Not one but two parking fines

I had heard that just before local elections the city council will go easy on cars badly parked so as not to annoy potential voters, but I had not heard that as soon as the elections were over, the parking wardens would try to recover time lost........ The mayor must have given instructions to proceed with double intensity because a week after the local elections, which took place at the end of March, I found no less than two parking fines on the windshield of my car.

The first fine was for €35 and was given because my car was parked in a spot in the carpark which - officially - is a no parking area. However, it is considered by everybody as a normal space, and I have been parking there on and off for the last 7 years. However, I won't park there anymore!

The second fine was also for €35 and was given because my insurance attestation was - allegedly - not exposed in the windshield of my car. Whilst I could accept the parking fine because objectively I had parked in a forbidfden area, the second fine was unjust and simply wrong.

When I bought my first (and only car) in France, I did not know where to put the insurance attestation, so I put it on the windshield in the lower left corner. When four years later the car passed its first MOT, a small attestation was affixed in the lower right corner. I can only assume that they parking warden had either not seen the attestation in the left corner or had believed that the attestation had to be mandatorily affixed in the right corner. Whichever is wrong.

The French Code de la Route states that the insurance attestation has to be affixed on the car, but it does not say WHERE it should be:

" Art.R. 211-21-5-Sera puni de la peine d'amende prévue pour les contraventions de deuxième classe tout souscripteur d'un contrat d'assurance relatif à un véhicule mentionné à l'article R. 211-21-1 qui aura omis d'apposer sur le véhicule concerné le certificat prévu aux articles R. 211-21-2 et R. 211-21-3 ou aura apposé un certificat non valide. "

I had prepared a letter to challenge the second fine, but in the event I did not send it. Not only would I have to send the letter by registered mail, but there would be no guarantee that my challenge would be accepted. So I took out a good old-fashioned letter, stamp and cheque book and signed a cheque of €70 to pay and forget the fines. Most people apparently do like me: pay and forget. As quickly as possible. The parking warden, though, ought to get a warning because he had forgotten the Code de la Route!