......which tends to indicate that the French system is designed to collect cash rather than to deter speeding.

I have never understood how those cameras remain so "immaculate", being sited at ground level - in the UK they would be covered in graffiti including spray paint on the camera lens.

And I used to think of France as such a civilised place to ride :thumbup1: These days though, what with sky high fuel prices, unmarked cameras in every hedge and a whole bunch of here today, gone tomorrow, not quite certain the day after rules like breathalysers, stickers, first aid kits, glow in the dark jackets etc the "liberte" bit seems to be only a fond memory. Can only be a matter of time before the German "different tyre for every day of the week" regulation crosses over the border.

It seems to be making the ferry companies happy though - they're flogging just about every possible stay legal gadget you can think of at vastly inflated prices on the ships. They even have someone handing out "You must have this stuff in France" leaflets as you arrive in your loading lane at Dover.

Or that it's designed to deter speeding EVERYWHERE, not just the 100 yards either side of a speed camera?

Nah, definitely about le moola ;)

It is probably a good time to discuss this off topic subject: Bastille day and the French citizenry heading down to the coast with the attendant accident statistics.
In my riding/driving time in France, the cameras don't work to that end; all local drivers/riders in France know their patch and where the cameras are located (which is why I am amazed that they are in such good condition, being so vulnerable). So, they slow for them and then drive faster elsewhere to make up for the delay.
The same pyschological thing happens in the UK of course.

If the French authorities were so concerned about their driving accident statistics, which used to be much worse than those for the UK - are they any better nowadays? - then they might spend their money on average speed camera systems; by and large, they do achieve a reduction in speeds in the UK.

It is not just in France
 

Now there's a topic!
The UK is supposed to have a highly taxed road fuel system in place and yet the fuel costs just about anywhere in western Europe are not much different: sure, the prices vary by a few Euro cents and diesel is cheaper than petrol (which is the reverse of the UK and tells a different story from that told by the UK fuel refiners).

So, if a big chunk of our cash spent on UK fuel is going to the taxman where does the money spent in mainland Europe go?

Incidentally, there are some UK govn plans to tax foreign trucks running on UK roads to recover the costs of their wheel damage to the running surface.
But that's even further :offtopic:

Back to helmet stickers for what its worth, just done a 2 week tour of France, basically down west side, across south and back up east, never noticed a single motorcyclist with reflective stickers on their helmets, glad i also didn't bother now.

Another datum that the police don't care about stickers
 

Just to add a datum, my wife and I just got back from three weeks touring, mostly in France. Based on this thread, we decided to cut some sticker sets out of some red 3M reflective tape we had and carry it with us, hoping that applying them on the spot if questioned would be enough. In the event, the other vehicle with us had a high-speed shunt (no casualties) on the A61 in Languedoc-Roussillon, which meant that I got all up close and personal with the French police while wearing my motorcycle gear.

In the event, he didn't care about missing stickers. He didn't care about breathalysers or my high-viz tabard (though I have to say that, standing by the side of the A61, I was very glad to have it). He only cared that I'd taken photographs of the accident scene and had thus violated the _loi d'images_, that I understood that he could seize my camera and drag me in front of a court that very afternoon, and about making sure that his colleague supervised the deletion of every photo of the accident site that contained any part of a person.

An interesting development has come to light today, which is the direct result of a question to an MEP ( Member of the European Parliament), by a member of Bike Club France, who questioned the legality of the application of this French law concerning foregin visiting motorcyclists on French territory. The answer which has at last come back from the European commission refutes the original answers given by both the FFMC ( Federation Francaise de Motards en Colere) and the Ministry of the Interior legal advisor. Here is the relevant section of the text:-

Regulation No 22 leaves the mandating of conspicuity marks to the discretion of individual Contracting Parties, allowing them to prohibit the use of helmets not meeting the conspicuity requirements. However, it is the Commission’s understanding that the obligation contained in the French legislation cannot apply retroactively to helmets already in use. As a consequence, foreign motorcycle riders carrying a helmet not containing these reflective markings cannot be obliged to bring their helmets in conformity retroactively. Only new helmet types placed on the French market must comply with the new requirements and bear this reflective material.

Hey Ho!