French Road Info

[Cattwg]

Whilst browsing another forum (Motorhomefun) I came across a posting that mentioned the website given below.

It gives info on French roads and also links to other useful France orientated sites.

www.justlanded.com/english/France/Tools/Articles/Travel-Leisure/French-Roads2

The article posted below is off this site:

 

Breakdown Services

If you break down on a motorway, you must park your car on the hard shoulder ( bande d’arrêt d’urgence) and place an emergency triangle 30m (100ft) behind it. Free emergency telephones ( poste d’urgence) are mounted on orange posts every 2km (1.25mi) on motorways and you may walk along the hard shoulder to the nearest phone, indicated by arrows. Each telephone is numbered and directly connected to the motorway security centre (Centre de Sécurité). Say whether you’ve broken down ( tombé en panne) or have had an accident ( accidenté), and give the number of your telephone and the location of your car, i.e. before ( avant) or after ( après) the emergency telephone.

 

A breakdown truck ( dépanneur) or first-aid help ( service de secours) will be sent, as required. The standard charge for the recovery of a broken-down vehicle from a motorway is around €97 (€119.50 if it weighs over 1.8 tonnes), which applies whether the vehicle can be towed to a rest area for repair or needs to be taken to a garage or any other location designated by you (within reason!). A multi-language service is provided in English, German, Italian and Spanish on some motorways, e.g. the A7 between Lyon and Ma**eille.

 

Minor repairs of up to around half an hour are usually done on the spot. For anything more serious you will need to be towed to a garage. There are fixed charges for emergency repairs and towing, e.g. €65 for requesting a breakdown service and around €100 for repairing a vehicle on the spot (up to 30 minutes’ work) or towing it up to 5km (3mi) beyond the next motorway exit. Note that charges are increased by 50 per cent for breakdowns between 18.00 and 06.00 on weekdays and throughout the weekend and public holidays. If you’re unable to continue your journey, breakdown companies must provide free transport to take you and your passengers off the motorway and provide assistance in finding accommodation and alternative transport.

 

As I have said I took this info off another site so I take no credit (or blame for it :-S )

Cattwg :-)

[Patricia]

Some years ago I broke down in a service area near Orleans. Using my mobile I rang for help only to be asked what did I expect them to do? Two hours later I was still waiting and approached a service vehicle to ask if it always took this long. He told me that they do not answer mobile calls (of course they may do now, I don't know) and I should have used the public telephone in the service area. By the time the breakdown truck came it was too late to do anything so we were stuck in a hotel until the Monday morning before we could collect a hire car.