I should have known, that posting about legal driving signs in France, would jinx me. But I did it anyways and today, or rather in three days, I will be paying the price. Literally.
To get to my French class I take the A6 (a well known French highway) out to Fontainebleau. Along the portion of the A6 I drive, the speed limit is 130 Kilometers per hour. However, there are portions that are 110KmPH and even 90KmPH.
This morning while driving to class, I was driving happily BELOW the 130 speed limit and watching for the three radar warning boards I see along my way to class each week. As I am driving along, I see a blue Germanderie van pull into the lane beside the lane I am in, and I continued to follow behind four other cars. Just as in the United States, the French driver’s reaction was to break with the sudden appearance of La Policia. Each car passed the van cautiously and as it was my turn to pass the van that seemed to be going quite slowly, I look to my left and see the officer not turning on his lights to pull me over, but rather, WAVING HIS FINGER AT ME!!!! Telling me, “No. No. No. No. Noooo..” Seriously, Are you waving your finger at me???!!! The van then pulled in front of me, turned on his lights and had me follow him for equivalent of 3 miles.
When the officer “pulled me over,” he began speaking, too quickly and I couldn’t understand. He then held up his radar gun informing me I was driving, 117 KmPH when I had just entered unbe-knowingly from a 130KmPH zone to a 110KmPH zone. In my defense I could not have been going much faster than any other car on this road because I was following FOUR other cars! Whatever the case- I won’t make this mistake again.
However, I tried my best and explained that I was thought the speed limit was 130KmPH. It didn’t matter, I broke the law. I was going to be given a ticket. This ticket would be Quatre-vingt dix Euro (HUH?!- Repetez S’il vous plait!) 90 Euros or… 135 US DOLLARS!!! Yikes! Not only was the ticket 90 Euros, but I would need to pay Maintainant (now). What? Don’t I get a ticket in the mail? No, no, no, no. (waving finger) You must pay with a check. Well, my dear French police officers, I am an American and I have no French Checks, what do we do now?
A new dilemma for them, but a small one compared to others that I am skipping for your benefit. How could I pay, if I did not have a check for them now? They then asked if I had my address on a piece of paper. I started digging through my purse for a blank sheet of paper and a pen. I find a pen, and ask if I can get out of the car, to go to the trunk, to get the paper. I am permitted. I go to the trunk, open my back pack, and pull out a notebook of paper. They immediately stop me, wave their fingers again and say, “no, no, no, no, no.” They wanted a piece of paper that PROVED I lived here! Oh Duh!!! I am sure I looked ridiculous to them.
By the slimmest of chances in the world, I had actually grabbed all of my documents today before leaving my apartment to take care of some other tedious detail- and just happen to have my proof of my Apartment lease in my car. I never, repeat NEVER have this with me…. And I should have never have grabbed it this morning, it could have saved me the 90 Euros- cause then how else could they have trusted or found me, to send me my fine. Especially if they weren’t going to trust me writing it on a scrap piece of paper for them. I mean who wouldn’t trust a foreigner, giving them an address to send the ticket, when they are in a car belonging to someone else, and caught speeding, saying they didn’t realize the speedlimit was slower than the rate they were driving? I mean, I think I sounded perfectly legitimate, especially stumbling over all of my broken French. For Sure! Regardless, I handed them my apartment lease and they were pleased.
The two officers then disappeared into their van and wrote up my ticket.
When they returned, they told me I would receive my ticket in three days, and wished me a pleasant day. They were actually quite nice. And I attest they are excellent finger wavers. I just found the whole situation humorous and keep thinking of how ridiculous I must have looked to them. But probably just as ridiculous as, I find being charged 135 dollars for going the equivalent of 4MPH over the speed limit. Yes 4!
In other better news for you my readers. One of my lovely followers Angie sent me the real meanings of the signs I joked about yesterday. So, for the real meanings of the signs you can look back and see the true meanings posted in Blue.
Happy Safe and Slow Driving! And remember, next time an officer waves his finger at you, it means you are being pulled over.
No, no, no, no, nooooooooooo!
1 comment:
VORTEX!!!
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