Tobacco and Gas prices are going up…
National Speed Limit is going down…
Stella, this road ‘separateur’ that has to be absent to give effect to the 80 kph limit includes white lines…am I right about this? I ask because Simon Calder the BBC travel guru was on TV today advising Brits travelling to France to be aware, and his warning was illustrated by a French double sens rural road with white lines down the middle.
Some mistake surely on Calder’s part (or the programme director’s as Calder is usually well-informed)?
We feel that white lanes are not enough to class as a seperateur, it has to be much more defined, perhaps a barrier, but do the large yellow hash lines count?
Yes Jane… quite correct… white lines/painted lines are not carriage separators, merely guidelines.
Roads which do NOT have a physical barrier of some sort, separating the carriageways… will either have their own Speed Sign… or, if not, the National Speed Limit of 80KPH will apply.
Hi Peter… reading what you said twice… I can’t see that he got it wrong…
We are talking about what you and I would call “ordinary roads”…
with only white lines (double or single, dotted or whatever) or even no white lines at all…
If there is no other speed limit signed/marked… then the National Speed Limit applies… and that is now 80KPH (instead of 90)
Hope it don’t take the Gendarmes attention off, speeding over 90, mobile phone and bloody tailgating, not that they seem to have ever been taking much notice.
'Cept when I got a ticket and point off. 
Good grief! It’s a good job I signed up to SFN, ‘cos for the last three years I’ve been unaware that the speed limit on rural roads (double sens) with broken white lines was 90 kph. I’ ve taken my cue from local drivers who pelt along at 110 kph and faster on local roads, many of which are dead straight but very risky because of blind summits and dips.
Now I understand why drivers who observe the 90 kph (now 80 kph) limit complain of tail-gating.
I’ll be much more careful in future.
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We were out and about this morning and saw some of the new 80kph signs between Limoux and Carcassonne. Still plenty of 90kph signs as well so I’ll just do what the signs say. If you do what the sign says you can’t go wrong. Of course, if there isn’t a sign it’ll just be a free for all.
Not been out today, but going to the airport in Clermont ferrand tomorrow so will see if any of the Creuse signs have been changed
I didn’t know either Peter until reading SFN…I also didn’t know that I should display my insurance in the car window until the garage man told me last week whilst doing the paperwork for My French car…fortunately my uk Volvo was always ok at 50mph…my Renault with 6 gears seems distinctly uncomfortable at 80kmph…and so far 4th gear seems about right on narrow country lanes…The 30 kmph zones through villages seemed ok in my uk Volvo but in my newer Laguna I was crawling along in 1st…I get the reason why but 30 miles per hour zones in uk compared to 30 kilometres per hour here feels really different if that makes any sense…???
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Getting used to a six-speed gearbox will take time, Helen, but your girl knows what gear she prefers for the speed she wants to move at, and she won’t complain if you go from 1 to 3 or 2 to 5 instead of going through all of the one at a time.
These new machines are brainy, and know how to train you into their clever ways for security and economy.
Every new vehicle I get has to teach me her ways, and grumbles if I want to go my own stuck-in-the-mud ones. Now I have learned to be a grown-up driver and go with the artificial intelligence flow 
RE the speed limit signs, there are almost no 90 kph signs in this part of France, except at a few pinch-points on the autoroute A84, and I have never seen one when leaving a built-up area. I was genuinely ignorant of the 90 kph limit outside town, and I can say with confidence that most drivers on local D-routes drive much faster.
I have an app with the French Code de la Route 2018 and some useful quizzes to test one’s knowledge and it’s very clear and user friendly, I find.
My old RHD French-registered Volvo conked out terminally last year and although she was like HMS Queen Mary in deportment and hauteur, and much respected locally, I do prefer sitting on the left on French roads, it’ s safer and less ostentatious to other road users.
When we want to cut a dash at the décheterie we roll out our 1973 Land-rover Series 3: little gars grin and wave and local Brits wave and give thumbs-up or hoot, which is a bit of a lark. I paid £1600 for it twelve years ago, and I see on ebay that comparable models can command asking prices of up to 15000 euros ‘en etat’ if they are runners with original features.
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Emmmm because 30kph = nearly 20mph
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My uk Volvo has both kph and mph on the speedometer…My Laguna has only kph and an extra gear…I’d kind of gotten used to getting a feel for the happy medium…now my speedometer is purely kph…x 
Helen, I find that where there are 30 kph restrictions they are always in heavily pedestrianised urban situations where old people and youngsters are often likely to be crossing, and traffic must slow down to accommodate to their needs. Such restricted areas seem always only as long as necessary to reduce risk of injury or death. Eminently sensible IMO. If first gear is called for, that’s what it’s there for. 
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I didn’t know you had a Volvo too…I have a soft spot for them having had 3…I also look back with affection for an ex army open back land rover I had for one glorious summer…kids and Collies in the back wind in their hair waving to everyone…happy days…x
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The older versions were fantastic, the newer ones may be technically superior, but stylistically they have the same swollen bulbous look as the rest, and no charm at all.
A local British fellow who restores old cars has a Morris ‘Eight’ saloon on his plot, 1935 model, and I could stand and stroke it for hours like a fine stallion, there can’t be a carriage-builder alive who could combine such simple elegance and strength in a popular vehicle. Mouth-watering and almost tear-jerking stuff 
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Is this OK Peter ?
Thanks Stella, you are a wonder-woman! Do you ever go off-duty from your SFN labours? 
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I’m sure my contract mentions something about time-off for good behaviour… but…
(only joking, I do this for the fun of it… 
)
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But you are a marvel Stella. BTW we are both on the same astrological aspect, me 9 May, you (I think 10 May). You have attracted more of the auspicious influences (maybe the influence of Saturn or Jupiter) than me. But the resonance is there. Do you lend any credence to astrology? I was passionate about it from age 18 when I sat opposite a very smartly-dresed man in a First Class compartment of a train from Euston to Birmingham New Street who was reading a book on Astrology. Nuff said… 
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