Blimey, I didn't know you did ancient history ;-)
The biggest joke is that the Police and Gendarmes (although not the CRS!) are legally allowed to have a glass of wine or a beer / cider at midday .... and carry guns .....and drive. Beyond belief.
Code du Travail Article R4228-20 - Aucune boisson alcoolisée autre que le vin, la bière, le cidre et le poiré n'est autorisée sur le lieu de travail.
Too true, remember your “wounded” avatar (is the the word?) when I first started lurking here. Carpe Diem Brian.
Yes, but it seems like yesterday! Well, relatively recent anyway. A lot has happened since then and I was not sure I would survive to see it.
Is it true that this posting dates back to 2012
Moved here a year ago with a RHD car that is now registered, insured, CT etc. Can’t afford to change it, and consider myself sane and no more of a danger to other road users than anyone else.
I don’t think driving a RHD is any more dangerous than a LHD for a competent driver Simon, and if one wants to keep a car converting from RHD to LHD is expensive. I have a Morgan that was converted in 2012, it’s the only LHD one of it’s type in France (there are two others in Germany) and I particularly wanted one. If some wealthy enthusiast hadn’t converted her beforehand (and took the financial hit) I’d have happily bought a RHD in the UK and pottered around France in it. It’s the loonies overtaking on blind bends that worry me not what side of the car they’re sitting on.
Regarding drinking and driving, it seems to me that everybody in my local village has a glass or two of wine at lunch and then toddles back off to work. I wouldn’t dream of getting into a car in the UK with any alchol onboard but I think the local restaurants here would collapse if such a strict regime were introduced.
Rather than the guillotine I can think of something for this one then. In the stocks, then remove his apparel slowly whilst allowing some of the bored youth loose on the car parked in front of him with spray cans to their best before his eyes. Double humiliation, given the car a fine would probably make no impression.
Sounds like a touch of BCSD syndrome Brian - Big Car Small D**k :-)
I seem to remember people saying more or less that on occasion.
Very true, but never nice for those on the receiving end.
(crikey the original post is from 4 years ago.....but hey....)
Agreed William - keeping RHD cars - what's all that about ? - completely nuts and a danger to other road users!
The other thing that really gets to me is the huge number of expats (mostly Brits and Dutch) who think it's ok to drink and drive in France. I'd have them guillotined in the town square.
Who’s being a contentious boy then Richard 
Yes the arrogant façade covers up the insecurity.
But then there is anger which also portrays rather well as arrogance.
Given that it’s probably about six litres plus and does ten miles to the gallon it’s probably not finances that prevents them complying with the law, just arrogance.
William, I’ve several cars and depending where I’ve gone and for how lng RHD ones end up here for a while and LHD ones end up in Dublin for a while. It never bothers me (apart from carpark tickets) which side I drive on.
Well, there you have it Mark. Always keep an emergency bottle in the car to wave if confronted by the agents of the law for stopping in that spot
Chris, there’s a big difference between pullng in and stopping on the side of the road and blocking the road ehile you have chat. Isn’t there?
It literally means all knowing but otherwise I know what you mean. I guess you mean they are insecure rather than arrogant. If that is indeed the case then they are all the more potentially dangerous because they lack inhibitions and limits that come with that sense of security and familiarity within physical and social environment.
I should clarify that my "illegaly parked" area was reserved for those using the bottle bank. As I was not disposing of bottles I admit to mis-using the space.
There is an open top Bentley hereabouts. I have no idea who owns it but an English man a few minutes away from us along a road it is often on says that he has lived here 14 years and it has always been here, all year round and perhaps goes back to the UK for short visits but he reckons to see it a couple of times a week. I certainly see it at least once. He has no idea who it is, likewise. The point is that the couple who are always in it have lived here for years, kept the UK number plate so no effort to re-register, if they are MOT-ing in the UK then they are still breaking the law because the car is not kept there. Their insurance?
They are known for, and I have seen it, on the local rat run doing well over 150km, overtaking going into blind corners, flashing people to give leeway but leaving the full beam on rather that just a quick flash and yet nobody, mostly French but a few Brits and Dutch, can actually put a finger on anything to say who they are, where they live or anything other than talk about the Bentley. So, they clearly live in a world apart. However, one day the cops will stop them (we all hope) and then they will pay the price (we also all hope).