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Can someone help me understand this...gendarme waving their arms at me!


mmaddock
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OK...today I was driving down a dual carriageway - speed limit 110.  Not raining, but a bit moist on the road due to the melting snow, tho not excessively.  I came up behind a gendarme "Clio" with its blue flashing light going (for no apparent reason!) - he was doing about 95, road completely clear, no-one else around apart from a couple of lorries up well ahead...I pulled out and started to go past doing just under 110 when he wound down his window and started waving his arms at me and pointing to his speedo.  I slowed down a bit and pulled in front of him.  The passenger put on a yellow bib as though they were going to stop me and he was going to get out, but the next thing he then went flying past, overtook the lorries in front of me and then just sat there again doing about 95 with his blue light continuing to flash (I stuck behind him then!).  What is more confusing is that later on along the dual carriageway

another car came past (I guess doing about 110) - overtook me & the

gendarme car and he didn't take a blind bit of notice???!  At the end of the dual carriageway he pulled over into a layby on the road (still blue light flashing!) and just parked up.

Now..he was obviously telling me I was going to fast, but as far as I was concerned I wasn't!  I understand in the rain that the speed limit lowers, but it wasn't raining.  Do the lower speed limits apply on damp roads too?  Can someone please explain to me what I may have been doing wrong - the next time it happens I'd prefer to stay within the law than get pulled!  I have passed gendarme vehicles on dual carraigeway before when they've had their blue lights going for no apparent reason without provoking a reaction!

Cheers,

Matt

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[quote user="mmaddock"]  I came up behind a gendarme "Clio" with its blue flashing light going (for no apparent reason!) - he was doing about 95, road completely clear, no-one else around apart from a couple of lorries up well ahead...[/quote]

Hi Matt.

I wouldn't overtake any vehicle with 'emergency' lights flashing. The reason may not be apparent for a mile or two ahead...

Clearly there was something else (unknown/unknowable) going on in this instance, but I wouldn't overtake a Gendarme with the lights going. In  UK we give way to them, don't we, whatever the speed limit?

 

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[quote user="mmaddock"]  I came up behind a gendarme "Clio" with its blue flashing light going (for no apparent reason!) - he was doing about 95, road completely clear, no-one else around apart from a couple of lorries up well ahead...I pulled out and started to go past doing just under 110 when he wound down his window and started waving his arms at me and pointing to his speedo. 
Matt


[/quote]

A simplier question would be "What exactly is the meaning of life".............[:D].

There is sometimes no logic in the actions of some french police and the answer to your particular question may never be fully understood. That said Tresco is right about being careful when contemplating passing 'Blue-lights'.

Are you on UK plates ? because it is a well known fact that the british can't drive as well as the french.....................[:D][:D]

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Thanks for the replies.  I realise that you should be cautious when overtaking emergency vehicles when the blue lights are going, and I did hang back for a while to check nothing was going on - it was a clear, long straight piece of DC.  I wouldn't have overtaken, but I've followed French cars past the gendarme on "high alert" (i.e. lights flashing!) driving slowly on DC's before a few times - it wasn't like he was in a hurry to get anywhere!!  On reflection I wonder - given that maybe I should have been doing 100 - he was going to pull me (the passenger pulled on a yellow bib as I went past, so I think that may have been their intention), but when he saw it was a brit (yes, I'm still on English plates) he couldn't be bothered with the hassle, especially in the cold!??!

Who knows - in the future I'll stick to 100 in the wet I guess!

Matt

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Sorry I was going to ignore this post but now its been answered, I have to say and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks, this,  the OP is one of the daftest I have ever read on this Forum.

Its been snowing, which means it was cold, so there is a risk of  ice, so along comes this UK registered car doing 110KPH on  wet road with melting snow, the maximum for the road in good conditions.

Our GB hero passes a police car which was being driven at a sensible speed for the conditions and the police wave to him and gesture towards the speedo and he wonders whatever they mean.  What do you think they meant, your speedo was on fire???

 You and a lot of other drivers were going far too fast for the conditions and there were accidents all over France because of this.  So, on a public forum, you are saying that you have to have a notice on the road that tells you to slow down when the road conditions are poor????

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Were the conditions that bad I would have agreed with you, but the road was not that far from dry, it was a long straight open, clear good visibility dual carriage way and as far as I was concerned I was quite within my rights to be driving at (or actually just under) the posted speed limit of 110.  If they thought I was going that fast and dangerous they would have pulled me over for certain.  I've passed the gendarme driving along [slowly] with their blue light going before - so it was just another one of those things at the time.  Unlike in the UK, they seem to put the blue lights on for anything, not just "emergency" situations.  My question was posted to reveal the answer that someone has already posted - that I actually probably wasn't within the limit! I thought the lower limited applied "a temps de pluie" as you see on the signs on the autoroutes.  I know for next time!  Tho I'm still confused as to why they didn't do the same thing to the French driver who passed them at exactly the same speed I did only 30s earlier!  To speculate that I drive unsafely is a little unfair I feel.  Having driven extensively through France and passed many many may roadside speed traps over the years (not to mention UK ones) and never been stopped would suggest that perhaps I am a sensible driver...and Dick, thanks for the comment on the photos [:)]

Matt

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You were lucky that you didn't overtake the last Police escort in a "convoi exceptionelle" thay can hang back quite a way but with good reason.

I have overtaken the UK Police before when they were driving well below the limit but would never do so with a blue light flashing any more than I would an ambulance, they might actually have been looking over the surroundings for someone reported lost, a reported car crash or bad guys on the run. There are many possible scenarios like this where they would not be driving at the limit and require to concentrate on other things than people ignoring their signals.

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Matt - you were clearly driving within the safe and legal limit for the road conditions you describe, as evidenced by the fact that you were not pulled over.

However, given the reputation of many British drivers for ignoring the French speed limits (Cannonball Run, racing to catch the ferries, etc) I suspect they probably saw your UK plates and felt like giving you a brief reminder to watch your speed.

JR's point about overtaking in a blue light situation is worth noting.  You don't know what is going on, so some extra restraint might be called for....

 

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