new car travel requirements

[Azila]

Can anybody let me know if there are any new travel regulations for what you must have in the car when travelling e.g. neon jacket, first-aid kit etc.

 Someone has told my husband that from the 1st of July the French gov. introduced  a load of new things that you had to carry in the car and that the police are doing on the spot fines if you don't have everything and as we are coming over next Tues he is starting to freak out. Thanks Lisa

[Russethouse]

Have a look at

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/overseas/compulsory_equipment.html

That should help.

[Azila]

Thanks Gay, it was a great help, hopeful he will now stop freaking.

rgds. Lisa

[Russethouse]

On another forum I have read of some 'spot' inspections & fines for this kit so its worth making sure you have everything - we always carry spare bulbs, warning triangle, first aid stuff, insurance papers etc (although with paperwork we leave a set of copies at home too)

If your journey takes you into Spain you also need a yellow vest type thing for visibility I believe, but as far as I know these are not essential in France yet.

[Val_2]

For french residents a fire extinguisher is mandatory if you have a vehicle that takes 8 or more passengers and high visibility jackets/gillets are NOT compulsory here yet, just advisable for easy spotting in case of breakdown.

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

For the second time in about a month, I noticed the Gendarmes had set up the headlight beam test thingy just outside the Cherbourg port and were pulling EVERY UK plate! The fines are big, one understands, and there seemed to be a lot getting tickets.

 

[IAN_S]

Looking at the link to the AA site I see that a spare bulb kit is only recommended in France not compulsory. Is this only for UK registered cars or French too? I always thought it was definately compulsory.

[Ron Avery]

[quote]For the second time in about a month, I noticed the Gendarmes had set up the headlight beam test thingy just outside the Cherbourg port and were pulling EVERY UK plate! The fines are big, one understa...[/quote]

They would be targetting UK drivers, they are the only ones whose lights will not have deflectors......... and about time too! When I drove back from the UK last month I got fed up with being blinded by the ignorant UK drivers coming down the A26 who had come over on a day trip without beam reflectors. RHD dips are just like a full beam to an oncoming car. If they are doing the tight beggars who try and get away with a bit of black tape across their lights, good on them as this impairs visibility so much and is down right dangerous in bad visibility.

[troll]

Hello

How many French,German,Belgian ect. cars do you see in the uk with headlight deflectors? Do the uk police stop them?

Regards

Albert

[Ron Avery]

Don,t know I,m here in france

[troll]

So Ronald you are the infamous Outcast. I read the rules and I thought there was something about this being a capitol offence. Anyway what about all the French cars driving about with just one headlight or with one headlight pointing at the floor and one pointing into the sky. I think that shining ill adjusted headlights at you should be have a hanging penalty or worse. By the way some of these posts remind me of a gang of grumpy old men/women with the tolerance of a rattlesnake.

Have a nice evening and I hope you don't get banished to the outer reaches of the galaxy.

Albert

[Ron Avery]

ALBert You must tell us how you know how Outcast signed off, considering that he and all his posts had been removed long before you came along, I seem to recall that Albi signed off like that, but then he was also gone before you joined.

You been here before under another name ALBert??

[troll]

Hi Ronnie

I will attempt to answer your question. I like a lot of other people look at various French forums. I have looked at Living France for over a year now and find it a very informative site. However being a nice inoffensive sort of person I was rather nervous to enter the fray (with a name like mine) because of the few contributors who seemed to attack anything and everyone. So yes I did see the Outcast saga but surely that is no reason that you should start what could be a personal attack on me. Now you are taking this thread seriously offtrack and just inviting the moderators to moderate. So Please ronald old chap try to keep focused on what,s going on.

Cheers

Albert

  

[tjsgifan]

[quote]They would be targetting UK drivers, they are the only ones whose lights will not have deflectors......... and about time too! When I drove back from the UK last month I got fed up with being blinde...[/quote]

In defence, I have a Peugeot 307 which when I knew I was coming to France I paid for the official Peugeot Headlamp Protector Kit which includes the option to convert the headlight dip for driving in Europe - how surprised was I when it turned up and included 2 black stickers to put on the headlight protectors to "convert" them to european standards - and they weren't reusable, so I've since had to use a piece of black tape....  but I must agree that most of the british cars I see on the road over in france don't even bother with GB stickers never mind headlight adapters.  It's only a small price to pay so there really is no excuse.

All the best,

 

Toby.

[Brilec]

I did the same with my Citroen, but only use the headlamp protectors when coming to France, so I was able to leave the litle black bits of tape on them. Instant conversion. It does lok a bit Heath-Robinson though with those squares of black tape.

Brian