I offered to drive Evelyn home after the au pair gathering. Her house was on the way and she had biked to centre ville. Not wanting to climb the horrendous hills on her way home, she agreed. We somehow managed to cram the huge bicycle into the Mégane's trunk with one of the back seats folded down. I took off with the trunk wedged open and the two girls crammed in the passenger seat. We made it safely to Evelyn's house, dropped her off, and headed off toward Liezl's the next town over.
I took a shortcut I knew well and went through Meyreuil. The first light we came upon had just turned yellow as I was approaching it. I sped through the light because the distance was too short. It was unsafe for me to stop, especially with the car behind me. Liezl and I were cruising down the street at the speed limit for a good minute or so before 3 gendarmes surround my car and signal me to pull over. I immediately do so and one of the officers comes up to me to tell me that I ran a red light. I'm 100% sure that the light was yellow and tell him this. He takes my information and then asks me for 19 euro. I told him that I didn't have it because I thought it was a bribe. Meanwhile, poor Liezl is looking more and more nervous in the passenger seat but she tries to back me up. She tries telling him that she witnessed the light being yellow but the gendarme completely ignored her. The gendarmarie has a huge presence in France. They're military police and have quite the reputation.
In the time that the gendarme took to copy down my information, the other two had stopped 6 other vehicles for other minor infractions. One guy that parked his truck in front of us was stopped because he didn't signal properly and a businessman behind us was apparently on his phone. Both of the men flipped out and the gendarmes didn't seem to react well so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I thought about going off on my guy too--but he was nice to me. He finished by asking me to sign a confession of my guilt. I thought twice about it and tried to refuse, but he eventually got my signature.
After I dropped Liezl off, I went home and did some research on this semi-militaristic embodiment. Apparently, in France, the gendarme's word is the law. It doesn't matter whether you were actually guilty or not. If, in this official's mind, you broke the law, then simply put, you broke the law. Their accounts are considered truth here. They neither have to furnish evidence nor provide a witness to decide your fate. They say you're guilty, and it's done. It's also impossible to fight your way out of a ticket. One blogger recounted how a chief gendarme assured him no one has ever been 'let go' because they talked their way out of a ticket or because the officer felt sorry for them. Once you've been pulled over, the deal is done. Apparently, you can also get arrested if you curse. Swearing is an even bigger offense than traffic violations. Check out this blog post here.
Another expat talks about her run-in with the gendarmes. She was ticketed for not stopping at a solid white line for a full 3 seconds. Read her post here. There are piles upon piles of expat blogs about the gendarmarie. If only the gendarmes spent more time watching how their own people drive. I mean, do they even see all of the dented cars on the streets? Actually, that's probably why they do these random busts.
I've done so much Googling about driving laws in France and all of the violations you can get ticketed for. I'm already paranoid about speeding, but I'm definitely going to keep all of these rules in the back of my head from now on. Let's just say, I'll be driving very carefully no matter what the rest of the people are doing on the road. I don't want to waste my money on stupid stuff I can avoid.
I took a shortcut I knew well and went through Meyreuil. The first light we came upon had just turned yellow as I was approaching it. I sped through the light because the distance was too short. It was unsafe for me to stop, especially with the car behind me. Liezl and I were cruising down the street at the speed limit for a good minute or so before 3 gendarmes surround my car and signal me to pull over. I immediately do so and one of the officers comes up to me to tell me that I ran a red light. I'm 100% sure that the light was yellow and tell him this. He takes my information and then asks me for 19 euro. I told him that I didn't have it because I thought it was a bribe. Meanwhile, poor Liezl is looking more and more nervous in the passenger seat but she tries to back me up. She tries telling him that she witnessed the light being yellow but the gendarme completely ignored her. The gendarmarie has a huge presence in France. They're military police and have quite the reputation.
In the time that the gendarme took to copy down my information, the other two had stopped 6 other vehicles for other minor infractions. One guy that parked his truck in front of us was stopped because he didn't signal properly and a businessman behind us was apparently on his phone. Both of the men flipped out and the gendarmes didn't seem to react well so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I thought about going off on my guy too--but he was nice to me. He finished by asking me to sign a confession of my guilt. I thought twice about it and tried to refuse, but he eventually got my signature.
After I dropped Liezl off, I went home and did some research on this semi-militaristic embodiment. Apparently, in France, the gendarme's word is the law. It doesn't matter whether you were actually guilty or not. If, in this official's mind, you broke the law, then simply put, you broke the law. Their accounts are considered truth here. They neither have to furnish evidence nor provide a witness to decide your fate. They say you're guilty, and it's done. It's also impossible to fight your way out of a ticket. One blogger recounted how a chief gendarme assured him no one has ever been 'let go' because they talked their way out of a ticket or because the officer felt sorry for them. Once you've been pulled over, the deal is done. Apparently, you can also get arrested if you curse. Swearing is an even bigger offense than traffic violations. Check out this blog post here.
Another expat talks about her run-in with the gendarmes. She was ticketed for not stopping at a solid white line for a full 3 seconds. Read her post here. There are piles upon piles of expat blogs about the gendarmarie. If only the gendarmes spent more time watching how their own people drive. I mean, do they even see all of the dented cars on the streets? Actually, that's probably why they do these random busts.
I've done so much Googling about driving laws in France and all of the violations you can get ticketed for. I'm already paranoid about speeding, but I'm definitely going to keep all of these rules in the back of my head from now on. Let's just say, I'll be driving very carefully no matter what the rest of the people are doing on the road. I don't want to waste my money on stupid stuff I can avoid.
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