You can drive in France with your American license as a ...



You can drive in France with your American license as a tourist, but it's always a good idea to get an International Driver's License before coming to France, which costs about $15 from AAA. If you are a resident of France, you must have a French driver's license after one year or you will no longer be insured, and therefore will be driving illegally. This one year period starts on the date of your first carte de séjour, unless it is an étudiant card, in which case you can drive with your American license for the duration of your studies.

 

French Permis de Conduire

Exchange: If your country or state has a reciprocal exchange with France (checkthis site), then you can exchange your license for a French license without having to take any written or driving tests within one year of the beginning date on your carte de séjour. Currently, there are 15 US states that have this exchange: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia as well as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a few Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Quebec. If you do not do the exchange within the one year period, then you will have to take the tests in order to obtain a French license, though some préfectures are lenient on the one year rule.

I was able to exchange my license, and all I had to do was give 1) a copy of my carte de séjour, 2) a copy of my passport, 3) my American license, 4) an official French translation of my American license, 5) 2 ID photos, and 6) a Distingo envelope bought at the post office for 1,66 € to the Circulation department at my Préfecture. I received my French license within 6 weeks, and besides the Distingo envelope, it was free! Note however, that when you do the exchange, you will be relinquishing your American license. And because American licenses do not specify if you drive manual or automatic, your French license will not specify this so you will be allowed to drive either (even if you don't actually know how to drive a manual.)

If you have a license that was issued from an EU state, then you do not need to exchange it for a French license. You may drive in France with your original license, and in fact, as of 2013, all EU states will begin issuing a European driver's license valid in all EU and EEA states.

The Hard Way: If you cannot do the exchange, then you must obtain a driver's license the hard way. You will have to pass a multiple choice test before you can take the road test. Driving school is very expensive in France though, so expect to pay hundreds of euros if you don't need a lot of practice and over a thousand euros if you do need practice. (For example, the cheapest school found in the center of Bordeaux was 600€, including exam fees, a study booklet to borrow, and 8 hours of driving.) The whole process takes at least two to three months to obtain a French driver's license.

Driving schools:

- Advantages: they take care of the paperwork, the exam scheduling, and talking to the Préfecture; they know what the tests are like and it's in their best interest to prepare you (it ups their stats!); the Préfecture reserves exam spots for the driving schools; they have the most up-to-date information

- Disadvantage : they're expensive

- If you don't pass your exams the first time around, the driving school often requires that you pay for more lessons, as well as the exam fees for the subsequent exams. (ex: to repeat the road test, it could cost about 500 € more, on top of the 600€ you'd already paid)

- Visit a couple and ask for a quote with the number of hours of lessons they'll make you take before choosing one.  Professionalism, prices, and requirements often vary.

Written Test: You can go to a driving school to practice for the written test, but it is not required. There are a lot of books and CD-Roms that are available for self-study if you don't want to spend money on taking practice exams in class. The actual test is 40 questions, and you must answer 35 correctly in order to pass, but you only have 30 seconds to answer each question. Most questions are based on a photo taken of a situation seen from the driver's seat of a car. Two to four possible courses of action are offered as answers. There is always at least one right answer and at least one wrong answer. (There can be from one to three correct responses to a given question.) The practice exams are generally harder than the actual test though.

Road Test: Even if you have been driving for many years in your home country, it will be probably be a good idea to take some driving lessons in France before you take the road test. This can be quite expensive though, around 35 € an hour! (And with the rising price of gas, expect to see cost per hour of lessons go up.) The actual test lasts about 20 minutes and you will need to provide a traduction assermentée of your American license. And if you take the road test in an automatic car, your license will specify that you can only drive automatic cars in France. If you take the road test with a manual car, your French license will not have the automatic car restriction and you are free to drive either one. If you want to take the road test without going through a driving school, you need to provide a car with two sets of controls (a second one for the examiner) -- I hear there are companies in the Paris region that rent them, but don't know of any.

You can take both the written and the road exams with a translator.  The advantage of a translator on the written exam(besides allowing you to understand the questions!) is that you don't have a time limit to answer the questions... but you do have to pay for the translator, and there are fewer exam spots available.

First-time exam-takers have priority.  If you don't pass your French exams the first time around, it can be a 2-6 month wait to retake them!

Restricted License: If you obtained a license in France the hard way, you will be considered a jeune conducteur and receive a restricted license even if you have years of driving experience. This means that you will have only 6 points instead of 12 on your license (points are deducted instead of added in France) for 3 years. And you will have to put the red A on the back of your car, meaning that you must drive slower than the speed limit on roads outside of cities.

French driver's licenses never expire, so once you have it, it's good for life!

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Driving in France

Priorité à droite takes a while to get used to because it seems to make no sense. Even if you are driving on the main road, you may need to slow down and stop at every little side road on your right to let that traffic through. These intersections are generally marked with signs with an X and priorité à droite painted on the road. However, if you are to the right, don't plan on other cars respecting this rule and letting you go. If you are at an intersection where the lights don't work because of a power failure, then the rule becomes priorité à droite, but of course, most people don't know/don't respect this rule.

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