@David_Spardo
David… what date (s) is against the picture of a car (B) on the back of your license??
(get the magnifying glass out, it’s such small print…)
Le renouvellement du permis de conduire est une simple formalité administrative. A savoir : La durée de validité est de 15 ans pour les permis de catégorie A et B
et 5 ans pour les permis de catégorie C, D et E.
What a shame David, they must have changed the system sometime during 2013 ( OH pink paper CdP) and 2017 when you ended up with a plastic type one!
As you say there seems to be an error somewhere.
Maybe your Mairie can help?
I would have been happy to help with the greyhound, unfortunately I a lot on my plate at the moment.
There is no date against the A & B cats on the back of the licence, so unlimited. The reference to 2018 is at 4b on the front.
The para in French you quote seems to bear out what Marie-Paule said, the 5 years only applies to the HGV cats, but it seems a funny way to go on.
I discovered another thread on here and several people had my problem, although pre expiration I think.
As my insurance would presumably be invalid if I didn’t have a valid licence, and I did change to AXA since 2018, perhaps they can help seeing as, presumably, they asked for a copy at the time.
I think my best course of action is twofold, ring the AXA agent in the morning (English agency) and get their view, and get Marie-Paule to ring the Ants helpline you gave on the other site (do you have it to hand?) for clarity.
And postpone the Greyhound meeting till another day, it is only a face to face thing before a possible later house check.
@Lily I’ll let you all know about the Greyhound (well Galgo actually but he does look like a Grey, not all do) and is 10 years old. Bet he still runs like the wind though for at least 10 minutes, before the traditional 23 hours and 50 minutes on the couch. I just love couch potatos. 
I’ve seen that several times myself @stella. It’s happened on the computer and the tablet. I think it’s the forum software rather than your computer.
Ah… that makes me feel less of a dope. 
I am as sure as I can be that my licence is legal, big relief, because since its apparent expiry I have driven no less than 83,633 kms and received 5 ‘gifts’ of fines for speeding without any charge or comment as to the fact that I don’t have a licence to deduct the points from. I think that alone should have told me.
Getting nowhere with ANTS I rang my insurance agent just now and she has a copy of my licence in her hand. She is absolutely firm that the licence is perfectly legal for cars and that expiry only refers to my, then current but now defunct, HGV entitlements. And not just for 15 years but for life, which surprised me. The only drawback she said was that it cannot be used as proof of ID, but I already thought that anyway. I wonder now if that was why it was refused at Clinique Francheville and not, as I thought at the time, because of it being a PdC.
She did think it a good idea to get it renewed though, belt and braces I suppose in case I come across a less than fully knowledgable gendarme. If I can get through to ANTS I will, but not today.
Quite by chance today in answer to a post in the UK HGV Driver’s forum I decided to pull out my permis to check on the category names.
After doing that I put it back, but there was something else in there stopping it going in. Pulled that out and, lo and behold, a perfectly legal permis which expires in 2033. 
So I must have forgotten that I had after all renewed it in 2018, but also that I didn’t destroy the old one.
Thus I had been worried for nothing but also driving around illegally with 2 permis for the last 4 years.
Perhaps this should be in the ageing and forgetful thread.
Just catching up, confirming…
My French driving license is the old pink paper one issued in 1994 which won’t need renewing until 2033 – I believe that to be correct. There are no expiry limits on the pink permit.
In 2033 I will be obliged to renew my old pink permit for the latest plastic permit which will be valid for 15 years.
However, the very youthful clean shaven ID photo of myself on my old pink permit is worrying me. It’s 28 years out of date and I have had a greying beard for the last 22 years.
According to ‘The Connexion’ dated 2017………You are not obliged to change the license if your appearance has changed, although you can if you wish - which I think refers to the new permit.
I wish to keep my youthful appearance on my pink permit and want to avoid the bureaucracy of changing the photo if it’s not needed. Can I?
I have my pink paper one, too… and know folk who’ve not changed their permit since they were adolescents/20’s… although now retired and changed quite a bit (by the look of things)
If I’m still able to drive in 2033… I won’t mind changing… provided I can get a decent photo 
If a new photo of myself, for the driving permit, looks anything like my uptodate passport photo, I’ll give it a miss, unless of course I go to a Photo Portratist.
