Parking

[Miggimeggi]

Looking for parking at the centre of our small local town we saw an apparently normal parking sign - large letter P on blue ground.  Only on leaving did we notice  the smaller letters VL lower down on the sign.  Can anybody tell us what  this means and has it anything to do with parking being reserved for local residents?  Having parked in Riberac and Coutras within blue lines for a couple of years, we just discovered a few weeks ago that you have to have a permit to park in these spaces which are reserved for local people.  We have been lucky enough to get away with it all this time and don't want to take any more chances.  We have been told that the local residents are very quick to report a vehicle parked in restricted parking and not displaying a permit.

Anne

 

[Teamedup]

VL I would interpret as Vehicule leger, ie a car rather than a PL a poid lourd. We don't have any of these blue parking signs in our region and so I have no idea as to how they work.

[Anton Redman]

I thought the blue lines in Riberac indicated 'Disque Bleu' that is display one of the cardboard discs showing time of arrival and latest time of departure. Having died out in the '80s these now seem to be having a revival. I will have a look next time I am in Coutras. Coutras, unlike say St Emilion is not a tourist town, and does not seem to have any parkig problems.  

[Sunday Driver]

Parking sign with VL means cars only (vehicule legere).  The blue paint on the road/kerbs means its a disc zone.  You can get one from the local newsagents.

[Miggimeggi]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]I thought the blue lines in Riberac indicated 'Disque Bleu' that is display one of the cardboard discs showing time of arrival and latest time of departure. Having died out in the '80s these now seem to be having a revival. I will have a look next time I am in Coutras. Coutras, unlike say St Emilion is not a tourist town, and does not seem to have any parkig problems.  [/quote]

Perhaps I was misinformed or I misunderstood.  Someone who lives in Riberac told me that the permits were delivered to residents and that most of the town centre parking was "blue lined".   She did say that permits could be obtained at the tourist office but it never seems to be open when  I happen to be there. In Coutras, the market square has blue lines most of the way around.  I don't know about anywhere else there. 

Happy to see the bit about the VL being light cars.  Is a medium sized station wagon a VL? 

I will check in the Presse at Coutras when I am there on Friday to see if the Disques Bleus are available there.

Thanks everyone.

Anne

[Loiseau]

I think the thing to ask for would be a "disque de stationnement";
isn't "disque bleu" some sort of cigarette?

Angela

[Agenais]

From a nosey round, you can buy the disque de stationement online, in loads of designs and logo's, even to personalising them.  I think we all need one :)  Having tried to obtain the dissability disque I was told you have to be 80%+ disabled in order to get one. ( Barely able to get in a car and drive I would think.)  Obviously at 60% I am way too perky[:P]