French farmer fined for illegally parking tractor - an ocean away from home

Anyone familiar with France will know that it's a large country - a very large country.

First up of course there's the mainland that most (well there are exceptions) people will be able to point to on a map of Europe.

(from Wikipedia)

You know; capital - Paris, borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain and a stretch of water separating it from its oldest friendly enemy, the United Kingdom.

But there's more to it. Much more.

And it comes in the shape of its overseas départements, collectivities and territories.

They all have representatives elected to both the National Assembly and Senate and while the collectivities and territories are autonomous, the five départements are to all intents and purposes part of France.

In other words France isn't just the hexagon-shaped metropolitan area in Europe.

It's also the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mayotte, Guyane française (French Guiana) in South America and the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

And that's worth bearing in mind, because it might go some way to explaining how bureaucratic mistakes can happen, such as the one Didier Labouygues is currently experiencing.

He's a part-time farmer in the village of Gagnac-sur-Cère in southwestern France, hiring himself and his tractor out when there's work to be done.

Last November he received a fine for having parked his tractor illegally and, as the regional daily La Dépêche du Midi reports, at first sight, all seemed to be in order.

But Labouygues read the letter a little more carefully and discovered that the "apparent offence" had taken place in Fort de France - the capital of Martinique, an ocean and several thousand kilometres away!

"I couldn't believe it," he told the newspaper.

"I took the letter along to the police station and was told that it must be some sort of clerical error (note from France Today - No kidding) and I wrote to Le Centre Automatisé de Constatation des Infractions (CACIR) in Rennes. I'm still waiting for a reply."

Of course Labouygues' case is not an isolated one - far from it.

CACIR has proven itself to be well capable in administrative cock-ups - on a frequent basis.

Just ask Patrick Pilak, a farmer in the village of Gouzougnat in the département of Creuse. From December 2010 until August 2011, he received three separate fines for illegally parking his tractor in Paris...admittedly only 400 kilometres away from where he lived and worked.

Another farmer in the département of l'Oise, just north of Paris, received a similar fine in October for apparently having overrun the meter - close to the château de Versailles. Another improbable location for a tractor.

And then there was the case of Gilles Rocher, also in October 2011, a motorist from Capbreton in southwestern France, fined 143 times for the same offence - each letter being delivered separately.

Back to the latest case though, and the last word perhaps should belong to the mayor of Gagnac-sur-Cère, mayor of the village, Danièle Vallin.

She told La Dépêche du Midi that, "CACIR should do its work properly and check on the credibility of a fine before sending out a letter.

And somehow, you can't help thinking that she might have a valid point.

Where in France does petrol cost almost €US 10 a gallon?

French Guiana is the answer, where demonstrations over the cost of fuel have all but cut it off from the rest of the world for the past week.

Flights in and out of the international airport in Cayenne have been disrupted, ports have been blocked, schools closed and businesses in the department have come to a virtual standstill.

Yet even in this country (let alone abroad) the demonstrations have had relatively little national media coverage.

The reason it hasn't really been making the headlines even here in France?

Well that's probably because it's actually happening thousands of kilometres away from mainland France in one of this country's far flung overseas departments - Guyane or Guyane française (French Guiana) on the northern coast of South America, bordering Brazil and Suriname.

That's right, South America.

France extends that far (and further if you want to head towards the Indian Ocean and the island of La Réunion) because Guyane is part of the French Republic - albeit a distant one.

It's an overseas department with the Euro as its currency (yes logically as it's part of France, it's also part of the European Union), elected representatives to the French parliament in Paris (National Assembly and Senate) and as in the rest of France its own regional or local government.

To get there you would have to take a nine hour 'plane journey from the French capital.

But short and to the point, in principle it's as much a part of France as the regions of Alsace, Provence or Champagne.

Fuel in Guyane started rising dramatically long before the oil price hike (and subsequent drop) worldwide earlier this year.

It currently stands at €1,77 a litre for unleaded (the equivalent of around $US 10 a gallon).

In fact the increase in fuel at the petrol pumps there dates back to February 2007, when regional authorities decided to adjust the price to European norms, rather than the one that had been in operation beforehand.

Last Friday, Yves Jégo, the minister of overseas departments, said that the state would be willing to stump up €5 million to help the local government reduce the price by 30 centimes a litre. Over the weekend he increased that to €10 million for 2009.

As far as Jégo is concerned, it's now up to the regional government in Guyane to find a solution and drop the price of petrol at the pumps.

He says that although the French state is responsible for administering the price of fuel in its overseas departments, it's the regional government (or local authority) that sets the tax rate on fuel.

"The state doesn't get anything from the tax on fuel for its territories and departments overseas," he said on Sunday evening's prime time news.

"It's the region of Guyane which benefits from the tax, and so it's up to the local government to make the effort to drop the price by another 20 centimes, he added.

"It's up to the local elected officials to take responsibility."

The offer wasn't enough for demonstrators though, who remained adamant that they would hold out for drop of 50 centimes a litre.

And they have the backing of their local politicians from all parties, who on Sunday sent a letter to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, asking for the government "to take all possible measures to meet the request of the people of Guyane."

The price for the same litre of unleaded in the Paris region is currently €1.12