Satnav confiscated by gendarme.

[Onion van man]

I have just been reading about someone from the UK that was on holiday / travelling through France and had their Tomtom confiscated, Is this possible and on what grounds ?

[EuroTrash]

If a GPS gives warnings of speed cameras that is illegal in France and they can be confiscated.

[woolybanana]

If it was a satnav that warned the user of speed radars in operation, then yes.

[woolybanana]

Sorry Eurotrash, we seem to have got our legs crossed!

[EuroTrash]

oooh! wooly!

[Benjamin]

[quote user="woolybanana"]If it was a satnav that warned the user of speed radars in operation, then yes.[/quote]

Are we talking here of mobile radar devices or fixed ones? If the latter then I think most of us could lose our satnavs.

[woolybanana]

No, mobile ones.

[Bugsy]

The law is quite simple on this.

Unit that advise of locations, both fixed and mobile, are OK.

Units that actually detect cameras are illegal.

.

[Théière]

[quote user="Onion van man"]I have just been reading about someone from the UK that was on holiday / travelling through France and had their Tomtom confiscated, Is this possible and on what grounds ?
[/quote]

Could you supply the source/link as there maybe other factors we are not aware of.

http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Cannonball-racers-arrested-by-the.html

[woolybanana]

Peel back those layers Onionman!!

[Onion van man]

Here http://static.forum.rac.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11641

[woolybanana]

Subtle. Don't tell Norman!

[cooperlola]

All explained here:

http://www.motoservices.com/vitesse/reglementation-radar.htm

See the 2nd para under "Radars" for clarification on this specific point.

The person referred to didn't end up in Switzerland, did they? 

[Théière]

Coops I was working from a translation so am I correct that satnavs are legal with camera position database but radar detectors are illegal  which is the position I allways understood. So still a mystery as to why the satnav was confiscated.

[brianagain]

http://english.controleradar.org/speed-camera-detector.php

Info here as well in English

Brian (again)

[Bob T]

These stories always start with a friend of a friend, or I read it on the net so it must be true.

[Onion van man]

[quote user="Bob T"]These stories always start with a friend of a friend, or I read it on the net so it must be true.

[/quote]

Well, I wondered myself but, I do know that radar detectors are illegal in France.

[Théière]

A similar link to the one I put on my post, so safety in numbers [:)]

Yes there are numerous "a friend"........but the link to the forum was supplied. It looks like we have pretty much wrapped up the facts though.

[Jonzjob]

The top and bottom of is that if it an active detector it's a no no, but if it's a pasive system like a data base or even a map (they are available here) then it's OK.

The gendamerie arond here even put it in the Midi Libre where and when they are going to be with their nice little hair driers pointing at the traffic! So if the 'pacif' type were illegal then god help anyone with the newspaper in their car?

[Gyn_Paul]

I think it's possible that - once, somewhere - some raw, baby gendarme, fresh out of the academy, came across a new-fangled thing called a GPS, and misunderstood its purpose and function and did indeed mistakenly confiscate it.

It's possible.

But all the rest is hearsay, or 'news' as the Daily Mail would call it.

Which leads me to wonder what its front page says is causing cancer today?

p

[Théière]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"]

Which leads me to wonder what its front page says is causing cancer today?

p


[/quote]

Don't loose hope all cancer can be cured with asprin so no need for all that expensive research.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1322750/Taking-aspirin-cut-risk-bowel-cancer-quarter.html

[Chancer]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"]Which leads me to wonder what its front page says is causing cancer today?

[/quote]

Take your pick using the program the Daily Mail uses to choose its headlines: http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

[Onion van man]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"]But all the rest is hearsay, or 'news' as the Daily Mail would call it. [/quote]

It is hearsay as such from what was written but, It does make me wonder if there was any truth in it why could they take it?  Anyway, Everyone here seems to have confirmed what I thought.

[Will]

I think it's rather similar to the myth that still seems to have wide currency in the gendarmerie that UK driving licences are not legal for use in France. They are, and there are numerous copies in circulation of the French and EU laws that say so, that you can give to the gendarmes if they try it on with you - our préfecture even issues them for free. Yet still the misunderstanding continues.

So the confusion between a GPS with a list of speed cameras, and a device that incorporates a radar detector, becomes almost credible.

Back to the Daily Mail. As my CV includes a few years as 'managing editor, Daily Mail' (admittedly not on the paper but in another part of the company that existed back then) I feel bound to comment. All that has been said is true, even the headline generator is not that far removed from reality. In fact there was a 'paragraph 19' rule (which applied to all stories, not just the cancer ones) - you could write any rubbish you liked in the headline and first couple of paragraphs, as long as you put the truth behind the story in paragraph 19, which no average DM reader would ever reach.

[crossy67]

[quote user="Will"]you could write any rubbish you liked in the headline and first couple of paragraphs, as long as you put the truth behind the story in paragraph 19, which no average DM reader would ever reach.

[/quote]

Love it lol[:D] That's why I don't bother reading papers, you almost always only ever get one side of the story.