) and back again. I used viamichelin too and found it great.
French speed cameras have popped up everywhere in France now but you are well warned by a huge sign before the camera. However, the cameras are low down facing you and easily missed should another vehicle be between you and it. They can also be on your right or left. The best thing to do is stick to the limit for sometime after the huge warning signs and let everyone else speed up before you do.
My parents have lived there for about 13 yrs and only recently my father got his first ever blip on his license (french) due to the camera going to La Rochelle. He was quite miffed after many many years of driving. He's 73 now. He tried to show me how the camera was hidden in the center by a bridge pillar but as we were going towards it I did point out the huge warning sign just before it. He didn't answer.
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I was working out the controls of a hire car and dealing with the rain and not exceeding 90 Kmph so I can understand why I missed it, and it missed me!
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