Though these vehicles under French law should have an assurance. I think some on here are being more French than the French ou plus royaliste que le roi
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Perhaps in the interest, at least in part, of protecting the reputation of the British residents in France.
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That train has left the station 
I think it’s all one on one now with locals. They respect you (or not) for who you are, not for where you come from.
Does it Carl, any proof for that? Do you know of anybody ever prosecuted for using someone else’s address? These are bullshit laws enacted with no investment in enforcement. When shoplifters are roaming free do the authorities really have the resource to police that? Of course not. Though I don’t need to, I wouldn’t give a second thought to using a friend’s or relatives’ address in the UK to renew my UK licence.
Be that as it may, they are still the law of the land, and as such, compliance should be our endeavour.
Indeed Robert, but I suspect through experience you know what I mean. I like things net net, cut and dried, and we all know where we stand but… sadly.
There is no doubt that many people manage to, shall we say, ‘circumnavigate’ certain rules and regulations that are found to be inconvenient. Most of these ‘creative’ solutions go undetected, but there is always the risk that through some totally unexpected circumstance things all come unraveled, and then it can be very costly indeed.
Much better in the long run to just comply with the rules in the first place so that the constant looking over the shoulder is not required. It’s a great aid to sound sleep.
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I couldn’t agree more and that would be my philosophy too. However, there are some rules that are a bit daft, archaic or which the local populous ignore or which have no, or virtually no downside for ignoring. I just want to do as the locals do and not be a twat on either side of the line.
Fair enough. However, as Third Country Nationals I do think that we need to be a bit more careful than the average bear.
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Sound advice.
Depends upon whether you wish to gamble John. If you get caught there is a £1,000 fine, if you choose to gamble and hope to get away with it, then that is your choice. Applying for an exchange French licence, whilst slow, isn’t onerous and is free- why take the chance? This lady, either through ignorance or design, chose to ignore all the rules and live here under the radar, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night doing that. I have been stopped by the French police at check points on numerous occasions and I wouldn’t want to try an explain how my UK licence is newer than my CDS.
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On my advice, when I had to swap my licence for work purposes on arrival in 1999, my wife swapped hers at the same time. This was to avoid having to renew when she got to 70, although she couldn’t (adresse) and would have lost it altogether.
In both our cases though the sub-prefecture made a mistake. For me it came to light on a very early morning in Cornwall when I was stopped (mistakenly) by the police for speeding. They could not check with Swansea out of hours, only their own computers by radio and declared that I had no licence at all, despite them holding my French one in their hands. They let me go after some weird exchanges and I checked with Swansea when I got home. The mistake soon became clear, the sub-p had not sent my UK one back to them and so it was cancelled after I passed 70.
In my wife’s case, they forgot to swap her licences, merely gave her a French one, to her dying day she still held 2 licences, although the Brit one was obviously long expired and the French one never used by our agreement after she fainted at the wheel and wrote the car off.
My French licence has reference to my UK licence number on the reverse and I still have a copy of my old UK licence with all my entitlements as DVLA have a habit of cocking things up by adding or removing categories. My wife had a full motorcycle licence added by DVLA before we moved to France, despite the fact she has never ridden one, let alone taken her test.
I’ve only been stopped once, and that was because they wanted a look at the Morgan . It was a few years ago before I swapped my licence and they didn’t know the rules. I explained that one only had to change if one committed an offence and they told me they could arrange they for me if I liked 
A further mistake on my French one was that I lost my bike entitlement but mysteriously gained a full psv (bus) one. Neither affected me so I couldn’t be bothered to complain.
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My understanding of the WA CdS/Brexit/01/01/2021 deadline was that all Brits with existing/legacy CdS had to change them for a WA CdS. We all - newcomers and old lags together - started off on the same foot with WA CdS issued post-Brexit.
“[quote=“Cindy1, post:13, topic:51579”]
I suppose I am a UK resident but spend far more time in France.”
Eh? Earlier you said you had a CdS “Which never runs out”
DVLA retains records for years. I don’t know how long before they erase them. I declared a vehicle ‘Permantently exported’. Some months later, Spanish police were able to access DVLA records online in a car park in the middle of nowhere, on the Mesa in central La Mancha.
They could see that it had no MoT and was not taxed. Their hand-held gizmo duly printed off the fine. Not legal in the country of registation … 
That I had sent in the ‘Permanently exported’ slip meant nothing.
Again, I sent in the slip to ‘Permanently export’ my car. This was duly imported into FR and registed to FR plates. Over a year later I got a F.P.N. from ‘West Midlands Police Compliance Dept’ - ANPR spotted no tax/no MoT.
The car, whatever it was, was subsequently stopped and the driver arrested - cloned plates plus all the rest.
This was so long after I’d formally exported it that I could only assume that someone in DVLA was selling exported regs to crims, to clone.
That’s good to know. I’ve been kicking myself I didn’t keep a note of my husband’s UK licence number when we swapped it for a French one a few years ago.
I must dig out his French licence tonight and inspect it.
I shall definitely be getting rid of my UK car then and not bringing it with me. 
Although I have been planning to bring the motorbike and register that in France since it is “middle hand drive”, but we shall see.
When I moved to Turks & Caicos in 2003 various suppliers and financial institutions kept sending paperwork to the flat I had sold (despite my having notified them all in writing that I was leaving the UK) - a few months later I had a couple of cases of identity theft to sort out where my details had been used to open mail order accounts etc.
It was all so very easy to knock back. I sent them copies of my C.G., photos of the car with FR reg, copy of my FR rental contract … and a snotty note asking them why they had not told me, when asked, if the car they impounded was the same make/model/colour as mine.
If your car is a goer I’d invest in the €70 fee charged by Mark Rimmer [dukwman@gmail.com] to do the do and reg it for you. Driving a RHD car in Europe is no bother to me. In fact, with the Vivaro I can see over the tops of all cars ahead of me …
Thank you yes I had thought of doing that - I don’t mind driving RHD in Europe and my Honda Accord is currently a goer, but it’s not a spring chicken (2009 reg) and eventually it will need replacing and then I’m stuck with an old knackered RHD thing that isn’t very saleable in France.
I’ll see what the finances are like at the time I move, but I suspect it will be better to start afresh with something newer that’s LHD.
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