Penalty Points - speeding

They like to hide here eg in a horsebox parked on the side of the road, behind bushes, walls etc. Pffffff
I’ve got all my points back now but I was down to 3 or 4 at one stage, losing one here, one there…

Individuals are not allowed to film outside your property boundary. In theory you can’t take pictures in the street with people in them and pop on your FB page without asking permission of each and every one….

Maybe it was a special covert police operation doing surveillance for some high level criminals…or VIPs?

This sounds incredibly interesting.

Why not stop and knock on the door and ask?

If it’s some kind of police operation wouldn’t they like to know the targets will probably spot it?

I find that the majority of folk are very unobservant. It may be a bit of a cliché but having been a photographer since being able to hold a camera - it becoming a living came later - I’m eyeballing the world non-stop.

It’s finding things in thefridge I’m not good at …

People driving down that road may not be familar with it and, if they are and notice the roof and windows, even register the house itself, not realise that one of those roof windows being open is an unusual event.

If they do see the window open, few people would realise - or care -what they are seeing. The camera is pulled well back. There’s just enough reflection from the lens and the shape of the square lens hood to give the game away.

What’s up there is in exactly the same position as when I first saw it. There’s defo some sort of surveillance going on.

This is what it can see but with a much elevated p.o.v.

The car coming towards us is 70-80 metres past the turning to the right, the ‘by-pass’ round Torigni to the N174 m/way to St. Lo. This road, the D13/D9, is the ‘country road’ to Caen.

I still think it’s a speed cam set-up. Or, another wild theory, it’s to ping people who do not come to a complete stop at the fat white line
image

On another thread somewhere I read of a Brit driver who was stopped a few metres after making a turn at a T-junction and was told, in excellent English,
“Sir, you did not stop at the white line. I saw that your wheels were still turning” . Ping!

Stop means Stop.

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Hmm. I once worked in an office in Mayfair and was told the police had asked to come in for two weeks as there was a particularly good angle from the upstairs windows to perform surveillance on the pub semi-opposite, which was apparently a venue where drug dealers were well known to ply their trade.

As a result of the surveillance the pub had been shut down.

This camera being in a private house overlooking a road which does not have potential for drug dealing, I can’t imagine a normal private householder would want to give permission for a speed trap camera.

Do you think it’s a police officer’s house and doing a version of “Working at Home” ?

The other thing that occurred to me was astronomy.

@captainendeavour …who was that for?

A pal was a ‘ground handling agent’. He booked driver/guides for a travel agency called Chapter House Travel, based in Shaftesbury, Dorset. They had offices in the USA.

I’d taken time out from my day job to renovate my flat. He said, “Why not take the London Tourist Board ‘Driver/Guide’ exam. I could slot you on a few nice tours now and then”

So I did the course - the syllabus 70% London, of which 70% St Pauls, The Tower and W/mstr Abbey. But Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Blenheim, Salisbury, Winchester, Stonehenge, Kings/Queens from Will 1 to Brenda, English history from Veni, Vidi … to present day.

Also things like where to take a client who wants his homburg fettled or to buy the finest cigars … A pretty comprehensive course.

I passed. The first tour I got was D-Day 40th Anniversary! Normandy beaches! Two more in '84, 3 more in '85 [40th Anniversay VE-Day] and my own private tours.

One of the VE day tours was a complete disaster, even before the clients had left the US. Having advertised States-wide for all of '84 for the VE Day tour, instead of the 50-seater coaches x ??? [“You’ll need a bucket for the tips”] for these dates there were just 5 pax!

All the pre-booked stuff had to be down-graded two or three grades. The clients, all wealthy people, were incandecent for the whole trip. Muggins was in the front line … :roll_eyes:

Chapter House had us arrive in Paris - “After a panoramic tour of Paris, after lunch is free to shop the fabulous designer boutiques of Rue St Honoré” - on 14th July! Everything shut! One guy had only persuaded his wife to the trip on the basis of that afternoon’s shopping! :angry:

The schoolroom at Rheims where Monty took the surrender of the northern German Armies had been swept and sealed for security - The Queen, Reagan, Thatcher, Mitterand etc due next day. :scream:

The result was serious litigation and the demise of Chapter House Travel.

The WW1 tours I did 2005 - 2010 were for Back Roads Touring. I made the mistake of agreeing to do Castles of The Loire, totally unfamiliar to me, without doing a recce first. I asked but they refused to fund 2-3 days fam trip. I should have pulled out.

It was a blistering June week. The A/C in the bus broke down on the first day. There were hue glass panels in the roof. The pax were melting - and incandecent!

One pax, handing me a 50€ note said, “I have never felt so sorry for a guide in my life” Nobody else gave me a cent.

Tour guiding is NOT a paid holiday!

I went back


to the US cemetery for the first time in 43 years.

Today received my first speeding ticket for a couple of years, for doing 86kph on an 80 kph stretch of the A75 (the very bendy bit where you descend from the Causses onto the coastal plain). At first thought s~#%, but then remembered the law has just changed and although there’s a €45 fine - one no longer loses points for a minor infraction. Very happy!

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Reminds of the time the firm I worked for arranged a “works outing” on a ferry mini-cruise from Harwich to Esbjerg.

When we got to Esbjerg it was a Danish national holiday - the entire place was silent as the grave, all the Danes being very sensibly relaxing at home. :smiley: Still, everyone had fun getting pissed on the boat there and back…

Did a booze cruise for my first ever time in France. We arrived in Boulogne around 12pm and seemingly EVERYTHING including restos shut. We wandered around the town until 2 when we found an eatery open. :roll_eyes:

'Not many people know that … ’ Well, I didn’t. No idea. That’s most :grinning:

I thought that was only if you were less than 5 km/h over? Or was 86 km/h your speed before adjustment?

It was discussed at length on the forum :slight_smile:

Personally I think it sets up a (agreed narrow) window where, if people think that they can afford the fine, they are more likely to speed - i.e one rule for the rich etc.

Not sure if repeat offenders will end up with penalty points.

5kph is subtracted from your speed and an “official” speed recorded. That AIUI has been standard in France for years (similar to the 10% + 2mph guideline in the UK).

If that adjusted speed is within 5kph of the posted speed there will now only be a fine, no penalty points.

So if your actual speed is 0-5kph greater than the posted speed - no action

If your actual speed is 5-10kph greater than the posted speed - fine only.

I think 86kph was MarkH’s actual speed.

Yes, that was my question.

It’s an ill wind etc.

Well, that’s true in all other matters, why not speeding? :slightly_frowning_face:

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Cynic

Not that I can disagree though.

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Someone who makes a habit of flouting speed limits… will get caught eventually… whether they are rich makes not a lot of difference… :wink:

If they’re so rich as to feel above the law… they’ll overstep the mark with abandon and either kill themselves or pay a large fine etc etc… and have the car crushed… one of these days… :neutral_face:

Nevertheless if it happens to you, I’d be surprised if you wouldn’t be grateful…