WARNING Park your car properly.

[Bugsy]

At Limoge airport carpark on Boxing day I saw a black Audi estate (english registered).

It was badly parked in the middle of two bays and covered in bits of paper. Closer inspection reveiled they were less than complimentary  [:)] messages about the parking of the vehicle.

What was much worse, though, was that both sides of the car had been extensively keyed. The damage was fresh and probably a few thousand euros to rectify.

Now sticking a note on the car is one thing (I even thought about doing it myself) but causing actual damage, what are these people on [:@]

Gary.

[Tony F Dordogne]

I was at Bergerac airport on Sunday and there were, as per usual, lots of Brit registered cars with expired or no tax disks and no insurance carnets on the windscreen on British plates.

Gary, whilst I wouldn't condone keying the Audi eventually there has to be some sort of backlash against all this Brit arrogance over the polite or legal way of doing things.

And the good thing is that if the owner of the Audi is reading this, he/she knows how people feel and that they're coming back to a problem that has been caused by their own thoughtlessness. 

[woolybanana]

Xmas Eve morning in the very busy car park of the local Super U and a large red van parked across two bays. Yes I would have loved to have keyed it but it was such a rust bucket that it wasn't worth thr trouble. The owner happened to come by and was givezn a right mouthful, not by me, but by a tiny little old lady in one of those toy cars.Frith did he move it quick.

[Catalpa]

What is it with Limoges airport and badly parked British registered Audis?? And why do they evoke such passion??  [;-)]

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32983&start=0

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29849&start=0

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36926&start=0

 

 

[Missy]

Well that Audi is certainly famous eh?!...

If people have problems finding long term parking when they leave France to wherever they want to go to for whatever length of time... why don't they use a taxi service for the purpose of taking them to the airport?... or kindly ask a neighbour to help them to the airport?...  thus leaving their precious car safely parked at their 'bijou résidence' ... It seems to me cheaper! than having to pay for all these parking tickets on the return to the 'bijou résidence'.... 

Oh silly me! there is no parking tickets and fines in fluffy France  [;-)]  

[Missy]

[I]    I know someone who is English and has an Audi and lives near Limoges and goes back to UK at times and is on this forum from time to time.... Come to think of it I haven't seen him posting for a while......

 

I hope he is not the culprit ....  [8-)]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Perhaps car parks should have signs saying "All cars parked improperly or without tickets will not be fined or clamped, but will be keyed instead".

Doubt you'd have too many problems with people who can't park properly then.

[Pads]

[quote user="Missy"]

[I]    I know someone who is English and has an Audi and lives near Limoges and goes back to UK at times and is on this forum from time to time.... Come to think of it I haven't seen him posting for a while......

 

I hope he is not the culprit ....  [8-)]

[/quote]

Has any one checked inside the car [:-))] to check he didnt peg out while trying to straighten his car into the bay ??

[Chancer]

Might there be a simple answer like the car park was relatively empty and covered in snow when said Audi parked?

When I was 20 and worked in a factory four of us just managed to share 2 spaces by carefull parking, it always caused a ruckus if the first to arrive selfishly didnt pull forward enough to allow another car behind.

I was the first in at 6.30 on a very snowy day and managed to park taking up 4 spaces which were clearly visible (the rain melted the snow) when the others arrived. Luckily I didnt have a French registered car or it would have been worse than keyed[:)]

 

Out of interest Gary do you think that the messages were written by English or French people?

[Renaud]

Maybe, when the said Audi was parked - that was the only space available as others had parked their cars badly. When the other drivers departed the Audi was shown to be taking an inappropriate space.

[Bugsy]

[quote user="J.R."]

Out of interest Gary do you think that the messages were written by English or French people?

[/quote]

Judging by the language used (which I can't repeat on here [:D] ) definately english..................[:(]

 

[Chancer]

Very interesting and also what I suspected.

If the damage was indeed caused by those who wrote the notes (and not already there) it supports the view that the majority of French do not get as hot under the collar about UK registered cars as some immigrants that have sounded off before on this and other forums.

[Christine Animal]

The anti-Brit Brits !   [:P]

 

[Eos]

[quote user="Renaud"]Maybe, when the said Audi was parked - that was the only space available as others had parked their cars badly. When the other drivers departed the Audi was shown to be taking an inappropriate space.[/quote]

I'm very fussy where I park, and no, I don't drive an Audi!

I pass many spaces, & sometimes get a little more exercise, for the reason quoted above.

I also avoid being near trolley bays, pubs if I have to park on the street as well as a lady who lets her younger children climb on her car for entertainment while she waits for her older ones to come out of school.

[woolybanana]

Can I add an anti svp: the anti-anti-Brit Brits.

[groslard]

You should certainly take care where you park and for how long!

