Safer travel in France

FRENCH property buyers are increasingly savvy about the buying process in France.

Before they travel to France on any house hunting trip it is not uncommon for them to have exhaustively researched the geopgraphy of the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne.

They are equally clued up on the current state of the housing market in the area. Most will have a gruelling itinerary,crammed with appointments to view several properties a day that they will have prearranged with local estate agents.

They arrive with a dossier of carefully catalogued property details and harcopy agenda for the week.

And they should be commended for all the hard work that goes into their preparation.

But have you ever wondered what you would do in France if you found yourself in the position where you needed to contact the emergency services?

The vast majority don't but there's just one other small detail that people shouldn't leave home without.

Arguably, it's the most important thing they take with them. 

It's the three digit phone number, 112.

112 is the european emergency services number that has been in operation since 1991 but that very few people know exists.

Only 20% of British nationals are aware that the number exists as opposed to 70% of Swedish. It has been referred to as 'one of Europe's best kept secrets.'

More than two-thirds of europeans have never heard of 112 yet it has been in place in all member states for the last 17 years.

The number works from both landlines and mobile phones.

Keep it somewhere safe when you travel and stay safe.