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Does anybody know the law regarding having a french driving licence?
My wife was told that she must get a french driving licence by a gendarme.
I thought it was ok to use a licence from any member state (eg UK)

You are right: the gendarme was wrong. As a holder of a UK licence, resident in France, you can drive in France on your UK licence. The licence is, however, subject to French regulations regarding its duration of validity and any other rules applicable to French license holders.

The full detail is in EEC directive 91/439/EEC., the most relevant bit of which is this:

2. Driving licences issued by Member States shall be mutually recognized.

3. Where the holder of a valid national driving licence takes up normal residence in a Member State other than that which issued the licence, the host Member State may apply to the holder of the licences its national rules on the period of validity of the licences, medical checks and tax arrangements and may enter on the licence any information indispensable for administration

The directive can be found at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex ... 39:EN:HTML

If the posters wife has commited a driving offence in France and lives in France then she must change her licence so the points can be taken off.

opas wrote:If the posters wife has commited a driving offence in France and lives in France then she must change her licence so the points can be taken off.

I can confirm that by experience! Caught speeding between Caudiès and St. Paul and got a ticket (90.00) plus a tick on the little box which obliges one to change licence (provided resident in France, of course!). The nice part is that the change** is free (via police municipale or mairie) and takes max. two weeks. A few weeks after I received my French licence I was notified by letter that 2 points had been deducted - which confirms there is a followup check!!

** you exchange your UK licence for a French one.. so you can take your French registered car to the UK, drive like a crazy, show your nice French licence to the "officer" and "give the finger" in the true French spirit!!
What fun!!

My husband and I both decided to change ours to French. We went to the marie to do it costs nothing just the price of some up to date photos. When we got them My husband who has an hgv licience and moterbike and car - he can drive everything here in france, even a bus - LOL Me well no moterbike ticked but I can drive the rest. Never get me driving an HGV or a Bus. Typical French !!!!

On my licence those HGV etc categories are limited to one year after issue date. I was told that the licence is, in that respect, a "base" document allowing me to drive anything on it undated, but also allowing me one year to "verify" higher grades by additional qualification (training, tests, fee etc. So, for example, if I want to drive a bus, I can upgrade to the equivalent of a "public vehicle" licence provided I take and pass the additional tests within the year to qualify - upon which that item would have the "limit date" removed from licence plus I would have an additional doc qualifying me as public bus driver..

As I don't intend to go for any of those date limit qualifications, I didn't enquire further. I'm not even sure I understood the above explanation correctly as I wasn't interested in additionally qualifying.. therefore didn't pay 100 percent attention, once I had understood the principle.

Presumably, if, after the year limit, I would then want to go for one of the limited categories, I would have to start from scratch = higher charge than if done within the date limit..

I will have to renew my UK licence in three years when I turn 70. I think I will have to use my daughter's address, or perhaps then I will change to a French licence.
Does anyone know if there are age limits on the French licence?

My French driver's license doesn't have any limit.

Blackduff

Thank you, Blackduff.