It’s a change of bed, but it’s a crime.

Who doesn’t remember this cult scene from Titanic in which Rose and Jack finally indulge in their all-consuming passion in a 1910 Renault Type CB, their hands leaving marks on the steamy windows? So sexy… The Crash book , adapted by David Cronenberg for the cinema, depicts people who only make love in wrecked cars. And reality joins fiction, because yes, the automobile remains a place of fantasies.

57% of French people have already made love there – in detail, 54% of women and 60% of men. According to an Ipsos survey for eBay dating from September 2016, France comes in third place behind the Italians (with 70%) and the Spaniards (68%). Nothing surprising according to Dr. Marion Alexandre, psychiatrist in Paris: “The car is nothing but an extension of our body. By this very fact, it is loaded with meaning, with fantasies. Psychiatrists go even further: the automobile would be nothing less than a phallic extension. The mechanics of the car reinforces this symbolism because it is even a symbol of power, speed, strength. And as the car has a price, it is also an instrument of social positioning.

Neither nus, nor connus

Yes, but be careful not to get caught in car sex… by the police. Recall that according to article 222-32 of the penal code , “sexual exhibition imposed on the sight of others in a place accessible to the public gaze is punishable by one year’s imprisonment and 15,000 euros in fine”. To avoid ending up broke or behind bars, why not plan an outfit that’s as easy to take off as it is to put back on, as was the case for Victoria and Gabriel, who tell us that they were able to get dressed in record time when it happened. turned out to be necessary.

On September 15, 2018, on the highway linking Valladolid and Madrid in Spain, a couple was filmed in full action at 130km/h.

“The moment we finished, in the back seat, two voices shouted, ‘Document check!'” Victoria recalls. “My heart raced, Gabriel rolled down the window, two cops were there, still with their torches blinding us. They stared at us for long seconds. Caught almost in flagrante delicto, we dared not move. We replied that we were talking. As we were dressed, they had no proof. At the time, we thought they were going to take us on board and fine us. But, to our great relief, they eventually left. They simply ordered us to do the same.” Neither naked nor known.

Discernment?

Another concern, parking , which remains prohibited on a delivery place or on a pedestrian crossing, whether the desire is too urgent or not. And ” poorly parked” means a fine of 35 to 135 euros . Not to mention the fact that you have to choose the place carefully, so avoid the village square, as an Italian couple did in Bella, in the north of the country. Francesco and Erika were caught “completely naked, on top of each other” , as the Carabinieri report reads, which earned them a prison sentence . We don’t mess with modesty.

There remains Guadalajara in Mexico, where sex in public places is allowed.

In France, the communication department of the national police explains its method: “If it is near a school or even in a wood, to prevent it from becoming a dangerous place, we obviously have to verbalize.” On the other hand, the police say they are “also showing discernment” . In other words, we do not condemn the moments of bewilderment at all costs. During confinement, some were verbalized not for prohibited legs in the air, but for poorly worded certificates. A couple, arrested in the Doubs , and more precisely in the wood of Lucelans, had specified for one “sports exercises” and for the other “purchases of first necessity”. Result: 135 euros each.

Love at full speed

Needless to say, hugs while riding are not only forbidden, but also dangerous. Article 412-6 of the Highway Code is clear on this point: “Any moving vehicle or any set of moving vehicles must have a driver. The latter must, at all times, adopt a prudent behavior. And the little treat is not one of them. On September 15, 2018, on the highway linking Valladolid and Madrid in Spain, a couple was filmed in action at 130km/h . The video ended up on social networks, and the Guardia Civil got hold of the two lovers.

And the autonomous car in all this? Researchers in sociology from the Annales de la Recherche sur le Tourisme conducted their little investigation. “Apart from sleeping, we wondered what people could do if they were free from driving ,” says Scott Cohen, who led the study. “You can see how sex and the car are intertwined in all young adult movies, you don’t have to try hard to imagine what will become possible.”

Either way, in a self-driving car or not, the practice remains sexual exhibition punishable by a fine and jail time. On the other hand, when the French are asked what they would do in such a vehicle, they answer at 73%… sleep, if we are to believe an Oresys study dating from September 2018 . And for those who would like to make love without being worried, there is Guadalajara in Mexico, where sexual relations in public places are authorized in order to allow time for the police to deal with “serious crimes and misdemeanors”, since t is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.