Snow chains - anyone know legality in France?

[Richard W]

Hi Folks,

Anyone know about the legal requirement for carrying/using snow chains in France?

AFAIK the headlamp thingys and GB stickers are only required by law if your staying over 30 days...... (but you do have to carry a spare bulb kit)

I'm off skiing in March and don't want to be caught out!

Also any tips on a route to Geneva would be good?

Thanks

 

[Ian B Walker]

Drop Motard a PM, he should be able to assist you on this. (if he isnt elbows deep in his engine)

Ian

 

[Richard W]

Thanks Ian, I'll do that.

R

 

[Steve_Perry]

I thought spare bulbs or a kit were required for driving in France.

As for a route to Geneva.. after the recent Germany trip, I'd have to say invest in SatNav if you can. I will as soon as I can afford it

S.

 

[Vergnugungspark]

Originally posted by Richard W
Hi Folks,

Anyone know about the legal requirement for carrying/using snow chains in France? Also any tips on a route to Geneva would be good?

SNOW-CHAINS:-
They are a legal requirement in areas where it is signed they are compulsory - which typically means roads in the Ski areas.

On saying that, you may or may not get checked / stopped.

We've been ski-ing for the last 10 years to France and Switzerland and never been stopped or needed them - but I've always had AWD/4WD road cars. This is no excuse if you are stopped though !

If you are taking a BMW or Golf, I'd DEFINITELY TAKE a set - buy OR hire them from Snowchains/Roofbox.co.uk - who are very good.

ROUTE TO GENEVA
We normally go Reims>Troyes>Dijon>Macon then across on A40
BUT! - it is windier,shorter but quicker if you branch off at Dijon and pick up the road to Nyon and over the mountain from the other side of Geneva/Lac Leman. We quite often go home that way as the other exit roads are often clogged. You would be very unlucky if the Swiss clobbered you for a motorway sticker to go back that way, but its not the end of the world in tems of £££/e!

My two other personal tips are :-
1) Be really careful if driving to the ski lifts first thing in the morning - the roads can be unexpectedly icy.
2) Assume that you have zero brakes whatsoever if it is snowy or icy and you have standard tyres. You will know what I mean...
Not dangerous unless you try and drive normally, just be very very aware of the braking side.
3) Don't speed going home in Northern France. They've got tougher recently as you probably know, but its very tempting.
We got caught 4 years ago at Bethune at 99mph which was only a £60 fine, but if we'd been doing the 120-140 cruise of the last hour before, we would now be in jail.

That's all the doom and gloom and things just to be aware of - this is the first year we probably won't ski, so enjoy!

Which resort are you going to ?

 

[Richard W]

Thanks for that guidance, I haven't driven on a skiing holiday for nearly 15 years, funnily enough the last car I took was my fathers 230TE..... so yes I know exactly what you mean by no brakes

I'm going to stick to the main routes I think and the BMW has cruise so I reckon if I stick it at 95 then even if I do get caught it won't be the end of the world!

I'm going to La Clusaz, a resort which is not well known to the 'in crowd' but has an excellent reputation for families - it'll be my daughters first time, she's 3 1/2 - it's close enough to Chamonix to have some superb skiing on the doorstep if there's problems in the resort.

Bob (Motard) is scouting for some local pricing on the chains, as other research has suggested I buy them in the hypermarkets on the edge of the mountains.

R

 

[Motard]

I would put the cruise on just under 90mph which keeps you under the legal limit (130kph) + 20kph after which the penalties head almost vertically. Vergnugungspark gives good advice and as he said they are going through a tougher phase in northern France. Don't forget the speed limit on the autoroute drops by 20kph in rain/snow.
France is receiving lots of flack from Brussels about the carnage on the roads.....fatalities double that of UK and one of the most dangerous places in the world to drive so be careful.
Hypermarkets are the best place to buy chains I am told but I will check the prices for you anyway.

