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What I Am Going To Do When Someone Says The French Can Cope With Snow


agent_zed

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Every time it snows in britain and the roads are in chaos someone says 'they never have this problem on the continent 'they' know how to drive in the snow'! So what i am going to do when someone says the french can cope with snow on their roads...

 

Slap them really hard :glare:

 

 

 

I can assure you after sitting in a 20km gridlock on the french motorways (which involved 40 thousand cars!!!) near chambery last saturday, they do not!

 

It took over 3 hours to move 0.6miles when the police finally opened a random escape lane across a field that we were luckily just before. All of the lorries were told to stay put and spend the night, along with i presume everyone else not lucky enough to be near an escape lane.

 

My sister who flew to lyon then drove to be faster was stuck for 6+ hours on the motorway earlier in the day and only beat us to the resort by a couple of hours (we drove from here).

 

Having winter tyres (both M+S and snowflake markings), snow chains and a hi-vis, breathalysers etc it was extremely frustrating to realise the majority of french who where going to the ski resorts did not have any of the basics. And if they did have chains they were unable to fit them. My brother in law watched as numerous people struggled to fit the chains with a lot of them losing the chains shortly after fitting. This seemed to be the main cause of the tail-backs.

 

Throughout the week numerous people drove on completely clear roads with the chains still fitted, god knows what damage they did to their tyres and the road. One chap in a relatively new car was trundling along with part of the chains whipping all along the wheel arch, doubt there will be a lot of paint left!

 

It was nice though that the minister of transport came on the radio to tell everyone numerous times that it was really difficult on the roads at the moment... um thanks for that information.

 

britain might not be great in the snow but we are way better at coping with the snow than i witnessed there, especially considering we don't expect regular snow.

 

Apparently the pyrenees is having major traffic issues this weekend too.

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if it did it was gone by the late evening as my Sister drove up the mountain at about 12oclock. They certainly didn't mention it on the radio. Just before we managed to get off the motorway they said 'it's ok the roads are now clear' then 10 mins later 'everyone should get a hotel or just sleep where they are as its not clear'??

 

The radio presenter said 'but won't all the hotels be full'? ...'yes they are' was the reply. We were lucky to get off the motorway as the A roads were pretty clear. Finally managed to get the last room in a fast-hotel after driving for a couple of hours and went up the following day without a problem.

 

They need to sort their emergency procedures as it happened before christmas as well. The motorways were clear going the opposite direction so they could have turned people around before they got stuck.

 

sorry for the rant :)

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