French breathalyzer law
 

For anybody worried about this law requiring a breathalyzer in every motor vehicle starting July 1st, they said on the news tonight that the police will only issue warnings until November 1st.

Kudos to France! Let's hope the rest of the world follows...

Chapla- why? No one has to use them. They don't mean people won't drink and drive. You just have to have a couple of them in your car so you won't get a fine.
Now if they were to make alcohol locks mandatory, so the car won't start until you prove you are sober, that would maybe be worth cheering about. But that won't happen unless all the EU agrees to it, which they won't.

I ordered my breathalysers online a few weeks ago, and have them in the car. Just as well as they are pretty much unobtainable here at the moment and people are beginning to worry before their holidays in a couple of weeks.

Having breathalyzers on hand at clubs and night bars, particularly in the provinces where people MUST drive to go to such places, has been obligatory for several years already.

Even those breathe in brethalyzers don't work. The sister of a friend of mine was a mutiple and serious drunk driver - although than god she never hurt anyone but herself (and totaled 3 cars). She had to have one of those installed as a condition of getting her license back. She would still drink - and just find someone nearby who hadn't and paid them to breathe in it for her. (And yes, she went on to total another car - and have her license pulled again.)

I tried to find some of these when I was in Paris in March. My husband wanted to try them out. I found one pharmacy that had two of them but they couldn't order any more and none of their associated stores had any. Must have been a run on them when the law came out.

What is the French (German, Dutch...) for breathalyzer? Just in case I have to buy one one day.

Lavandula

It's <i>ethylotest</i> (ett-eel-o-test) or <i>alcootest</i> (al-co-test) in French.

The only ones that will be legal in France are the ones with the "NF" logo on them if the police decide to nitpick. (That probably means that any other European sort would be accepted, but if the package is all written in Chinese, probably not!)

"The only ones that will be legal in France are the ones with the "NF" logo on them if the police decide to nitpick."

The police knows very well that breathalysers are not entirely reliable whether they have the NF logo or not. When in serious doubt they'll take you to the police station and use their own electronic breathalyzer.

Just bumping this since PalenQ seems to have been taking a nap.

My French colleagues in the part of Alsace near us say it's been impossible to get one -- nobody has them in stock. They have ordered theirs and will carry the slip showing their order in the meantime.

I wonder if my rental car will have one when I pick it up in September. Hopefully the breathalyzer will be easier to figure out than putting the car in reverse.

((H))

can't they just tell how red the ubiquitously large French proboscises are?

Well, there is no shortage of them in Paris.

Good info to bring back up as Nov 1 approaches and enforcement presumably will start in earnest?

any updates kerouac or is it a go?

Call your reliable sources, Pal

It's not in the news now, but I'm sure it will be by the end of the month. Unfortunately I have no car rental plans for this month, because I would like to see if the cars are now equipped or not.

Frankly, I don't think the fine for non compliance is dissuasive enough -- 11€ is practically nothing. I think that should have used the next level of fine: 35€.

The rental car we picked up in Périgueux on August 30 did not have them, and when we inquired, they waved a hand and said it's not necessary until November. We also went to a tabac in Les Eyzies to buy them, and got the same response: We don't have them and you don't need them until November anyway.

Still not available in the Perigord - or at least not in our Leclerc. Promising to have them by November though

As an aside, last week I dropped my husband at the airport in Toulouse at 6 a.m., got to the autoroute at 6.25, to find that ALL drivers were being breathalysed. They channelled all the cars into one lane, and checked everyone. Since we had been in bed at 9, knowing we had to get up by 5, and I'd had one glass of wine with dinner, no problem. (First time in my life though that I had to 'souffler'

Living in the country, and being somewhat past nightclub age, I discovered only later that clubs here (in the country that is) close at 5, but in the city they are open until 6, so obviously the police were looking out for those who had just left, on their way to the 'after' or early breakfast.

Oh, I've been checked twice so far, with a zero reading both times (once in the Somme, once on rue du Louvre in Paris).

My Dia is still selling the breathalyzers for 2 euros. I don't know if anybody is buying them.

