Beware of Random police stops on Motorway between Casiss and Toulon

We are traveling with a group of 18. Before we left, we prearranged with a private tour guide for a full sized coach bus tour of Marseille and Cassis from our port stop in Toulon. The trip was perfect with a professional guide and driver that came highly recommended. After an incredibly perfect day of sightseeing, we left Cassis on schedule with plenty of time to get back to port an hour before all aboard time. After the toll on the Motorway between Cassis and the port, our bus was Randomly pulled over for a Safety and Security check by the Police and Transportation authorities. Our bus driver had to show all paperwork, they took him into a mobile office where they took downloads of his logs, the police came on the bus and checked all safety equipment and made sure we were wearing seat belts, etc, etc. The whole process took over 40 minutes while we were biting our nails. This was not a ship excursion. While we were sitting there our guide did call ahead to the ship and provide them with our cabin numbers and asked them to hold the ship because she did not know how long the process was going to take. Of course, we hit more traffic in the port because we came back closer to rush hour than we planned. We literally were the last people on the ship at exactly 5:30pm which was all aboard. They pulled the gangway in right after we boarded. While we were pulled over, we saw the police stopping cars, vans and minibuses of all sizes. Our guide told us that she is seeing this more often and it did happen to her once before when she was working on a ship excursion where the bus failed the inspection and it was not allowed to proceed. They had to wait for another bus to be sent to pick them up. It turned out fine for us. I do think the ship would have waited as long as they could because it was 18 of us but I don't know what would have happened if it was just two or four of us in a car. So just a head's up to leave plenty of time to return when traveling on non ship excursions in this area.

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We go to France on a regular basis and have often commented that it is rare to see the gendarmerie on the roads like in the UK. Then, last time we were there we got stopped on a minor road.

We were asked for all the papers of our car etc. It wasn't a problem as we had everything in order, hadn't been drinking alcohol, or speeding.

In fact, in this day and age we were reassured that they were carrying out random checks.

We don't take ship Excursions, but always ensure we have plenty of time to get back to the ship.

BTW using paragraphs makes for easier reading.

We go to France on a regular basis and have often commented that it is rare to see the gendarmerie on the roads like in the UK. Then, last time we were there we got stopped on a minor road.

 

 

 

We were asked for all the papers of our car etc. It wasn't a problem as we had everything in order, hadn't been drinking alcohol, or speeding.

 

 

 

In fact, in this day and age we were reassured that they were carrying out random checks.

 

 

 

We don't take ship Excursions, but always ensure we have plenty of time to get back to the ship.

 

 

 

BTW using paragraphs makes for easier reading.

You are right. I was trying to get this all down quickly before my phone died last night. I just spewed it all out! [emoji3]

We always leave plenty of time. We left Casiss shortly after 3:00pm for a 5:30 all aboard and we made it. Had we not left enough time we wouldn't have. The purpose of my post is to warn others to leave extra time because of evidently something new happening.

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We are traveling with a group of 18. Before we left, we prearranged with a private tour guide for a full sized coach bus tour of Marseille and Cassis from our port stop in Toulon. The trip was perfect with a professional guide and driver that came highly recommended. After an incredibly perfect day of sightseeing, we left Cassis on schedule with plenty of time to get back to port an hour before all aboard time. After the toll on the Motorway between Cassis and the port, our bus was Randomly pulled over for a Safety and Security check by the Police and Transportation authorities. Our bus driver had to show all paperwork, they took him into a mobile office where they took downloads of his logs, the police came on the bus and checked all safety equipment and made sure we were wearing seat belts, etc, etc. The whole process took over 40 minutes while we were biting our nails. This was not a ship excursion. While we were sitting there our guide did call ahead to the ship and provide them with our cabin numbers and asked them to hold the ship because she did not know how long the process was going to take. Of course, we hit more traffic in the port because we came back closer to rush hour than we planned. We literally were the last people on the ship at exactly 5:30pm which was all aboard. They pulled the gangway in right after we boarded. While we were pulled over, we saw the police stopping cars, vans and minibuses of all sizes. Our guide told us that she is seeing this more often and it did happen to her once before when she was working on a ship excursion where the bus failed the inspection and it was not allowed to proceed. They had to wait for another bus to be sent to pick them up. It turned out fine for us. I do think the ship would have waited as long as they could because it was 18 of us but I don't know what would have happened if it was just two or four of us in a car. So just a head's up to leave plenty of time to return when traveling on non ship excursions in this area.

 

 

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Thanks for the heads-up on this! We'll plan accordingly and now allow even more time for our return to port. ~~Judy

Thanks for posting.

I will be visiting Toulon in April. I am happy to hear about the stops as well.

It is a scary unstable time and it does comfort me to know that abroad they are vigilant. Honestly Jfk terrible IMO on security Europe seems more vigilant. Little things I have forgotten in carryon were missed jfk but caught in Europe . I probably will just take shore excursion to winery.

I think I might actually do all shore excursions through ship this time around:(

Kerri