Geee246 Posted June 28, 2013 Author Share Posted June 28, 2013 Interesting about the bulbs and not being able to carry on your journey. That I didn't know. What about Sat Navs and speed camera alerts? I have a decent Garmin with camera alerts and it seems a shame to have to purchase a new one. Is this also an on the spot fine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retread24800 Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Sat Nags, if you update the software of your sat-nag the camera alerts will be changed to Safety alerts, These are quite legal and thus the question of spot fines will not occur. Should your Sat nag be so old that an update is no longer available (did they make sat nags running on DOS?) then it should be OK to use provided that you turn off the speed camera alerts on your control panel. And anyway provided you are keeping within the law there is no reason why the Gendarmerie would look. Any form of Speed camera detector is a definite No No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Not to be able to drive until a faulty bulb is replaced can be a problem with some vehicles, my Hymer included. To replace my dipped headlamp bulbs you either have to be a long arm contortionist or do a bit of dismantling, not an easy thing to do on the roadside I think. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Geee246 - 2013-06-28 5:06 PM Interesting about the bulbs and not being able to carry on your journey. That I didn't know. What about Sat Navs and speed camera alerts? I have a decent Garmin with camera alerts and it seems a shame to have to purchase a new one. Is this also an on the spot fine? On the French 'spare bulbs' issue, the AA website comments as follows: "...On some cars it is inadvisable or impossible for anyone other than a qualified technician to change a headlamp bulb unit e.g. high intensity discharge (HID) headlamps and carrying spares is not an option. However, it is recommended that spare bulbs are carried for any lights that may be easily and/or safely replaced by the owner/driver..." Regarding sat-navs, as your Garmin device has speed-camera alerts it's likely that a "Dangerous Zones" software revision can be carried out to make it fully compliant with current French law. A list of compatible Garmin devices can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/pl8vnaq Despite advice from authoritarian sources that merely deactivating a sat-nav's speed-camera alert system when driving in France fully complies with French law, it's debatable that this is so. French regulations seem to be clear that any in-vehicle equipment capable of accurately identifying the location of French speed-cameras is illegal whether or not that equipment's locating capability is activated or deactivated. The AA's advice is as follows: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/radar-detectors-in-france.html It would appear, however, that French police have no authority to check the speed-camera-locating capability of any GPS system (eg. sat-nav, phone) and, as far as I'm aware, nobody has been prosecuted for using such a system with accurate speed-camera locating software active. To fully 'France legalise' your Garmin sat-nav, you either need to download the "Dangerous Zones" update or delete your device's location data relating to French speed cameras. It's worth saying though that, despite following Garmin's advice on how to remove the France camera data, my Garmin device still managed to provide warnings of those cameras and Garmin gave me a free "Dangerous Zones" update as a result. Frankly, it's a daft and unpoliceable law, so (as Retread24800 says) deactivating your Garmin's alert option should be perfectly adequate 'protection' when driving in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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