I’ve looked up old mates from London on the internet, who’ve moved on to being very successful self employed architects, and boy - they look so good! They haven’t aged! Professionally taken portrait photos!
I had one of those when I applied for my driving licence last year but I think the photographer would need better basic material to work with 
I don’t look too bad, when I peer in the mirror… so long as I’m not wearing my specs
Bruno Millienne, from the centre-right Mouvement Démocrate party, has put forward a draft bill
“Any holder of a driving licence aged 75 or over must provide a medical certificate issued by a doctor approved by the departmental prefecture, attesting to their full or partial ability to drive,” reads the draft legislation.
It then calls for a test to be repeated every five years, although it is not clear what the check would include or which doctors would be approved to carry them out.
The bill suggests this idea be trialled in several departments, including those with the highest accident rates and those that have the most accessible public transport.
In the Netherlands, drivers over 75 must take a sight, hearing, and reflex test every five years to keep their licence; while in Ireland, all drivers over 70 undergo yearly medical examinations to continue driving.
Summarised from Connexion:
What do you think? Should France introduce regular medical tests for older drivers? Or would it be better to do more to tackle speeding and drink-driving?
Let us know your thoughts via news@connexionfrance.com
Been over 70 in UK too for years and here, over 70 for HGV licence retention, every 2 years.
Sounds fair enough as long as it is a set agenda and not the farce of the HGV one I used to experience before not bothering anymore. Every doctor, and there is an approved list, had a different way of doing things. One had me standing on one leg with my eyes closed, I kept falling over so he shrugged and moved on. Another stood alongside me facing the other way and whispered a word while I had my finger in my nearest ear. Never heard a thing but fortunately it was near the end of the day and his mate was waiting at the desk so they could slope off for their aperos. When he could see that I hadn’t a clue he mouthed the words to me. Passed.
The only sensible one was the briefest. Blood pressure, heart, eye chart. Au revoir. 
This is a difficult subject and one to which we are all affected if we are holders of a permis here. I keep reading about elderly people having bad accidents and killing people (french press and TV included) because they have a health problem like undiagnosed dimentia or eye cataracts and they are scared to get tested in case they lose their independence. Then you have those under the influence of drugs or drink or prescription medication who drive and kill others, youngsters with no insurance or even a permis because they are seduced by the thought of driving a car fast - the list is actually too long to put down on all the different problems. Maybe at age 75 it is no bad thing to have a doctor take a look at you but they don’t do every exam that could affect you, there is just not enough of them plus their ordinary patients to look after as well. A few backhanders would no doubt pass between some as well as their known mates have to comply. Drink driving/drug driving in my mind is the biggest problem but how do you tackle it because most are back on the road in no time or buy those sans permis instead and are still a menace (we had loads locally in bretagne who were drink drivers in tin cans). My dad was always a very careful driver but as he got past 80, he became a speed demon with no care for others or their vehicles and often hit mirrors or overtook in dangerous places, he finally realised his madness and gave up the car before dimentia hit him.
The UK makes you renew every 3 years over 70, but you self declare that your eyesight complies & there’s no actual medical
Actually it’s every 2 years from 60, which reduces to 1 year after 76…
Why are the elderly being picked out? According to this summary, those over 75 are responsible for the least number of accidents/fatalities.
Seems as if this website is subscription blocked!
Screen shot…
As @Vero so rightly pointed out elsewhere, statistics are interpretational.
I am not sure the statistics can numerically state accidents other than those proclaimed through insurance logs, police record or hospitals. Does not really account for cause or all those accidents not covered by insurance or undeclared.
Fact probably is that driver’s abilities may be increasingly compromised by the debilities of declining years and a car is literally a lethal weapon. So, testing and eliminating risks is probably a good thing. Not to say that younger persons aren’t potentially lethal behind the wheel but the factors are more complicated.
That said, I am sure even were the legislation to pass, pragmatic local doctors will continue validating seniors’ right to drive where it is important for their health and necessary to maintain their independence.
I really wouldn’t worry too much!
Thankyou, I won’t, but I’m a born worrier. Shall look to improve my heath, physical and mental, if I can. That would be for me, and others, the best way forward.
I think that “age points” are useful to keep checks on the human condition.
I, personally, don’t feel picked-on… if it keeps things safer…
