Blue line parking bays

[Jay]

We have friends staying with us and they parked in our local town in one of the many, on street, free parking places with blue lines (rather than the white lines of normal car parks). On returning to their car they had a 17€ fine ticket under the windscreen wiper. I know these are not disabled bays and there are no signs to say it is limited parking. I have parked in the same place many times, even chatting to the police municipale when my grandson wanted to have a look at their different colour police car.

Are these blue lined parking areas a national thing, time limited or similar?

[sid]

I think the "zones bleus" are free (limited time)  but you have to use a parking disc. Failure to display means a fine.

The blue lines are the indicators that the system is in operation, thus no signs.

EDIT There are signs, I just never saw them before !  some expamples here: http://www.code-verificationpermis.fr/arret-stationnement/stationnement-gratuit-a-duree-limitee-ou-zone-bleue.html  but the blue lines are the clue.

 

 

[suein56]

[quote user="Jay"]Are these blue lined parking areas a national thing, time limited or similar? [/quote]

They are both national and time limited. The time limit for your area should be either noted on the Mairie noticeboard or written somewhere in your local info sheet. For our area we are limited to 1 1/2 hours. The discs are available to buy in the tabacs or free from your local assurance agency.

Sue

[Chancer]

The community de communes that run the blue line scheme in our area came up with a brilliant idea to increase revenue whilst reducing the worklaod and confrontation of the enforcement officers.

they decided that henceforth one could only use an approved disc bought from the Mairie, not the old one which I bought from La bibliotheque, nor the ones free from insurers, only the new approved one is valid and the use of a non approved one carries a fine higher than that of parking without one or exceeding the time limit which they never seemed capable of enforcing anyway.

Now they just send out patrols with cameras to tale photos of vehicles parked with non conforming discs and send out the PV's by mail, those that park without a disc like I do now can park all day with impunity.

It shows where their priorities are though.

[Jay]

Well thanks for that, you learn something new every day. I've been parking in the same place for the past ten years and never had a ticket, nor seen any blue squares/disks in car windows. I'll look for the "hidden" signs then pop into the paper shop and buy a disk next time I park illegally!

[Patf]

A neighbour just had the same thing happening in Mirande 32. Seems like they're all beginning to enforce the rules.

As others have said, in the past you could park beside blue lines without a disc.

[Anton Redman]

The old design was banned from 1st January 2012.  Suggestions below include driving schools, feur verte and other Halfords equivalents, Tabacs etc.

http://fr.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 839AAkHStO

I think everybody still calls them Disque Bleu

They changed the old system as part of European harmonisation, so that you can use the disk in other countries and vice versa. The only advantage I can see with the new discs is that it allows varid periods for parking so you can use the disk to limit parking to say half an hour only.