Having long been aware of just how seriously the French police ( and French motorists ! ) view any driver foolish enough to cross a soilid white line in order to overtake, I damn nearly fouled myself last week, when having done exactly that , two gendarmes jumped out into the road from behind a lorry parked in a layby and flagged me down. It was, though, clearly a set-up, inasmuch as coming off a roundabout and being faced by a very long stretch of perfectly flat and straight road and in a visibility that I could see for miles, I then went over the solid white line in order to overtake a 2CV puttering along at zilch miles an hour. Of course, my Aston ( a DB9 Volante) just zoomed past in the winking of an eye with absolutely NO danger to anyone.......... until, that is, the two cozzers jumped out from behind a lorry parked in a layby about 200 yards ahead and then nicked me for both speeding and crossing the white line. It cost me 180 Euros, 90 for each offence. At no time did they have a camera or radar gun, so I guess that they just guestimated my speed. but at least there are no endorsement points !