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Never again......

 

1st half of the southbound was OK, we had a kip at a services, woke up to find half of France rammed in there around us, so we sneaked out, at the next service (below Lyons) the other half of France were queued up, 1st for tickets and later at pay booths, christ Ive seen chaos before but 6 booths for 5000 cars?...

 

all wanted to pay cash (do they get it free?), southbound we must have lost 2 hours to the tolls and 30 minutes to roadworks, coming back EVERY toll was clogged, eventually i got stuck in a "Carte" (card) lane and thought "sod it" and went thru paying by visa, so why were all the French avoiding the carte/Card tolls?

 

spoke to guy on the return ferry, he had been in convoy southbound with another, they split up, he avoided the tolls, did a few more miles and got there quicker!

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Never again......

 

1st half of the southbound was OK, we had a kip at a services, woke up to find half of France rammed in there around us, so we sneaked out, at the next service (below Lyons) the other half of France were queued up, 1st for tickets and later at pay booths, christ Ive seen chaos before but 6 booths for 5000 cars?...

 

all wanted to pay cash (do they get it free?), southbound we must have lost 2 hours to the tolls and 30 minutes to roadworks, coming back EVERY toll was clogged, eventually i got stuck in a "Carte" (card) lane and thought "sod it" and went thru paying by visa, so why were all the French avoiding the carte/Card tolls?

 

spoke to guy on the return ferry, he had been in convoy southbound with another, they split up, he avoided the tolls, did a few more miles and got there quicker!

 

Was there a seperate "tag" lane? - usually in the outside lane some with a 30kmh spped limit (drive at the barrier at up to that speed and keep going- with a working tag that is!)

 

The other way to try and avoid the queues is to keep an eye on the flash points with satnav traffic and come off a couple of junctions beore e.g. Going North on A10 come off at Orléans south of Paris and fall back to the "A" roads (20) until clear of trouble

 

If you drive through France on the last Saturday in August - then preper to sit in lots of traffic

Edited by bigjohn
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2) Adjust headlights for a flat beam

Presumably as yours is a 2015 its the last of the Superb II facelift  models - if so then do the following:-

Remove the pastic cap from the headlight unit (nearest the outside of the car - unlike earlier versions there are only two caps

On each side there is a tiny lever that is nearly impossibly to reach just to the front side of the headlight bulb reflector (Near front lens and on the front wing side of the reflector)

After some research my dealer pointed them out but couldn't reach them - After scratching my head for a while I had a bit of a eureka moment - I used a small long screwdriver simply guided using an inspection camera (Bought a while ago for a plumbing job from Aldi) which has an lcd display, camera on a flexible shaft and an led light - -took 30secs a side once I'd sussed it. I now have a very flat headlight beam that you could calibrate a  setsquare with!

 

Rather than go through all this faff can't you just activate 'tourist mode' in the Maxidot options or have I misunderstood what this option does?

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.......... they should take the M6 toll as a business model

That'll be:

 

Spend £900,000,000 on a 27 mile stretch of road.

Set the charges so high (£11) the the target HGV drivers rarely use it.

Whilst the M6 carries about 150,000 vehicles per day, the M6T struggle to hit 40,000 per day.

Operating losses of approx. £45,000,000

 

Great business model there.

 

To quote the Dragons "I'm out"

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That'll be:

 

Spend £900,000,000 on a 27 mile stretch of road.

Set the charges so high (£11) the the target HGV drivers rarely use it.

Whilst the M6 carries about 150,000 vehicles per day, the M6T struggle to hit 40,000 per day.

Operating losses of approx. £45,000,000

 

Great business model there.

 

To quote the Dragons "I'm out"

 

 

 

Firstly, the in/out is quick, no tickets to collect on the "in"

 

Second HGV's DO use it a lot, Tesco have a distribution centre just up the A38 at fradley. I assume fleet tags are at a discount

 

the French toll roads are antiquated, collect a ticket was half the problem, paying cash was the other half, on the M6 toll with no ticket to collect and pay by card I could whizz thru, with my tag (once I got one) it eliminated cannock from my run home, and it was a business expense as i guess it could be for many of the BMW/Merc/Audi owners on the M6 Toll 

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Same here, the orange box seats chaffe a bit dont they

 

my O/S beam bender removed itself before we go on the ferry outbound.....oh sucks....never mind

 

Was amazed mine came with stop start - was grateful it came with a starter motor :notme:

Edited by bigjohn
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Using the autoroute de soleil at this time of year is always a nightmare, using the route nationals or D roads is a better option, it takes a little longer (maybe) but so much more relaxing, The A7 passes near us and its always solid from Lyon to Montelimar and gone!Half or the northern population of Europe is heading south. This week no problems cos everyone is going back to work next week

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We're now going over to Europe next month.

 

We are spending minimal time in France though. Over to Dunkirk then driving straight across to Holland and Germany! lol

 

We were going to do the P&O ferry route from Hull to Rotterdam but it's gone VERY expensive over the last few years. It was going to cost us over £400!!!

 

The Dover to Dunkirk ferry is £90 plus then 2 tanks of fuel makes it approx. £210 so literally half the cost.

 

Oh and I don't have to mess with those horrible beam benders as my lights are just permanently adjusted for euro driving.

 

Phil

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We're now going over to Europe next month.

