Why not be honest and pay the fine?

You did the crime, pay the fine.

It amazes me how many posters want others to support their bad behavior.

Yes, you should pay the ticket. You want to pay for an overseas fare two years from now and not be allowed into the country? Databases are pretty impressive these days.

As you can tell from the ticket, the cost goes up with time. I suspect the gendarmes have it organized with computers to put you on a black list so that next time you rent in France, you won't be able to rent in France.
I got one a month ago, paid my €45, done. Cheaper there than here.
If you don't pay, I suspect you can kiss your extended stay goodbye.

StCirq...good advice and I agree

joannyc...ouch! line 2 agree, line 3 you are making assumptions that are not well founded...I ask no one to support my violating speed restrictions. I suggest you travel I-10 west from Baton Rouge to Texas and see what happens with some of the local police in our country, see 60 Minutes report. It makes me wonder about France, especially as everything is generated electronically. By the way, I am a former resident of Baton Rouge and I do not need a 60 Minutes report to know what used to go on to generate revenue for small towns. Why should France be different?

tomboy...thanks, I will pay the fine.

Oh, come on. You would have never posted this if you weren't looking for others to support you in not paying the fine. Just read your own post.

<<By the way, I am a former resident of Baton Rouge and I do not need a 60 Minutes report to know what used to go on to generate revenue for small towns. Why should France be different?>>

If you're implying that the French system is corrupt, as I assume the Baton Rouge system is in your opinion, that's just nonsense. They caught you, legally, going over the speed limit. Legitimately. It has nothing to do with small towns or anything else. It's now highly regulated and technologically implemented in France. You sped. Pay up and stop complaining about corruption.Probably true in Baton Rouge. Not likely in France.

You got a ticket because they got a picture, the picture is taken automatically by a machine, when you speed by too fast, so really how can that be corrupted, its not some redneck cop behind a billboard pulling over those with non local plates.. really, nice to know how corrupt it is where you live though.

And if the fine is 45 euros I would be thrilled ,, knowing that fines for speeding where I live START at 138 dollars, and for "excessive speeding" start at 368 dollars,, France seems to let you off easy.

you should find there is a web page to help you pay. At least one other fodorite had techie issues with the page. If this happens you may need to use a different PC or surf this site to see what they did.

I paid my fine for speeding on the Autoroute this past June.

I was caught speeding twice in '11. Europcar billed me for providing "who the driver was & address" to the police - that's how I know I was "caught". But I was never contacted by the police and therefore had no info about how to pay my fine or how much money it was. Obviously, the French police have a better system now for contacting violators and paying fines on-line. I was caught by radar.

Pay it - like 100% of the other people advised.

Stu Dudley

I've been back for almost three weeks and check the mail each day. How long does it take for them to usually send you a ticket (s)? Having no idea how many traffic laws I violated, I might think about stating a second job.