French driving licence renewal

Need to start again has anyone renewed a FRENCH driving liecence any time in the last year is how did they go about it because the system has been changed

Are you having a laugh David - you’ve already been given the links on your duplicate thread? Here’s one again…

You do it online using the link Simon has posted. Can’t be done at the Prefecture any more it can only be done online via the ANTS website. Just follow the instructions on the website.

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I’ve done this (almost). Sent off all the papers and got back the OK after five months. I now have an attestation stapled to a copy of my UK licence pending tha arrival of a french one. So far so good.
The attestation is valid for six months still, (not a good sign that the french replacement will be issued soon) and I’d like to know if
a) I can drive abroad with it (like in the UK)
b) How do I hire a car abroad with this.
Am I confined to driving only in France in 2019??

I am a little concerned because my UK licence (not a copy)was sent with the file to Nantes :rage:
Had I known the procedure would take so long I would have waited.
Anybody else in the same boat, any advice apart from just wait?

This thread is about renewal of a French driving licence not the exchange of a UK licence for a French one. Suggest you check out this thread (or one of the many others) and post your questions there. Hope this helps get the answers you want.

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Opps, my brain is getting cranky the closer we get to BD
Thank you Mandy

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For how long is a French driving licence valid?

I see you never got a reply Lily, but I always thought that it was 15 years unless, like Fran, you have a really old paper one which apparently allows driving without limit.

I have just had a really nasty shock. I set off to drive to the doctor this morning to renew Fran’s prescription and see if we can book a rdv for the 4th jab. As I was entering the next village a kindly lorry driver gave me a warning flash and I could see in the distance the gendarmes with a stationary car alongside.

I have nothing to hide but nevertheless I turned right as I know there is a back road which by passes the village and it would save me time. Then at a suitable place I pulled up and decided to make sure I had all my docs with me. Insurance and CG ok but now for the licence. Had to put on a different pair of specs to read the tiny print and to my horror I saw that it says 4a Expiry October 2018. :astonished:

Can’t be right surely, I checked the Delivery date, October 2013, only 5 years. Can this be right? I thought I had another 6 years to go. Taking no chances I turned round and came straight back home to find a magnifying glass. No mistake, 2018 and also in a little hollogram bottom right.

So what to do, a simple renewal which will take time or do I have to take a test, nearly 4 years out of expiry? Of course, no comfort, but do I have to rely on Fran now? She stopped driving after fainting at the wheel and ditching the car 10 years or so ago. :roll_eyes:

Google says this:

15 years
How long does a French driving license lasts? French driving licence expiry date is 15 years . Please note that once it expires, holder does not have to pass a new exam. The renewal is just about updating the picture and address of the owner.

Edit: The link in that article deals mostly with foreign exchanges but further down I saw this:

French driving license after 70

The elderly must pass a medical test before reaching 75 and 80 years . After that, the test must be performed every 2 years. In case of issues, the driving license can be subject to limitations (must drive an automatic car, with glasses, during dyalight etc.). If medical conditions prevent safe driving, the driving license will be cancelled.

Can this be why it is so short, should I have taken a medical in 2017 before my 75th birthday at the end of that year? I thought I had given up with medicals when I decided not to renew my HGV entitlements.

@Lily
Which sort do you have … the folding stiff pink paper (like I’ve got) or the creditcard size ??? and… are you still seeking answers ??

The simple answer to that is NO… :crossed_fingers: I can’t imagine you or anyone thinking it safe for your Fran to be in charge of a moving vehicle. (no disrespect to your Fran, just based on your description of her abilities, both mental and physical)
Your Fran would have to undergo a Medical to prove her capable of Driving… and I think we know the outcome of that would be a big NO.

This link was updated in March 2022 and clearly states that a medical certificate is NOT obligatory… (unless the person is obviously having difficulties) although the blanket-suggestion is put forward regularly for consideration by whichever Government is in power at the time …

il n’existe aucune obligation de produire un certificat médical pour continuer à conduire, et ce quel que soit votre âge."

