French Strikes and Blockades 17th Nov

Macron has said that they need the fuel tax to fund new technology for alternative fuels. This is like asking someone to pay for their own execution. No government has yet come up with a viable alternative so their answer is to tax motorists off the roads.

Add to that the lowering of the speed limit from 90kph to 80kph and the new, more stringent Controle-Techniques that are designed to remove old vehicles from the roads and the Crit' Air which has a similar aim and you can or should be able to understand the anger of the poorer people living predominantly in rural areas who feel victimised by these policies.

Already Crit' Air is being quietly shelved and many large chains who run the CT checks are diluting their rules such as the killer for old vehicles; the failure for any leakage other than water.

People will only be pushed so far and then they will push back.
 
yodeli said:
LOL .... You will have to give me the English version as Google has obviously misunderstood it. It really is puzzling in French as it is !!!!!
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What goes up a flue down and down a flue down but won’t go down a flue up or up a flue up ?

Is it just as puzzling in English?

Sorry for hijacking your thread San, but it’s Helen @scousebird ‘s fault! Hope you’re on the move now xx
 
yodeli said:
Don't know where you are now, but do avoid Bordeaux and its surroundings ring roads etc
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We'll be going around Bordeaux on Sunday... hopefully :(

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Scousegirl said, The aire at Pont-de-L'Arche is one of our favourites,

Ours too, regular stop when heading south as only 150 miles from Calais,few good cafes and shops only 2 mins away.
 
cliffandger said:
Sorry for hijacking your thread San, but it’s Helen @scousebird ‘s fault! Hope you’re on the move now xx
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No problem Ger.

We are making good progress as the moment, but getting close to La Mans so expecting problems soon. It has been a bit of a white knuckle ride around some narrow country lanes though.
 
I'm afraid I have to warn you all! Now they want to interfere with petrol supplying. Blocking is meant to last all week with another big day on the 24th!
Grrrr I was meant to go to Valence to visit son DIL and grand daughter with Christmas Presents.... Gutted!

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cliffandger said:
What goes up a flue down and down a flue down but won’t go down a flue up or up a flue up ?

Is it just as puzzling in English?

Sorry for hijacking your thread San, but it’s Helen @scousebird ‘s fault! Hope you’re on the move now xx
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That's right, blame me :eek:
 
We came across the jaune jacket lot on the roundabout in Lorient yesterday, there was a strong police presence but they had managed to block the way by the simple expedient of crossing the zebra crossing all the time.

We were patient and good tempered ,they came over and we wound the windows down and they asked us to blow the horn. We obliged and we had some fun explaining why our steering wheel was on the wrong side.

It was all good humoured and we were on our way 5 minutes later. Pas de probleme.
 
Armytwowheels said:
Are they blocking the toll roads as well?
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Yes, the main roads seem to be the target.
After an hour on the road north of Rennes,we followed some free thinking van drivers up a slip road into an industrial estate, and cruised the wee narrow roads as far as Blain.
Looks like the small roads are the way to make "southing".
They haven't gone away you know.
Pub gossip here confirms yodellis post, they intend to try and target the fuel deliverys.
I support the strike -- I just want to be somewhere a bit warmer!

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Been out on Mole Patrol today and stuck mainly to the side roads where there were no problems. But on getting to the N141 where it is single carriageway there was a line of stationary HGVs 4km long in the opposite carriageway. And the local news channel claims that Paris was gridlocked today.
 
CRS seem to be starting to deploy in places - teargas has apparently been used on the gilet jaunes at the A20 exit north of Montauban. I can foresee a general 'sense of humour failure' by the authorities before too long. M. Macron has said he'll have something to say in due course....
 
sandra should have used sids raf contacts to parachute you in resistances style, no end of inuendos
 
Came up from Donostia today, horrendous queues of lorries on nearsude lanes but was able to drive quite freely on outer lane. Queues were due to blockade at first French peage going north. A dozen protesters at the peace, gendarmerie looking on nonchalantly as I was waved down. I had taken the precaution of laying out a high viz jacket on the dashboard which clearly helped. A very voluble French lady (rather ‘butch’!) motioned for my wife to open the window, LHD, and shouted to remove the toll tag so that we were not charged at the gate. Barrier was up anyway with red light on, drive through no problem.

Arrived at the next one, gilet June definitely worked, thumbs up and asked to blow my horn which I did. Barrier open again!!

So, if you are driving through France at the moment get the high vis jacket on your dashboard.
 
I just drove to our local town to get some GPL for my newly fitted Gasit system. Got stopped 3 times with my yellow vest on the dashboard. Complied with all the horn honking, shook hands and chatted to everyone who stopped me. Told them I wanted to go into the town but all roads in we’re blocked and they weren’t letting anyone through.
On the third stop, I again explained I needed to go into the town, one of the protestors gave me directions to get into the town avoiding any road blocks.
Sorted.
We have to go to another town tomorrow to pick up a new car, will try and take all the backroads and avoid any roundabouts!

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Now got to Calais and 3 lanes of motorway choked solid both ways.

3.5 Kms from Cite d’Europe!
 
Went from Noirmouter to Fouteres no trouble except entering the town.
2 sets of rounderbouts being "looked after" they were holing one lane and letting the other through alternately only a short delay. Not sure of what impact they are now making.
Tomorrow colder and sleet so expect less interest.
Making my way back to tunnel stopping at at gace tomorrow.
 
Well done all those travelling through France today.

We have had a shit day, which started well but by the last road block we were fed up, taking it out on each other, redirected so many times, we didn't know if we were going North, South, East or West. Am so hissed off with lovely France, believe me I love France, I just want to get out as soon as possible.
 
Armytwowheels said:
Well done all those travelling through France today.

We have had a shit day, which started well but by the last road block we were fed up, taking it out on each other, redirected so many times, we didn't know if we were going North, South, East or West. Am so hissed off with lovely France, believe me I love France, I just want to get out as soon as possible.
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:hugs:
 
At Calais there are hundreds of Gilets Jaune and they have actually erected barricades across the outer 2 lanes of the motorway on both sides. 2 police cars present but outnumbered massively so doing sweet FA!

The tunnel are saying get there when you can and they'll get you away as soon as they can and don't worry about missing your slot as they are aware of the blockades.

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Rain and snow tomorrow, hope it sorts them out.
 
I doubt snow rain or cold will stop them, the French aren’t fair weather protesters.
 
We are paying the same rate and there was not a tiny squeak from the UK punters, just pay up as we are used to it.
 
The tunnel say that blockades are continuing today 20th November!
 
After my autoroute toll class 4 experience we took to the N roads but could not make progress due to the blockades so reluctantly took to the motorway again to get from Laon to Calais.

This time as we approached the Peage too booth I got Margaret to retire to the back and I put the ticket in ready to complain vehemently about being charged class 4.

Pleasant surprise and we were only charged Class 2 - must have seen getting ready to do battle! Still cost €26 for about 200 Kms.

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