Free parking in August

This is a Paris parking ticket. You'll have a hard time getting one in August, when parking is free, unless you park in a crosswalk (the cardinal sin) in the middle of town.

I was about to pay this one, left over from early July, when I noticed it was not for my own car! Someone had slipped it under my windshield-wiper, hoping I'd pay it without looking.

The way you pay the ticket is to buy a timbre fiscal amende at a tabac. They look like this:

You stick the large section of the stamp on the parking ticket and mail it off to the Trésor public in Rennes. The small part goes on the second page of the ticket, which you keep as proof that you paid.

To pay for parking in Paris, you buy a parking card (left) at a tabac. They look a bit like telephone cards. I sometime keep the old Paris ones, they're so pretty.

Then to pay for parking up to two hours, you use a parcmètre (right). Depending on the neighborhood, parking is expensive or cheap. Parking in our area was free until about ten years ago, but I don't think there are any places left within Paris itself where you can park free anymore.

Paris residents get a special card for all-day parking at a cheap rate.

All these things become less relevant in the run-up to the 2007 présidentielles. It is an old tradition in France for each new French president to forgive all parking tickets more recent than six months old. Politicians denounce this practice, but it would be dangerous to be the first one to discontinue it.

Comments

[L'Amerloque]

Hi Sedulia !

/*/ … but I don't think there are any places left within Paris itself where you can park free anymore./*/

Amerloque knows of some free places remaining in the 17th, the 5th (!), and the 13th.

The ecoayatollahs at the City Hall have announced twice since January 1st that all the free parking places in Paris will be converted to pay parking by the end of 2006. (sigh)

Merci, Monsieur Delanoe ! (slogan © Sedulia) (grin)

Best,
L'Amerloque

[samantha]

actually, it's a timbre amende you need, and not a timbre fiscal (i just had to buy one today for the first time)!

From Sedulia: You're right, Sam, but I just lazily call them both timbres fiscaux. Careless of me! I get so many, I always have a few 11-euro timbres in my wallet. If you wait to pay, they get a lot more expensive.

[Jordan]

Hate to shatter the illusion of free parking in Paris but I just got a ticket on Saturday 8th August for parking on Victor Hugo in a designated parking spot. I didn't realise you had to pay on Saturdays for that one and came out to find a ticket. Not impressed but it is only €11.

[Sedulia]

I'm sorry about your ticket! However, I think the fee of 11 euros is hardly dissuasive and that the mairie is well aware of that. (Do you know you can take longer to pay if you pay online?) My own theory is that it's a way for the city to tolerate and at the same time make a little money off all the illegal parking that goes on because people are just running errands.

According to the mairie of Paris, parking is free in August in about 90% of the parking spaces, but that still means you have to check the signs carefully around your car.

Also, you might want to read this:

In case the link doesn't work, it's from July 12, 2008:

"The association 'Forty Million Drivers' announced that parking tickets, given when there is no parking-meter slip on the dashboard of cars, are not mentioned in any law. Result: they are illegal and drivers are not therefore obliged to pay them. In reality, it is far from being so simple...."

L’association 40 millions d’automobilistes annonçait que les procès-verbaux, délivrés en cas d’absence de ticket d’horodateur sur le tableau de bord des voitures, ne sont prévus par aucun texte de loi. Résultat: ils seraient illégaux et les automobilistes ne seraient donc pas tenus de les payer. En réalité, c’est loin d’être aussi simple....

[Michelle Arant]

I received a parking ticket in Paris (I live in Germany) and I was wondering how I pay it from Germany? Can I only buy the stamps needed in Paris or can I buy them anywhere in France (I'm only a 1 hour drive from the French border)?

[Sedulia]

You can pay it with a eurocheque, too. You don't need the stamp. But if you pay with a check, you must post it in an envelope.