I know a few people that have lived here for years, they’d have to learn french before sitting the Code & driving tests. I bet there are a few thousand in the same situation.
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Phew… connubial bliss restored. God bless our local fleuriste.
Frankly Colin ANTS is a mystery to me. I’m sure that in Germany and Belgium (and possible every where else) it’ll go like clockwork but ANTS 
Plus, is it Grant Shapps that’s supposed to be sorting this out?
If it was one negotiation at an UK/EU level there’d be some chance but if it’s country by country, well who knows? Maybe a blanket offer from the UK to recognise any EU country’s licence that offers reciprocity. But somebody in the DoT needs to be worrying about this and I wonder if they are.
We are continually relieved that we exchanged our driving licences when the UK brought in stricter regulations for those over 70.
There was no way we were going to be able to go back and fulfill their criteria, so we changed.
No problem.
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I’m afraid I find it hard to have much sympathy for that cohort Warren. It doesn’t take much effort to speak bad French. I should know 
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This is all new to me, although it doesn’t concerne me as I’ve had a French licence for years now (and the big problem of trying to hold on to my points and win them back over the years!) But I’ve just signalled this to friends who live here and they’ve come back telling me there’s a facebook group keeping track and advising on this and that they’re confident that the two governments will come to an agreement well before the end of the year so don’t lose hope 
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I think the woman who administers that facebook group has a good reputation and is said to be very well-connected. Perhaps more so than an unknown contact at ANTS who could be completely out of this loop? (ANTS cover a lot of things). So if she’s relaxed then that’s positive.
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I’m sure this has been posted before but it does provide a link to the FB group.
Exchanging a UK driving licence for a French permis de conduire.
It’s actually a link to their forum site.
The link is within the 4th sentence -
And that site says quite clearly that not worth thinking about a test right now for pre-31/12 people:
UPDATE – 01/02/2021 – The ANTS site is currently refusing applications to exchange UK licences under the EU system. No new applications will be accepted until a reciprocal agreement has been signed off. The French government has recently issued guidance that UK licences are recognised as legal to drive for anyone that arrived in the country before the 31st December 2020 deadline. This is the link to the text stating this in French on the “applying for a French driving licence” facebook group. It is advisable to print it off and keep it and proof of the fact that you arrived in or before 2020 in the car.
Don’t worry if you applied before the cut off date in early January when they stopped accepting UK licence applications. Your case is still being dealt with.
For the time being, you can drive on a photocard that has expired as long as the licence itself is still in date.
The guidance that various people are receiving that they need to take a driving test now, is incorrect. It is the official response for non-EU applications, not tailored to the British withdrawal agreement. We will update the page as new information is received, but the best place to check for the latest news is the Facebook group, as Kim Cranstoun is in direct contact with the officials concerned.
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Thanks John. I love your reply. Gave me a chuckle. Working with both the ANTS and the French government on a daily basis, I am going with the plan B. But I will sneakily send back a new application for a swap as well. You never know… 
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My wife and I plus several friends, made applications on the ANTS site around 2-4th Feb.
Our applications appear to have been accepted, and we have all been emailed attestations.
Whatever the outcome of our applications to exchange licences, I cannot imagine that the French authorities will want to (or be able to) handle tens of thousands of driving test from Brits.
It won’t just be tens of thousands.
Can you imagine how many British and EU people it would be, that will need to sit tests in the UK/EU countries if they don’t come to an agreement and get into a tit for tat situation, it would be carnage, most likely hundreds of thousands.
Supposing there are the upper estimate limits I have seen that there are 350-400 thousands Brits in France after Brexit and 500 thousands in Spain alone and at least half are still on UK drivers licences and need to sit tests 
But a nice money maker tho’?
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Not sure how you’ve managed to do that Nigel as this is the current message -
Motif de la demande
Le motif est essentiel pour déterminer le contenu des informations nécessaires à la demande. Êtes-vous certain de valider ce motif ? (il ne sera plus modifiable par la suite)
Votre demande d’échange de permis de conduire ne peut aboutir.
En effet, pour réaliser cet échange, il est nécessaire que le pays de délivrance du permis de conduire ait un accord de réciprocité avec la France, ce qui n’est pas le cas.
Si vous souhaitez obtenir un courrier de rejet de votre demande, vous permettant de connaitre les voies et délais de recours, merci de valider ce message, de remplir votre état-civil sur la page suivante et de demander l’édition du courrier d’informations.
Surely ANTS merely processes and carries out what the French gov’ decides, and doesn’t make policy. As I understand it from several sources negotiations are going on albeit slowly between HMG and Elysee as to what the position will for driving licences post Dec 2021. I’m inclined to believe, though I may be nieve, that many 000s of French residents who have Uk licences will not be stopped from driving…particularly as they were not able to exchange them from about July 2019 onwards through no fault of theirs
Stella was saying the other day that she couldn’t help a friend do an application as couldn’t get past the first pages…
Curious p, do you have perhaps Irish licences?
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No it doesn’t make policy John, it just implements it… slooowley.
No need to swap Irish licences Jane (unless one has been naughty and lost points).
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