Hi
I would like to get a scooter (preferably a Lambretta 
) so I would like to know up to what CC I can drive a motorcycle with a full driving licence and what do I need to do if above that limit. I have absolutely no idea.
Grrrr “motorcycles above 50cc are permitted to use motorways”
Wish I’d known that. 3 years ago I rode my 125cc from England to the South of France. The A20 is toll-free through Limousin. Because they took pretty much the only main road that actually goes South, to make the motorway (it’s a French rule if they took the only main route going where the motorway goes).
Guess who didn’t know till reading the info you kindly provide above @graham, that the UK minimum of more than 125cc motorbike to go on a motorway, needs to be only 50cc in France.
To get through Limousin took me a whole day. Mainly going East and West not South, in order to go South. That’s how I saw every cow in Limousin, in the rain.
If only I had known I could take the motorway ! 
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Well it is called Limooooooosin!
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Ta.
That looks like 125cc with a full driving licence but as always in France, a small qualification that you must have been driving said 125cc within the last 5 years. Where this would matter I assume would be an insurance claim.
So is there a test you must do to ride over 125cc unfettered by any qualification?
And you could have been mown down Karen. A 50/125 bike on an autoroute is madness, whether legal or not. You’re in the same lane as the artics 
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Still not getting very far with the information. I don’t know what an A1 or A2 permit is exactly and do not know what 35kw is.
Exactly. Any vehicle which can’t comfortably hold 100 kph on the autoroute is too dangerous to use on the Autoroute in my opinion.
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cat B and you can ride a 125cc, no bigger (apart from the 3 wheelers (Piaggio, Peugeot) but that’s another story) after that you need to pass your bike test and get a permit A.
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Especially if you have the French ‘trailing leg’ which many seem to insist on despite the obvious danger. A bizarre cultural activity!
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Not restricted to France. When we all had bikes as kids one of my pals always trailed a foot. Bizarre because the only thing it’ll do for you in an accident is break your leg. Must be some sort of balance thing in foot draggers heads. Of course, we should have taken it as a sign, he went on to become a geriatrician.
The English article is not terribly clear, is it?
I’m an experienced motorcyclist (I toured Europe on a 750cc many years ago) but didn’t keep the motorcycle category when I changed my license to France - couldn’t bear the extra complication in an already labyrinthine process - and assumed I wouldn’t now be going back to large motorcycles. But now my son is considering a scooter, which obviously I’d like to have a go with - but according to the article ‘you must retake the theory exam if you’ve held a license for more than five years without riding a motorcycle’ (actually I have 'ridden 'one, but how could I prove it?).
Mmmmm… Guess you need to own a motorcycle or be named on an insurance policy for one as proof of riding.
That’s what’s at the other end of the throttle cable 
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Lived in Spain. Never saw it. Grew up in London never saw it.
Ahh, but you’re not a biker Gary, you probably never noticed it. It’s a matter of how quickly you move your foot from the road to the peg. Some are faster than others. Plus, of course, it depended on which side the gearshift is on.
A 2CV can but not going uphill 
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