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Driving in France

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Does anyone have any experience of the anti-pollution sticker that you have to display if you are travelling to France in a ice vehicle.
 
Does anyone have any experience of the anti-pollution sticker that you have to display if you are travelling to France in an ice vehicle.
You only need them for certain built up cities. I’ve just bought one for my car. Lasts a lifetime, costs less than a fiver. Go to the correct site - beware of scam sites that will charge much more. I got mine from here: https://certificat-air.gouv.fr/
 
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Done a fair bit of driving in France over last couple of years and never found the need for a sticker. As Mottie says they're only needed in certain cities, not all. Lists of cities that need Crit Air stickers are online, so you can check to see if any cities you will visit require them. I don't do a lot of city driving over there. Only cities I've driven in recently are Bergerac that doesn't need a sticker and acidentally took a wrong turn at Versailles and ended up in Paris once on they way back to Lehavre last trip. I was in and out of Paris in less than 20 mins during my struggle to get back on the right road - so no one noticed my lack of sticker.

Biggest risk over there is fixed speed cameras. They seem to have lots more than us - they are signposted, and the cameras themselves are huge. Though it's easy to get distracted when navigating in foreign parts. Obviously you'll also need a debit/credit card or small notes and change if on the autoroutes for the tolls. Apart from that, driving in France isn't too bad, the roads are less crowded except in some big cities, and a lot more pleasurable than driving here. Bon voyage!
 
Many toll booths around Normandy have now gone and they're using ANPR to track you,
Payment must be made within 72 Hrs here https://www.sanef.com/index-en.html
No need to create and account, very quick and easy.

The speed cameras that I came across recently (over Granville way) are fairly hidden but the locals toast them all the time...yet to come across a working camera.
 
No need to worry too much about the speed cameras unless you hire a car in France. UK cars dont get any fine through as there's no cross border enforcement. Saying that, always try to keep in the speed limit, sometimes if you dont see them clearly and its very dark they can flash you if you drift 1 or 2kph over the limit, as theres no tolerance on them.

What they do have is some clever overhead gantries that display the reg plate of a speeding car, and the words 'Trop Vite' - Too Fast. No camera or fine involved but kind of a clever psychological way of self enforcement. Not that it makes any difference to the Porsche driving swiss or luxembourgish drivers anyway
 
Quite a lot of false information there. There is an automatic 5 kph tolerance under 100 kph and 5% above 100 kph for stationary radar measurements, rising to to 10 and 10% for mobile in-car radar. There are now more than 400 of the latter on French roads, unmarked , using civilian drivers, just doing speed checks.

Also wrong to say there is no cross-border enforcement. If any French city decides to use a British-registered debt-collection agency -as already do many Italian cities - then you will be fined plus extra collection costs.
 
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Does anyone have any experience of the anti-pollution sticker that you have to display if you are travelling to France in a ice vehicle.
We have a crit'air sticker on our UK car as we go to France often and go through the cities that require it.

It's very simple to sort out but has to be done ahead of time and stays with the vehicle.
 
We have a crit'air sticker on our UK car as we go to France often and go through the cities that require it.

It's very simple to sort out but has to be done ahead of time and stays with the vehicle.

And it costs less than a coffee, so not worth the "saving" of not getting one.
 
It is a minimum requirement that at least one Hi Viz should be kept in the vehicle in the event of breakdown etc for the driver. The vest should be inside the cabin of the vehicle not stored in the boot or in a roof top box etc as you should be able to reach it and put it on before getting out of the car.

But the law clearly states that every individual stood on the hard shoulder should be wearing a vest, so ideally you need one for every passenger in the car.

And....


In the event of a roadside emergency or breakdown, everyone who exits the vehicle must put on their hi-vis jacket before stepping out to ensure they are seen by other road users.
 
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