I believe this was part of the deal between the embassy and the locals, that the hand would be immediately reattached. At least that’s how the tale went on camp...
I suspect the reality is they will just enforce removal of licences on the spot even more which will have the same result for them once workd gets about.
What do the police say when you tell them you don't have your licence with you, but will post it to them? Je suis désolé mais je n'ai pas mon permis de conduire avec moi. Je pourrais vous le poster demain?
They will impound the vehicle. Not having your license with you has no effect on a ban,fine,impounding. BTW from now on in EU you need to have your license, V5, mot if appropriate, insurance docs and green card don you.
You always were supposed to have those docs with you. Nothing has changed there (bar the card). However I know of people who've been stopped without certain docs (licence being one of those) who've not had an issue. I never carry insurance docs and have been stopped numerous times.
Well yes.... so once upon a time me and a mate making in France , I had been leading for an hour or so, and we were coming into a small ring road system so I slowed down, my mate did I not want to, took the lead and a minute later was pulled in, I stopped in sympathy to help as I’m French speaking. 2 Gendarmes, one senior one junior. The junior one was flapping his arms saying problems problems. Eventually senior cop comes over, looks at the speed, I reckon about 100mph in a 55mph. He asks where are we going, I say we are on the way to catch ferry in Calais . He says ok so we have a little problem, your suggested speed would normally have tour bike impounded and an immediate 3 month ban, so my friend it’s very lucky for you I have just noticed you were doing 1kmh under the impounding limit, and we will make the fine 130 euros, unfortunately I can’t change the ban, BUT we are going off for lunch in a southern direction and Calais is North, so give me a minute to get out of sight and do what you want. We carried on chatting as he had a souped up Williams Clio and he was normally stationed on A6 doing what he loves, chasing UK Bentleys and Porches. And another time I was leading a group of 6, long time riding friends by The Loire. I decided to crack on, you know those lovely straight roads along a river, well overtaking 2 cars then 3 cars then another 2, I know I was redline in 5th. Approaching a village, I slowed to 30mph as we always do. I could see blue lights back in the distance coming up, so moved over as we do to help let past. The car swooped in front of me, made me stop sharpish , Gendarme gets out of unmarked car shouting and frantically arm waving, saying Vitesse!!!. I look at him, say nothing but a Gallic shrug, as I mentioned we are close riding buddies over many 1000s of miles, to The System often riding with police , atheist Gendarme said we were doing 220-240kmh, then asks me are we Police?? I gave him a wet smile , he stuck his hand out for a shake, and pleaded please lower the speed a bit!! And off we went. We have other tales , so my experience is generally very good with Gendarmerie, once one of them, on another stop pleased with my mate to sell him his bike!
I got caught in my Audi A7 BiTurbo diesel recorded at 250 kph (155.1 mph) on the autoroute on a national holiday (Nov 1st) from Lille towards Calais, just after the last payage. My parents live in central France and I was on the way home from there. Trouble is, I had seen the cops there in the same spot on previous occasions and completely forgot..... Escorted off the autoroute by motorcyclist cops at the next stop and after mountains of paperwork I was taken by the cops to the local ATM and managed to pay the 750€ fine in cash and was treated well by the Gendarmes. I was on my own, and had all my paperwork, they took my driving license from me. I was instantly banned from driving for one month (had I been French they would have put me in the slammer). I then had to pay 300€ to the scammer flatbed truck driver to take my car to the EuroTunnel so that I could drive home. It was only 35km. They told me they'd just caught an Aussie doing 200kph and I was dismissive of such a poor attempt at the French Land Speed Record. They returned my driving license within a week and then 3 months later they sent me a reminder that I owed them 750€ for the fine. My son's girlfriend is a French translator and she composed a brief letter for me to send back with a copy of the receipt I received on the day of the offence and never heard from them again. Lessons learnt - either I think I should have really gone for it and not backed off and headed for the Belgian border which I reckon I could have gotten away with if I had accelerated up to about 180 mph or so, or I should have stuck to the speed limit in the first place. One day..... However, the conformist non-conformist in me doesn't like breaking the rules. Also, my job at the time required flying across Europe and meeting customers at big datacentres in the middle of nowhere. Not easy when you insist your colleague rents the car at the airport for those weeks without a driving license.... I would have been fired if my work knew that I was banned from driving in France. They didn't like driving bans of any kind.....
That is strange, when I received a fine for speeding in France (spring of 2020) it had a case number and a link where I could access the evidence. Either way I could see the car and the speed was stated there. iirc 105km/h at 90km/h limit,(near Eurotunnel) ...around 50Euros fine.
I have been in the UK for quite a while on and off over the past 2 years, on my French registered 939 Supersport. I ride with my girlfriend on her UK registered Monster 821. We parked in Dorchester and ended up with a council parking ticket on each bike despite both being in one parking bay. She paid hers, I tore mine up. We went to the bikers breakfast meet on the A303 on both bikes. On the way back she was leading on a dual carriageway part. I mentioned over the bike to bike intercom that there was a van on the other side that might be a speed camera. A week or so later she got a speeding ticket for 86 in a 70 limit, I got nothing. She went into Perigueux last month in her UK registered company car. She received an email from her work that she had a speeding fine to pay from France. We are about to register her bike in France so that she does not need to bother with MOT of tax on it.
I’ve got a story about being chased by the police in convoy through Belgium to the French border also in a convoy (think cannon ball run). But it isn’t for the internet
