Breathalyser Kits in France.

We have just returned from a short holiday in France and stayed in and around Blois in the Loir-et-Cher region. We were trying out our new motorhome and purposely had several campsite changes, so that we could compare the ease of moving on with that of the caravan we used to own. The jury will always be out on which is the preferred choice and there are good arguments from both however, we did find that for our type of holiday the motorhome scored very highly.

Prior to leaving the UK we had equipped ourselves with all the things we would have done if going in the car and towing. With the exception of the new breathalyser kit that you are now supposed to carry. I remember when it was first being talked about, last year, and that you would have to carry one, at the time I thought it seemed silly that once used you would not have one and carrying two made more sense and this is what they have done.

As is normally the case headlamp beam deflectors are available a lot cheaper on line than they are on board the ferry [very surprised at the number of Brits that I saw that did not have these fitted or indeed a GB sticker for those that don’t have it within the number plate] and so I assumed that the breathalyser kits would also be cheaper in France. I did have one with me [but only 1] given to me after a tour last year of the Cointreau factory, interesting tour and the samples were nice also.

So imagine my surprise when we called in at several large supermarkets on our trip including :Carrefour, Intermarchē, E.Leclerc and Auchan to name but a few all with chemists in-house and we were told that “they are not sold in any of our stores because they are so hard to obtain and if you do feel that you want one you should try possibly a service station that is on the main tourist route” [this was all said in French, thank goodness my wife speaks it].

So the question must be is this just another ploy to get money out of tourists in the country and if not why are they not readily available throughout?