Speeding? Me?

 Well, I got my first speeding ticket in France. Easy to do when you're not sure of the speed limit. The highway was wide open with few cars, a common condition on the toll roads. The high cost of petrol and the high cost of tolls are very effective at reducing traffic. The average cost at the toll booth is 5.00 euros and we go through three toll booths to get to Caen, an hour away.
The speed limit was 110 k/hr and I was doing 120 k/hr (120 k/hr equals 75 mph, but it sounds faster doesn't it?). I passed a nice shiny metal box with a window on the front side, "Oh shit, I bet that was a radar camera!" I thought too late. Well I was only doing ten over, "I wonder what the tolerance is?"
Well, there is no tolerance, if you're speeding-you're speeding. Sure enough two weeks later I got an official letter in the mail. Two pages of French government gobblety-gook. It was easy to make out the amount I owed, it was either 68 euros or 45 euros or the sum of both. I wasn't sure. The second page was a form to be filled out, a whole page of little boxes to check and fill in with information about the car, my address, my license, blah blah blah. All in French of course.
At the bottom of the back of the second page in small print there was an internet address, hooray, "maybe I can pay it online."
I went to the PC opened the Google Chrome browser and prepared for a long session of translation. I was pleasantly surprised. The website had an English version option and it was simple to use. I entered the ticket number and up popped the details of my traffic fine, the amount and the option to pay by credit card. Two minutes later, I'm an upstanding respectable citizen again that pays his debts to society.

“►Speed camera warnings - 2013.  The big old signs that used to warn drivers of an upcoming speed camera are being removed. More than half of the warning signs have now gone, but many of those that have gone have been replaced by automatic speed detectors, which flash up the speed of each approaching car on a luminous panel.

 It's best to understand what these are about:  if you see a luminous panel flashing up, say 101 then 99, then 97 as you approach it while decelerating, that is your speed. So keep down or drop down to below the speed limit, as there is most probably - though not always - a speed camera coming up. Some speed detectors just flash up your speed in white lights, others in green or red lights depending on whether you are within or above the speed limit. Some show a smiley below the speed - grumpy if you're above the limit, smiling if you're within the limit.”

New radars are being set up all the time, so any unofficial maps that may be available on the Internet are unlikely to be complete, and in any case cannot include the mobile radar cars or the movable speed cameras, of which there are currently about 1000. So the best rule - not to say the most sensible one - is "Do not drive over the speed limit".