“More Information Please”

There are many pieces of advice on expat forums around the internet on using your UK driving licenses in France. This is my experience which differs from what many people are advocating on those forums. But please bear in mind that I am still using the old pink piece of paper UK driving license and live in a very rural part of France (so they may well be a little out of touch with official French policy) - I’m not at all sure what happens if you have the newer 2 part UK license.

It seems that if you have lived in France for a year then you MUST apply for an EU/French driving license. This means going to your local sous-prefecture/prefecture and asking for the ‘demande d’echange d’un permis de conduire etranger’. This is essentially a couple of insignificant pieces of paper that have been hastily photocopied that tell you what you have to do to get a French/Eu driving license - don’t lose these bits of paper, insignificant they may look but they are important to the paper/form loving French bureaucratic ‘fonctionaire’ system!

So, you have now successfully completed step one of integrating your driving into French society….still a loooong way to go.

Step 2: You now need some photos. So you nip down to your local hypermarket and sit in one of those photo booths you normally see teenagers snogging in, feeling very silly. Now your real problems start - it’s one of the photo booths you can choose to have your face superimposed on some unknown French ’super’ star or on Spidermans body (not sure the licensing authority would appreciate a photo of me on Spidermans body). You eventually work out how to get a passport photo, then you have to line up your face (which is shown on a screen in front you…very disturbing for me!) in an oval shape…this proves extremely difficult as the seat doesn’t go up and down. So I have to sort of squidge myself lower to try and fit my ugly mug into the oval. So you just about get it right then go on to the next step. Hmmm, more instructions on what you must/mustn’t do. No hats, no smiling, don’t look even slightly sideways/downward/upwards/backwards, is your hair combed, got your make-up on etc. Just look vacant (that was easy for me). Finally after about 10 minutes of ‘getting yourself ready’ the photo gets taken (that was hard work, and I haven’t even started with the bureaucracy yet). The photos take 30 seconds to come out - 10 minutes of sorting yourself out so the American Government can keep track of passports and 30 seconds of photo! In my day it used to be the other way round.

Step 3: Continuing through the ‘demande d’echange’. Okay, next on the demande d’echange list are photocopies of every piece of paper you can possibly think of: passports, UK license (both front and back), bills (but not just any bill, it has to be a fixed telephone line bill (that proves a little difficult soon) and an EDF (electricity) bill. Great so far - got all those.

Step 4: A piece of paper with your name and address (printed that off from the computer) - still so far so good.

Step 5: On the photocopied ‘demande d’echange’ there are lots of names, addresses and telephone numbers - it seems these people listed are translators. Hmm. It looks like they are supposed to translate the wording on the license. Not needed I think to myself because my old pink paper license has everything in several languages (including French).

Step 6: Gather all the bits together and check you have everything. After all you don’t want to get it returned because you have forgotten to include something. It’s now become quite a weighty package - just as well you have to take it to the sous-prefecture/prefecture and drop it off rather than send it by post. So you make another trip to the prefecture to proudly hand over your weighty tome. She equally proudly hands it back almost immediately after briefly looking through everything - you’ve forgotten to include those insignificant photocopied pieces of paper they originally gave you.

Step 7: Return to the prefecture with the insignificant photocopied bits of paper AND all your other photocopied bits of paper and smile sweetly through gritted teeth. Great, she accepts it! That wasn’t too bad was it? Everything should be fine now - I’m looking forward to getting my brand new EU/French license soon.

Step 8: Wait for the postman to bring your new license…..and wait……..and wait.

Step 9: Its arrived! The post lady stands there with a brown envelope waiting for me to sign for the package. I eagerly rip open the envelope to get my license…but wait. Aren’t those the documents I took to the prefecture? Where’s the license?

No license. All my paperwork has been returned to me with lots of pink highlighter across everything. It seems I sent in the bill for Tele2 (telephone) - they don’t like that, they want one from Orange. The piece of paper with my name and address has to be hand written! And I have to ask for a new license nicely on a hand written piece of paper with my name and address! The photocopy of my license wasn’t good enough (the license is in a bit of a state - well in 4 bits actually). So I have to start all over again.

I will keep you posted on the outcome.