Whilst Sarkozy was in power it was announced in November 2011 , as part of a series of measures concerning road safety, that from 1st July 2012
all drivers should carry a functional alcohol tester with them. These devices cost one euro each and I tried
to buy one in July but everyone was out of stock. So that was the first problem. Plenty of speculation ensued that the
manufacturers were friends of Sarkozy but I think that the whole package, which included more speed cameras and devices which display your speed, was a rather pathetic and rare attempt
to manipulate the media in order to gather a few votes for being in favour of “road
safety”.
In October, when they announced that the law would be
applied seriously, Anna found some in a shop, but she was complaining that the
manufacturers say that they must be stored at less than 40 deg C. In this part of France the temperature this August
went up to 37 deg OUTSIDE the car so inside it was probably more than 50 deg
when it was parked.
Anna wasn’t going to buy them on principle until she saw the
name! Yes that’s right “Le Turdus”!