 

We are spending minimal time in France though. Over to Dunkirk then driving straight across to Holland and Germany! lol

 

We were going to do the P&O ferry route from Hull to Rotterdam but it's gone VERY expensive over the last few years. It was going to cost us over £400!!!

 

The Dover to Dunkirk ferry is £90 plus then 2 tanks of fuel makes it approx. £210 so literally half the cost.

 

Oh and I don't have to mess with those horrible beam benders as my lights are just permanently adjusted for euro driving.

 

Phil

I am with you on this Phil.......off next month to watch DTM at Oschersleben. Ferry to Dunkirk for a massive £67 return. To date, this way of getting into Germany has always been hassle free.

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Sadly anytime around the 15th August (a week either side) is usually chaos heading down south. Having the automated telepeage/tag device is brilliant and helps massively in avoiding the queues. It costs about £20 for the unit and then you are only charged when you use it. There are several different providers, some available to French residents only, others to anyone with a bank account. We used to average around £60 tolls on a return trip to Perpignan from the UK.

Our actual brick and mortar' home is in Toulouse and wife's family are in Perpignan. We drive down and back around five times a year (and have done so for around 25 years - used to be from the UK but now from Switzerland which knocks 6 hours off our trip) and every time we tend to have a reasonably fuss free trip once on the French roads. Most of our hold ups used to be on the M20/M25/M3/M40 (take your pick) but I accept that the autoroutes around Narbonne going south can be a nightmare in August. As has already been suggested, the A roads can be great...longer but beautiful.

Out of interest the breatherlizer things are not mandatory. I have a couple in the car just in case a Gendarme gets iffy but legislation never saw it through. The safety vests are though - one per passenger and if you have kids a child size one. Aldi used to do a family pack for a fiver (four vests). I also take 1st aid kit, two triangles (mandatory in Spain and Swiss) and a fire extinguisher.

Sorry to read you had a bit of a nightmare though....it can upset what is otherwise a nice place to drive around most of the time :)

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the French toll roads are antiquated, collect a ticket was half the problem, paying cash was the other half, on the M6 toll with no ticket to collect and pay by card I could whizz thru, with my tag (once I got one)

 

 

Sorry but the only antiquated system was the way you paid for the tolls, get a tag and it would be as easy as the M6 Toll tag you have.

 

Yes the Péage’s can get very busy in the summer / winter holidays, but so do the UK toll free motorways when everyone decides to go away at the same time.

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yeah but they can drive here for free, whilst milking visitors over there, Blair was going to introduce a Euro-disc at ports for visiting HGV's but never did so ours pay £2000 UK road tax AND tolls over there, they come here drive for free on Euro diesel at 90p/ltr ...

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1/ UK operaters do not pay £2K PA most 44T trucks pay ‘just’ £1,350 PA with the dirtiest (lower Euro rated) trucks paying an extra £500 on top.

2/ Foreign registered trucks have been paying a levy to use our roads from April 2014, this varies from £10 a day unto £1K PA

3/ As a business user then you yourself should be paying less than 90p per ltr for diesel at the moment.

 

Yes it has been a long time coming but the playing field has been levelled slightly.

 

In France there is always a free route that runs almost alongside the Autoroutes... so you pay for the speed and convenience of missing out the town and villages... just like the M6 Toll.

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Id like to see Euro trucks tanks dipped at port of entry and UK road duty applied to the 1000ltrs or more of Euro-derv being imported to further level that field and reduce the attraction of Empty Euro trucks being loaded with UK loads, ive only ever seen tanks dipped once, at Le perthus where the French were dipping English trucks, all fines and charges being on the spot of course

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Sorry but the only antiquated system was the way you paid for the tolls, get a tag and it would be as easy as the M6 Toll tag you have.

 

Yes the Péage’s can get very busy in the summer / winter holidays, but so do the UK toll free motorways when everyone decides to go away at the same time.

 

 

So how come the French were all massed to pay cash at the booths?

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Perhaps they could bring in the new the new APNR tolls like we have at Dartford, The congestion toll starts at 6am and finishes at 10pm sign up and pay cheapest amount to be collected from bank account £10.00 and use it up as you go through, the discount is good with the account about 60% of the daily charge, with the overseeing company chasing those that have not paid ( they are even trying to contra-charge the foreign vehicles), the latest rough figures on vehicles not paying is 43% mostly freight , the figures they put forward before they started the new booth less toll (APNR) was 15% which they said they could live with. We are all too compliant and our Government to afraid to upset the freight hauliers. 

I thought most people new that all of France goes south in August.

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If travelling via the tunnel and you are directed to the upper deck on the train, be very careful of the metal kerb on the nearside. As you drive up the ramp, you lose sight of the front of the car and it's really easy to catch the front wheel with possible damage to the wheel and tyre. If you do, then report it to a member of staff as I think you have recourse. I have twice caught the kerb and caused minor damage on both occasions!

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the new APNR tolls like we have at Dartford

 

And a right stupid setup that is.  I live in France, and had no idea that this was now in force.  First I saw was a sign that I had no chance to read (got the details days later), never mind for anyone who is not a native English speaker/reader.

Plus I was going on holiday. So even if I wanted to pay I couldn't get an internet connection for a few days.

 

So they can chase me for it.  So far (weeks later) no contact.  And as far as I'm concerned, I drove over an open road with no visible warnings and really no alternative once on the M25, so "un-solicited goods" or un reasonable payment terms etc.

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