Emergencies…
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We have a UK VOIP phone (with a French number also) here in France.
Do you know what numbers we should dial? 00 33…?
If you have a French phone number/line it’s as shown on the poster…
Let’s see if we can find the numbers to dial with a foreign phone… 
112 is european so OK for everyone
We sort of do - but not in the normal way I think we need to treat it as though we are dialing from overseas.
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112 for you then… straightforward no prefixes…
Has anyone ever tried the 112 number? I just wonder how well it works. I give my gite guests from the UK that number as most of them wouldn’t cope with 18. Fortunately so far, never been needed.
I had no experience is calling 18 until recently when I used it twice in 3 days. Each time I had to explain the situation to the call answerer who then transferred me to a regional, then local centre. I had to explain the situation each time. At the regional centre I had to give the patient’s name, my name and address. Most of these had to be spelt out letter by letter.
The whole conversation was in French - although I didn’t ask if English was possible as my French seemed to be up to the task, I’m glad to say. However, it would have been tricky for those with just holiday French.
The process was fast and efficient, and the ambulance arrived with about 15 minutes of starting the call - and it took me longer than that to drive to the Sapeurs-Pompiers post when I took them a thank you letter and box of cakes in the following week.
Hopefully someone has experience with 112 and can bring us up to speed.
According to the Fr Gov Pages on this… as 112 is specifically for International Visitors (and here, non-French-speakers)… there is a wide range of languages spoken by the telephonists, but English is the greatest percentage… so if an English speaker phones, they should be OK…
We used it years ago when we saw an accident when driving on a motorway (a car had slid off road) but only registered that there was a person slumped over the wheel when we had passed the car, so couldn’t obviously do a u-turn. It was answered, and info noted, but no idea of outcome.
I’m curious how that would work for @Mat_Davies given that he’s using a UK VOIP service (Voice over IP, basically a “virtual” telephone number) , he could quite feasibly end up talking to an emergency operator in the UK if that’s where his service terminates.
I’m not sure there would be an overseas access number as you typically want to speak to the emergency service close to your physical location. Hopefully @Mat_Davies has a mobile that could be used to call 112.
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I’m currently a “guest” of Réanimation/Intensive Care following a particularly nasty fall at the chateau where I volunteer to clear scrub over the weekend.*
Whilst I was lying down, dazed, I could hear my fellow volunteers arguing furiously with each other over whether they should call 112 (“as he’s a Brit”) or 18 for the sapeurs pompiers, or 15 for SAMU. In the end they settled on the number they were most familiar with, 18. I don’t think the fact that I’m a Brit has any bearing whatsoever on what number they should have called! The sapeurs arrived in under 5 minutes which impressed me.
- I lost my footing at the top of a steep slope below the chateau walls, and literally bounced 30m downhill, headfirst, narrowly missing protruding tree stumps and sharp flints. Unfortunately I have broken multiple ribs, collapsed lung, fractured vertebrae etc. I’ll be ok in time, but if I’d hit a stump or sharp flint, headfirst, it might have been a very different outcome.
I’ve recommended to the chateau they should put up a poster with what number to call in case of future emergencies…
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Ouch x 1000! I’m sorry to hear about your accident, George. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and I hope they look after you well - I’m sure they will.
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Very sorry to hear that, and so glad you had a lucky escape.
Was the ground soft after all the recent rain and fell away unexpectedly?
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Let’s be clear… 112 is useful for someone who doesn’t speak French… or feels their French won’t be “good enough”… doesn’t matter whether the Caller is a Visitor or Resident… it’s the help with Language which can be so useful …
Frankly, I’ve rung 18 Pompiers dozens of times over the years… (yep, sad to say it’s been necessary) and never had any probs with understanding/talking… but I am geared up with the useful phrases to anwer the usual stuff they will be asking…
Exactly that.
This is the chateau. I was working immediately below the wall on the right, which is on top of a deliberately designed steep slope to keep enemies out. Usually the English and Burgundians historically! I was at the top of the slope and lost my footing as I dragged cut scrub downhill, and fell all the way down (30m) to the track on the right.
On reflection the Normans certainly did a good defensive job!
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Some might say that you’re doing an over-zealous re-enactment of a Casualty of War… 
(but thank heavens you’re benefitting from modern medical treatments/techniques)
I’m sure we all wish you the very best…
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We’ll be thinking of you @George1. Please keep us posted on your progress - hopefully it will be good enough to make the Cheerful thread
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Hope that you have a speedy recovery.
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