Bob

 

[GrahamC230K]

The road I came back on through France, having come through Luxemburg and Belgium was so rough, speeding wasn't an issue. I thought my fillings were going to come out. Those in 10 year old hatches coming past in the left lane indicator flashing must have been used to it.

Might the perhaps easier fitting genuine BMW chains be worth it in the long run comapred to just the cheapest you can get from the "hypermarket"?

Bulb kits and headlight masks are so cheap, don't think twice, just take them. Having seen the difference between the genuine MB ones I got a nd the Halfords ones Steve P and Sym wnet for - I would say go original. I am sure BMW are the same.

 

[Vergnugungspark]

Originally posted by Richard W
Thanks for that guidance, Bob (Motard) is scouting for some local pricing on the chains, as other research has suggested I buy them in the hypermarkets on the edge of the mountains.

R

It depends how often you think you will be going ski-ing, but do remember that Snowchains.co.uk can hire you the top spec ultra-slim easiest fit (!) chains, whereas a lot of what you can by at the supermarkets (not all) are at the cheaper end of the market.

If you are going to go for say the next 3 years and keep your car then it would be worth buying, but if you will change cars, remember that different tyre/wheel size can mean different chains.

Not been to La Clusaz - only past it, but I agree with your thinking. We've often stayed in Chatel in the Portes de Soleil region because its cheaper but still a 'working village' and you can link into 650kms of runs very easily. The beauty of taking your car is clearly that you can drive around a bit if snow isn't as good in March.

 

[sym]

Originally posted by GrahamC230K
Having seen the difference between the genuine MB ones I got a nd the Halfords ones Steve P and Sym wnet for - I would say go original. I am sure BMW are the same.

Indeed ! Never even thought of trying the stealer for the headlamp convertors. There must be a BMW equivalent.

The halfords ones are poorly fitting and leave a horrible sticky residue on the headlight when removed . . . yuck ! AVOID !!

S.

 

[Steve_Perry]

I agree with G. and sym, the worst aspect of the Halfords headlight masks are their thickness, easily 3mm thick if not more. Whilst in Europe the guys would see me switch my lights off before activating the wash wipe because I was weary of damage to my headlamp wash-wipe system. Whereas the masks that G. got were a thin film that sat flush on the glass surface.

Sym yup that was a sticky mess it left behind, luckily switch cleaner solvent removed it in seconds.

S.

 

[Richard W]

Thanks for the warnings, especially about Halfords

I have a BMW dealer within walking distance, so I'll try them for the headlight masks.

Cheers guys:bannana:

 

[Richard W]

Sorry - duplicated post

 

[Kinky]

need a house sitter?

 

[Richard W]

Thanks for the offer:bannana:

Our neighbours have keys, so no problems there. They're very good keeping an eye on the plants and watering the post!

R

 

[mercedes lover]

I drive 4 times a year in france and I have seen in the last 8 months a serious clamp down on speeding so much so that the people I know that live there all warned me to slow down. Being the person I am didn't listen. I went past a police car at 107mph and they started plashing me, was crapping it but they didn't bother to stop me. But I know someone who got stopped at 105 mph they got 90euros fine but you get no points so is good. But my advice to anyone is be careful

 

[Motard]

Someone is telling porkies to you. You will get that kind of fine up to 150kph (93.75mph), over that, which would be more than 20kph over the limit, the fines are considerably higher.

Bob

 

[mercedes lover]

Depends very much on who catches you as the police very through france, I know alot of people who live in france and 1 was caught on 110kmp limit at 160kmp he's been baned 6 months, but if your caught and your not french they dont ban you. Just fine you and the guy wasn,t telling porkies, because it was in the paper about people who were stopped in france some over 100mph got fines of over 100pounds some got 60pound so varies alot.

 

[mercedes lover]

Motard are you a french police man?

 

[Motard]

No I am not a policeman but I do live in France and have done for the past 13 years. I really enjoy learning about the country I live in from the experiences of occasional tourists and hearsay from their acquaintances, please keep it up.