Stupidly I didn't know the French law about parking for more than 7

days without moving the car, so I left it perfectly well parked and

quite legal (insurance, Contrôle technique etc) in a cul de sac near me

where it wasn't blocking any body's way and where there was no need to

change the side of the road every 2 weeks.

BUT I left it for 3 weeks!

When I got back there was no car, so I went to the Commisariat to

report the fact, and they told me it had been taken to the pound for

'stationnment abusif'

I had to get a taxi out there, and pay a fine of 135 euros to the pound.

OK so far..I was in the wrong.

I paid my fine, and the man said.."oh by the way, there was a

problem. The people who took your car dropped it when they were putting

on the trailer, and the front wheel came off"...he didn't tell me that

before I had paid of course! He then explained that as it was

undriveable and there is a daily charge for cars in the pound it would

be best if I scrapped it as that would avoid further charge.

I was a bit in shock so agreed like a fool.

OK so far I'm in the wrong, and I was a fool to agree to what he suggested.

But what has really rubbed my nose in it is that today I got a PV

for 75 euros "majorée" (that is to say increased) for the original

parking offence.

Of course I hadn't even seen the ticket which was apparently on

the windscreen while I was staring at the hole where the wheel whould

have been

[bixy]

It seems to me that parking in France generally is a pain. In supermarkets nobody seems to bother parking in the bays - usually slantwise across two, and the amount of damage we have sustained to our cars is incredible - scratches, bumps, scrapes, a broken foglight. It is said that the French don't care too much about cars - they certainly don't care too much about other people's cars. I was at one time thinking about buying new. Changed my mind.

Patrick

[cassis]

All drivers have the right to occupy two parking spaces - three if the bays are ridiculously narrow, as they frequently are.  If I am towing a trailer then I often occupy three bays.  The car is so crap that it is not worth keying.

[Sunday Driver]

Difficult to generalise on this 'parking in France' thing.

I've hardly ever come across bad parking in our area or anywhere else I've visited, Paris included.  Our local supermarket parking is generally immaculate and my car has remained dent free....[:)]

 

 

[AnOther]

Can't say I find the parking noticeably worse over here than in UK. Unless you count 'er indoors parking our new (second hand) car up against a tree in our own garden because she stalled it on the steep slope and rolled backwards into it that is !

To avoid the careless door bangers I always try to park my MG in a quiet corner but frequently find, even in 1/2 empty car parks, that someone comes and parks beside me, maybe they think by doing so a bit of it's character will rub off onto their bland eurobox, not literally of course [:D]

[Georgina]

[:'(][quote user="cassis"]All drivers have the right to occupy two parking spaces - three if the bays are ridiculously narrow, as they frequently are.  If I am towing a trailer then I often occupy three bays.  The car is so crap that it is not worth keying.
[/quote]

Sorry don't understand, what have you done with Cassis!! Have you kidnapped him.  Where is he???  Why have you stole his identity???[8-)]

[James]

We had an old re-registered volvo 740 and no one ever scraped or banged into it in France. We then after 18 months part exchanged it for a brand new car, and parked it at a vide grenier and someone had scraped it parking causing 420 euros worth of damage. The car was only 12 weeks old at this point. We felt sick as there was no note etc. We had to pay an excess of 300 euros and so now, when we go out shopping one of us stays in the car. I would never dream of damaging anyone else's property no matter how it was parked etc. James.

[Eos]

[quote user="cassis"]All drivers have the right to occupy two parking spaces - three if the bays are ridiculously narrow, as they frequently are.  If I am towing a trailer then I often occupy three bays.  The car is so crap that it is not worth keying.

[/quote]

My friend, with her new Zafira, certainly thinks that's her right too...bigger car, smaller brain syndrome?

[bixy]

I think that what leads to such thoughtlessness and such damage to our cars is the fact that most of the cars in our supermarket car park are already extremely battered - mostly owned by agricultural types and used to bouncing along rutted farm tracks. They care very little about their own cars, or anybody else's, it seems. I always try to park dead centre in a bay, but it makes no odds, someone still comes and parks three inches away, at an angle.

Like I said before, as long as this one keeps going there really is no point in getting a new car.

Patrick

[SC]

I'm impressed by the ability of  French drivers that I have observed to drive accurately into what are quite small spaces in our supermarket car parks at the first attempt. I only have a vague idea of how long the front of our car is. Also their ability to reverse into spaces in the street.

Maybe its because they are over confident of their abilities when driving (as in following too close) and I don't see the occasional mistakes. When cars pass me on narrow roads I am usually the one in the ditch, and I often wonder whether we would have collided if I'd also hogged the road.

I did once see a huge UK registered American pick-up  parked across four disabled spaces next to the doors in the Nantes Ikea car park that was certainly attracting a lot of attention from the passers-by, which was probably the owner's intention. Of course the driver could have been disabled, but there wasn't a badge or anything.

Steve