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French Traffic Police

We were in heavy traffic barely moving about 10-15kph waiting patiently in a highway near Paris coming from La Vallee.

Suddenly, a police van with 3 policemen inside went next to my vehicle started yelling and taking photos of the license plate and I have no clue if there was a violation that I possibly committed which was nearly impossible as the traffic was literally stop and go.

The question is: if indeed there was a violation committed, would they have issued me a ticket on the spot and pulled me over or since he seemed as if he was taking a photo - will they just send it by mail? None of the 3 got off the van as they immediately drove off shortly after.

Thanks for your help.

Posted by
1276 posts

To add something semi-useful, possibly the gendarmes wanted to make progress through heavy traffic and you did not move out of the way quick enough. I know there are laws in Germany which mean that road users must give way to emergency services vehicles in a standardised manner. I'm unfamiliar with French traffic laws so I can't say for sure that was what was happening here. That would be my best guess from the limited information supplied. I wouldn't worry about it.

Welcome to the forum gg6421. Hope you can stick around and get some information of value, and contribute your knowledge to assist us in our travels.

Posted by
8573 posts

that theory makes sense. Not long ago in Chicago i had a fire captain throw a fit outside my car which I had pulled over as far as I could as he was making his way to an emergency. I finally had to drive onto the sidewalk to let him get by. So arm waving feels like someone who feels he is being impeded in some way -- but who knows. If you get a ticket, report back so the rest of us know.

Posted by
10638 posts

Totally unfamiliar to me. I have never seen this. Granted I haven’t been driving much recently.

Posted by
4864 posts

or perhaps you just thought they were taking photos when they were using phones/walkie talkies