My neighbor and I were pulled over on our way to market in Le Bugue at least five years ago and made to souffler. We both passed the test just fine, but it was a bit unnerving.

Call your reliable sources, Pal>

well yeh that's why I am asking kerouac, a local who has always proven to be accurate.

"My Dia is still selling the breathalyzers for 2 euros"

€1 at my pharmacy.

Yes, the price should be 1€ -- I completely agree. But in July there were some people willing to pay 10€ online before even arriving in France.

I have two in my car. I ordered them online for €2 for the two. I decided to get them early in case they became hard to find. As a visitor in a Dutch car I can imagine I would be a popular target for a gendarme looking to boost their numbers.

I have no problem with doing an official breathalyser test. This just seems like a money making action, by the government and the approved manufacturer, particularly aimed at other Europeans visiting France.

"This just seems like a money making action, by the government and the approved manufacturer, particularly aimed at other Europeans visiting France."

There are 38 million cars in France. I doubt the government counts on foreign tourists more than on French citizens. When reflecting jackets became compulsory in Spain long before France, we didn't accuse the Spanish government !

As a visitor in a Dutch car I can imagine I would be a popular target for a gendarme looking to boost their numbers>

yes yes indeedy - I often stay in Orleans right near a Douaniers sp?) or Customs office, which is on a very busy main road - the N 20 - and they have road checks and I have seen twice at least cars with NL plates not only being pulled over but drug dogs sniffing all around. Leave your pot at home!

If you're coming from the UK you can pick them up for a couple of quid each on the ferry.

They are still nowhere to be found in the Val de Marne. There are only 2 manufacturers, one French and one South-African. I was once at a pharmacy and heard people buy expensive breathalizers after a long conversation with the pharmacist explaining they weren't from one of the two officially approved manufacturers but that it wouldn't be a problem. I still have my two expired ones from long before a law was even discussed.

I really can only imagine any of the personal devices ever being used on a Saturday night leaving a provincial disco -- and only if an argument breaks out among the people sharing the car. "You're in no condition to drive!" "Yes, I am!" etc. And in such a car, they would probably need to have 3 or 4 of them on hand to settle the discussion.

In every other car on the road, the devices will just sit in the glove box for years to show to the gendarmerie if necessary.

Exact.

I have friends in the States who use them regularly when they attend a wine tasting. It's a question of habit.

Friend got me some on a ferry from UK to France. He said they are impossible to find in France.
Now I am "safe"when I go from Spain to NL!
The law and fines is about to become compulsory in a few weeks.

Kerouac : all discos (provincial or not) are legally obliged to have an electronic breathalyzer on the premises. No need to use your own.

Of course not, but the argument starts when they stagger to the car, not while they are still inside.

The fines are postponed till March 2013 because of the difficulty finding breathalizers: http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/pas...12-2215865.php
I looked again this weekend and no stores near me had them. Kerouac, are those in your local Dia the approved type?

Yes, I recognized the box on the morning news announcing the delay.

We were in France in April and May and had hoped to bring home some test kits as souvenirs for sons and son-in- law but did not see any. [ We are from Australia and have .05 limit.]

We have random breath testing here in Australia. On our last two trips to France we have leased a car and therefore have the distinctive red numberplate, so are easily identifiable as overseas tourists. Both trips we have come across police stopping cars and both times have been waved on. On our last trip, police were testing in the Aude region. All other cars were stopped and we were waved on. DH was a bit disappointed!!So perhaps the theory I have seen mentioned on forums that it is all about getting those foreign tourists is not the case??

I don't understand why there seems to be this feeling that this measure is 'all about getting those foreign tourists' It's applicable to EVERYONE driving in France, of whom tourists are a small part.

And it doesn't really have any connection to the ongoing and ever increasing crackdown on drinking and driving, where the police stop you and get you to blow into THEIR device. Except of course as one more measure to try to cut down traffic accidents and deaths (When we took our driving test in France in 1994, there were 9 000 people killed per year. Now it's under 5 000.)

Whether the fact of having two breathalyser tests in your car will have any effect is another question.