Paris Travel Forum

I was travelling along France by train and was fined for not having a ticket.Recently I have called the number noted on the fine-ticket, but they do not speak English at all and I do not speak French at all.So what should I do now?How can I pay this fine?Besides, I'm not in France now, will that be a problem?

where there's a will there's a way.

I would think that M. Sarkozy will be banging on your door very soon now. He really need's that money you know.

As I recall most if not all European railroads collect the "fine" - actually a surcharge - while you are on train. I doubt that the conductor did let you continue your journey without paying. The amount you paid should have included your "fine".

It is different when driving; fines may be charged to the rental car company or billed to your home address.

Henry

Did try contacting them online?

http://www.tgv-europe.com/dynamic/faq.mail?form_type=_commande&_LANG=EN&theme=2

As pointed out above, fines are usually payable on the spot and I've never heard of someone getting a fine payable later. A few years back, I had to pay a fine for getting on the wrong train (and therefore having an invalid ticket) in spite of my best efforts to explain the situation (and I speak French). Therefore, while your willingness to pay your fine is commendable, I would frame the ticket as a rare souvenir and forget about it.

As a matter of interest, why didn't you have a ticket? Was it that you had the wrong ticket? Because I am surprised too that they did not levy the fine on the spot. What is the number on the "fine-ticket" and what else does it say? As to not being in France, where are you? It makes a difference to payment possibilities, e.g. if the document you have gives an account number, and you have a euro bank account, you could do it by bank transfer or cheque, if not you may have to buy an international money order from the Post Office.

Hey everone,
No-one has yet said it, but by all accounts this is a troll !!!! I live in France, my son works for the SNCF and they DON'T give fines to be paid later.

And the person has not yet logged back in since the post.

I agree with the poster above - what would be the sense in issuing a fine for later payment.

Actually I am more concerned that a ticket was actually checked at all! In early June I travelled from one end of France to another and also made several local journeys in the places I stayed. Not once on any of the long-distance journeys was my ticket examined. Around me it was perfectly obvious that a number of people had not paid for a ticket. The only time I recall a ticket check was on a local train between Nantes and Challans. I was slightly twitchy as I had not 'composter' (made the train with about 1 second to spare after a battle with a relucatant ticket machine) but not a word was said.

I don't think I have ever been in a train where the tickets weren't checked and in some cases, more than once. Any way that's beside the point. I must admit to being ignorant right now, because I have often wondered what was meant when someone said a post is a "troll". I've decided that the only way I'll ever find out is to come clean, admit my ignorance and ask some kind and considerate person to explain to me just what a "troll" is and what bearing it has on this particular post, i.e. what is the OP trying to achieve if in fact, this is a "troll". Many thanks to whoever will take the time to explain or should I ask this on the Miscellaneous forum?

Here is the wikipedia definition of a troll:

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

As to what motivates people to do this in a travel forum, I suppose the reasons are as varied as futile.

Perhaps I should explain my silly answer of 'where there's a will there's a way' ... not sure if any of you saw the post about the person who wanted to skip out of their apartment early in Mexico and was trying to get assurances that it would be ok ... they really did not have a way of paying ... and did not want to leave the money.

So ... this post was too close to the other one ...

Thanks Pomerol, now i know.

you have a great discussion!
I got fined because I had not got my passport with me and purse as well(as they were stolen in Spain).I travelled along France so that to reach Czech republic.The train conductor fined me so that I could reach Germany without problems.Got it?
On the very ticket there is a note, that I can pay it within 3 months after I got it.I just don't want to have problems with my documents later.
Elainehead thank you for the link!

No, we did not "get it" because you did not give us the exact situation ... but glad all seems to be on the way to a resolution.