Hi all,
I’m wondering if there is any benefit to swapping my UK driving licence (pre '21) for a French licence? Is there even a process if so? Is it ok to just keep my UK one, or has anyone had any issues doing this?
I see other forum posts on this topic but not since Brexit concluded, and am wondering on the latest.
Thanks!
You don’t have any choice other than to keep it until it’s either about to expire or you commit an offence that incurs a points deduction, at which point you must exchange it.
To add to what @JohnH said, if you need to change because your licence is about to expire you can start the process 6 months before the expiry date.
Has that changed @JohnH, since Brexit perhaps, because I advised my wife to change hers back in '99 merely in order to avoid the worry of renewing her UK one when she arrived at age 70. As I have mentioned before, I was obliged to change mine then because of the HGV entitlement and my new job here.
Exactly this.
You might want to print this out and tuck it somewhere in your car. Some gendarmes have been known to kick up a fuss on seeing a British licence and insist it isn’t valid.
https://questions.assemblee-nationale.fr/questions/detail/15/qe/39958/(vue)/pdf
Or this
Thanks, so in that case I wonder if the rule about the job with an HGV licence has changed too. 
However, perhaps inapplicable now, maybe it isn’t possible to swan in and get a job. How wonderful things used to be. 
Some gendarmes have been known to kick up a fuss on seeing a British licence and insist it isn’t valid.
A bit like the Devon and Cornwall police in the middle of the night who stopped me and insisted for quite some time that my French EU licence was not valid in England then. 
David, see another big haulage co has gone to the wall - Gwynned Shipping in north Wales. BIL says working is drying up fast in the UK for established hauliers and so is european as well!
Makes it all the more surprising then that the bloke I mentioned earlier whose sons now run the company he started 50 odd years ago which does exclusively international work, was and still is, a rabid Brexiteer.
I did believe this common understanding but switched mine over when it still had over a year till the expiry date.
I simply paid a local agent 30 euros and two and a half months later the French version arrived.
The great benefit is that, all being well, I can now drive until I am eighty six before the next renewal.