We are just back from a tour of France in our motorcaravan and during this visit; we got a parking ticket from the local Police Municipal, in Sts Maries de la Mere.
The circumstances were that we had parked in an area of a quiet road, which was prohibited to motorcaravans (this was not obvious at the time) and when we arrived back at the ?van, a Police officer was writing out a ticket. I asked him what the problem was and he said that motorcaravans (?Camping Cars? in French) were not permitted to park in this location. I asked him why not and he said that it was due to a local ordinance dating from 1999 and that I should park in a specific area at the entrance to the village. All this time he was still writing out the ticket and when he had finished, he made a pantomime of placing it under the passenger windscreen wiper before telling me that I could pay it at the Police station in the village centre.
We asked the very nice lady in the tourist office what we should do after the ticket was issued and she said that given the amount was only ?11, she did not think that Interpol would get involved and that we should throw it away!
As the cost of the fine was so low and being good law-abiding citizens of the UK we walked round to the station and paid.
Two questions for the knowledgeable members of the Back Room.
1) If I had driven off before the ticket was placed under the windscreen wiper blade, would I have escaped all consequences?
2) If I had simply thrown the ticket away (as suggested) would I have escaped all consequences?
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Would it really have been worth all the possible ensuing hassle just to avoid paying £9? I do acknowledge that it's easy to fall foul of foreign parking restrictions but at the end of the day you did contravene them and, for what it's worth, I think that you did the right thing. Hardly worth dreading the knock on the door from Interpol for the sake of a few quid eh? :-)
Cheers.
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Would not worry too much about Interpol. . . .
Would worry about being pulled on the next trip over an outstanding fine against the vehicle . . . . .
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>>1) If I had driven off before the ticket was placed under the windscreen wiper blade, >>would I have escaped all consequences?
Probably not, and its never a good idea to get involved in an altercation with officialdom in person while abroad, many people end up in jail as a result.
2) If I had simply thrown the ticket away (as suggested) would I have escaped all consequences?
Very likely, parking fines are not enforceable across country borders.
IMO however, you did the right thing. You broke a valid parking regulation and paid up.
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I got a ticket for ?7 in Calais, and "filed it". That was over two years ago...and have since scrapped that car.
Edited by oldnotbold on 03/11/2008 at 12:41
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A slightly drastic way to avoid a ticket ONB? LOL!
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Just wait until the DVLA database goes live Europe wide.
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I got one, by post in UK, from Venlo in Holland and they refused to correspond with me in English. I finally got a badly written note explaining the the transalation would be down to me and so I ignored the whole thing.
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A few years ago, I parked a few yards from one of the feet of the Eiffel Tower. The sign indicated No parking 'sauf autocar'.
I considered the parking ticket as a souvenir of the holiday. My schoolboy French let me down very badly when trying to understand how to pay the ticket!
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OP did exactly the right thing. No reason to suspect that UK dodges such as driving off would work abroad; more likely to lead to further confrontation.
Theatrical is a required skill for French police whether directing traffic or visiting London for the Tour de France.
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You did the right thing in paying, the french have been getting high tech recently with ANPR equiped cars in large cities etc you vehicle could easily be placed on that. Why bother for under £10 even their parking fines are cheaper !!
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Thanks for all the replies, I feel comforted by your concensus and now feel that I did do the right thing by paying up and not ignoring the ticket.
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Sounds like an inexpensive decoration to me Spospe.
Frame the receipt and hang it on a wall.
Kevin...
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I got a parking ticket in Montcuq last Saturday. Of course it was in French and as I came home the following day I had no way of finding the answers to my questions. The car hire firm Europcar wouldn't help so I rang the Montcuq police station when i got home but the gendarmerie there don't speak english.
My question:
The amount of the ticket is circled so that's not a problem, however I have been told that if I pay within a certain time limit the amount reduces considerably.
So, how do i find out the correct amount to pay and how in the name of all that's holy do I pay it?
Answers on a post card please
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Copy/type what appears to be the relevant bits verbatim into a google translator site or similar. It may generate gobbledegook but you could be lucky enough to get some usable info. Or ask someone who speaks french.
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A couple of years ago I hired a car in Spain. On collecting it, there was a ticket on the 'screen. I went straight to the hire office, who said it's not my problem as I didn't leave it there. I noticed they 'filed' the ticket in the bin.
I haven't been back since. What chance there's an outstanding penalty against my licence/passport?
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I am trying to find someone who speaks french but I hadn't thought of google.
Cheers
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You'll get something out of bable fish, it might not be French the French understand or speak tho
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IIRC the usual speeding ticket fine is still 135 euros, reducing to 90 euros if paid within something like 10 days - although there is a lower fine for offences of not more than 10k over the speed limit. Look on the back of the document for an address for the central ticketing office, which I think is the same for all France. Again, IIRC, it is in somewhere like Rennes in Brittany.
Motorcaravanners should be much more strictly policed as to where they park, anyway, in my opinion. They seem to think they can stop where they like and the French who aren't motorcaravanners don't like them because they don't spend much money locally. They have a particular down on the Dutch for this reason.
Backalong I found a family camping on (and blocking) my back drive - they hadn't bothered to walk around the corner and see the gates and garage!
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