Welcome to the first of my rather indulgent on-holiday blogs. Thanks for your comments, which I´ve only got round to reading, having just located an internet cafe.
Well, I had hoped that a break would give me an opportunity to stop moaning about things for a few weeks. But no. Everything was honky-dory, not even five minutes into the second leg of the trip (Saintes to Gran Alacant). Bowling along a near empty French motorway and - ooh la la la - our friends the Gendarmes emerge from a sneaky hiding place at the side of the motorway and take off in pursuit of a fleeing Gombeen Man.
Well, actually I wasn´t fleeing at this point, having nearly polevaulted the car ass-over-tit (in the mechanical sense) to scrub off some illegal speed. In fact, I was well below the limit as my rear-view mirror was filled with the unwelcome sight of the rozzers' flashing blue lights. And I thought it was only our coppers who stooped to such underhand tactics! Travel broadens the mind, as they say.
163 (kmh, not mph) in a 130 kmh zone. Anyway, the upshot is that the Gombeen Man holiday wallet was 90 Euro lighter after the unwelcome encounter. Worse still, there was still over a 1,000 kilometres to our destination!
Anyway, made it in the end... just a bit later than planned.
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2 comments:
Count yourself lucky GM - on leaving Ireland in summer of 2004 my mammy insisted that i take a brace of crisp new fifty euro notes from her - "for a meal out in France" Four days later in Dordogne-shire it had transformed itself into a lonely ten euro, handed back to me by the same mob that got you. they were sneakier then. One hid behind a bush half way down a hill and radioed my details to two others with motorbikes hidden up a laneway a klm further alone and well out of sight of any motorists who could have warned me. They got the message and strolled down to the road to prepare my welcome. i was ushered up the laneway to join other equally red faced and leaner walleted crims. I also got a lecture (in french) . Why count yourself lucky GM? Well the fine hasn't gone up. Roulez Doucement et bonne route
High speed Pony Boy
That IS bad. In fairness, I think most French drivers are good about warning their fellow motorists about "les flics", but if they are as sneaky as the ones that got you, what chance have you got? Likewise, the ones that got me would have been out of view of the cars on the other carriageway. But my experience was not as bad as yours PB.
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