French Driving Licence

[Frenchie]

So after 7 Months of paperwork,telephone calls and visits to the Sous- Prefecture we finally have our French driving licences and they come with 12 points on them!!! System in France is you start with 12 points,less for young drivers, and have points deducted for offences. When you reach zero points you lose your licence,usually for 6 months.

[BIG"E"]

Did you have to take another test ??

[Banstead Stig]

Can you transfer ones from your UK licence to keep the numbers up...

[Frenchie]

No test,just masses of paperwork. Nothing in France is easy, it keeps people in work. Have managed to keep my UK licence as well, which might be useful.

[Ferd]

I've never bothered to change mine although I was told not long ago that I should have done, still have a UK one and I don't think for the time being I actually need to as Luxembourg no longer cares as long as it's a valid EU licence.

The points system is the same here and I believe it's that way for the rest of the EU. No idea why they decided it that way.

[Frenchie]

We only changed because we had the old green paper licence which shows our old UK address.We are going to South America for most of February and thought old UK licence showing a UK address, UK passport, but French home address might make it complex to hire a car.

[Ferd]

Yeah, I had to get rid of my old paper licence when I got here as I was told they didn't like them, not that there was anything actually wrong with them. But better to be safe I suppose.