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.

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.