Others might well have more up to date info… but I don’t think I’ve heard of anything Official recently…

I know you get on well with your neighbour… chat with her about your license… I’m sure she’ll put your mind at rest and help you do the necessary to update it.

That’s really good news Stella, thank you, but I am wondering if I still have to update the licence as it definitely shows a 2018 expiry date. I will ask next door, but also just down the road to my ex gendarme friend, I’m sure he will know. Of course if I had carried on into the check this morning I might have got the answer then, but maybe also with a ticket. :roll_eyes:

I was only half joking about Fran driving me, as she too would have fallen into the no-medical trap if there had been one. She may have provoked some raised eyebrows also as her pink French licence is marked with a restriction ‘70GB’. Now I know that that only refers to her UK licence (which bizarrely she still has) and being unable to driver there, but a gendarme on the street may not realise that.

I also considered getting my mechanic friend to overhaul and bring back into life our Ape 3 wheel van which is efffectively a sans-permis, but since we had it on the road, before 2009 when the law changed, it is now required to have a CG. Something very difficult to obtain as it was an import with very little or no paperwork.

David… this is NOT a Restriction… it’s just Information entered in the column.

My French pink license shows certain things
Alongside “B” (category) with the picture of a Car is the Date “Depuis le” when I passed my Test and got my License.
Next bit “Jusqu’au” is blank (as there is no expiry) and in the “Restrictions” column is marked 70 RU.
(So many Brits have thought/worried that this relates to the “70 years of age” British thingy, but it’s nothing of the sort.)

70 = Denotes that this French License is being issued against a Foreign one.
RU = Royaume Unis (as United Kingdom is the country which issued my License)

anyway… you go and speak with your ex-Gendarme friend… he’ll help you get yourself sorted… but do it sooner rather than later, now that you’ve noticed it. :+1: :wink:

Something strange is happening here, my post has been greyed out and you have answered it in my name. :rofl:
Nevertheless I know what you mean and you are quite right, but I wasn’t worried about that bit as I know it was connected to UK.
Marie-Paule is quite sure that my licence is still current and thinks that the 2018 bit refers to my ceasing to have the PL entitlement, but that finished in 2017 not 2018. She will check with her gendarme friend if I don’t see mine first. :grinning:

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I had a “strange experience” on SF only the other day… like you say, what I was writing seemed to arrive within the post of the person I was replying to … and then it also appeared lower down as well… very, very strange.

I gave my computer a good talking to (no bad language, of course) and it has behaved since then. (I switched it OFF and then back ON and it settled its feathers…)

@David_Spardo @Stella
Your questions had me checking mine and OH PdC’s.
OH has the old pink type and the only section that has expired is for towing, no problem.
I have the CC type and 4b does indicate the expiry date/ maybe renewal date? Mine is valid for fifteen years, not sure if this is the norm? David, when did you change to a french PdC? I hope you will hear some reassuring information from your friends :crossed_fingers:
Lily

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The “date” will be the time to check/confirm personal details and offer a new photo … :+1:

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Not sure I shall be or want to be driving by then :woman_shrugging:

Yes 15 years for the plastic type is the norm, which is why I cannot understand why mine was for only 5. And not age related because I saw an older man this evening who has a licence for 15 through to 2036, when he will be around 100 years old. :astonished:

Had no choice to change, way back in 1999 when I got my first driving job here, the sub-prefecture at the time said I must have a French licence for HGVs and was happy to do so looking forward to when I would be 70 and lose my UK one. Fran changed for the same reason at the time and, ironically, as she has never renewed, hers is for life. I had to keep renewing because after 60 I had to have a medical every 2 years, but gave that up in 2017. I have a feeling a mistake has been made somewhere but how the hell I sort it out I have no idea.

Meanwhile, it looks like I have to cancel a trip to Aix sur Vienne tomorrow to meet a lady from Levriers sans Frontieres with a view to adopting an aged Greyhound. :confused:

@Stella Is that confirmed as true? Does it mean that the licence is still valid then? How come everybody else I have spoken to gets 15 years before an update then?