Fines in France for not having driving licence

We're driving to the French Alps next week and due to the DVLA not
being able to return my partner's driving licence in time due to an
address change, she won't be able to take it with her.

I hear if you can't produce your licence if required you're fined on
the spot - anyone know how much?

I really don't want to have to drive it all myself and of all the
thousands of miles I've driven thru France I've never needed mine but
want to weigh up whether it's worth risking it.

cheers

Nigel (Remove NOSPAM) wrote:

Not sure about France but in Holland,Germany,Austria & probably most
of the rest of europe . You must have your Licence on you when you
drive .

If I remember rightly from when I used to live in Blighty (long time
ago now) it is actually a legal requirement to have your licence or
International Driver License,log book,MOT on you when you take your
car abroad. So weather your partner doesn't have her license back &
she is driving, she will be breaking the law !

In Germany if you are involved in an accident and cant produce your
put in the slammer until you can . I know this for a fact from
personal experience :-)


Goodluck

Nigel


Roger wrote:

We're driving to the French Alps next week and due to the DVLA not
being able to return my partner's driving licence in time due to an
address change, she won't be able to take it with her.

I hear if you can't produce your licence if required you're fined on
the spot - anyone know how much?

I really don't want to have to drive it all myself and of all the
thousands of miles I've driven thru France I've never needed mine but
want to weigh up whether it's worth risking it.

cheers

Same in Switzerland, always have the papers with you.
--
Simon Brown
www.hb9drv.ch

"Nigel" wrote in message
...

Not sure about France but in Holland,Germany,Austria & probably most
of the rest of europe . You must have your Licence on you when you
drive .

If I remember rightly from when I used to live in Blighty (long time
ago now) it is actually a legal requirement to have your licence or
International Driver License,log book,MOT on you when you take your
car abroad. So weather your partner doesn't have her license back &
she is driving, she will be breaking the law !

In Germany if you are involved in an accident and cant produce your
put in the slammer until you can . I know this for a fact from
personal experience :-)

Nigel wrote in message ...
Nigel (Remove NOSPAM) wrote:

Not sure about France but in Holland,Germany,Austria & probably most
of the rest of europe . You must have your Licence on you when you
drive .

In France you have to present your driving license to your local
police station if you don't have it with you. However I don't think
that will work with foreigners although the police are usually quite
polite.

Nigel wrote:

Nigel (Remove NOSPAM) wrote:

In Germany if you are involved in an accident and cant produce your
put in the slammer until you can . I know this for a fact from
personal experience :-)

How can you produce your licence etc if you're locked up?

I'm picturing the scene from the Great Escape with Donald Pleasence
forging papers...

Its none of the waste of time & resources softly softly approach you get
with the wooden tops in UK !
Most Euro countrys's you have to prove your ID and then they have to
establish it before they let you go!

Basically you have to get someone to put up bail (if you cant yourself)
& then report back with your docs ! It only applies to foreign drivers .

Nigel

Steve Haigh wrote:
Nigel wrote:


Nigel (Remove NOSPAM) wrote:


In Germany if you are involved in an accident and cant produce your
put in the slammer until you can . I know this for a fact from
personal experience :-)

How can you produce your licence etc if you're locked up?

I'm picturing the scene from the Great Escape with Donald Pleasence
forging papers...

"Nigel (Remove NOSPAM)" wrote:

In Germany if you are involved in an accident and cant produce your
put in the slammer until you can . I know this for a fact from
personal experience :-)


How can you produce your licence etc if you're locked up?

I'm picturing the scene from the Great Escape with Donald Pleasence
forging papers...

Its none of the waste of time & resources softly softly approach you get
with the wooden tops in UK !
Most Euro countrys's you have to prove your ID and then they have to
establish it before they let you go!


Which is why London was always a popular destination for terrorists
who needed to lie low for a while.

Basically you have to get someone to put up bail (if you cant yourself)
& then report back with your docs ! It only applies to foreign drivers .


Most of the German laws in this respect (registration etc) are a
hangover from occupation.

I think this guy would be OK as long he is not driving a
Slovakian-registered Lada loaded with electrical goods. The flics, any
flics, nearly always want to see a driving license if you are driving
a vehicle with Eastern plates.

The French are not brilliant at close scrutiny of documents and I have
handed them vehicle documents where the plates do not match, etc. Same
with tachometer - they cannot read them and you just hand them the
'official' set. Things will get worse for truckers with this goddamned
cock-sucking digital camera business however.

In fact this is just the start. With digitisation and computerisation
there will come a lot more irritations. I have a friend who escaped
the East by jumping overboard in Hamburg harbour. He took the identify
of a dead man but fortunately no-one has ever compared the records of
births and deaths and figured out he is dead.

The Italian paperwork system was best. Just hand over cash with the
documents. The more inept the forgery, the more the cash.

My advice to anyone driving in France is to carry some cash- say £300.00
because if you pick up one of the "on the spot fines" ( typically £60 to
£120) and you only have a credit card you are likely to be driven to a cash
machine and then left to make your way back to your car. If you weigh this
up it could be quite a proformance and very inconveinient. I dont know what
they would say about not having a licence with you but as long as you have
oter identification how bad could it get?
Take care and enjoy yourselves. David

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 13:18:26 -0000, "David Edwards"
wrote:

My advice to anyone driving in France is to carry some cash- say £300.00
because if you pick up one of the "on the spot fines" ( typically £60 to
£120) and you only have a credit card you are likely to be driven to a cash
machine and then left to make your way back to your car. If you weigh this
up it could be quite a proformance and very inconveinient. I dont know what
they would say about not having a licence with you but as long as you have
oter identification how bad could it get?
Take care and enjoy yourselves. David

IME they tend to get you to drive to the atm in your own car,
following behind, while they hang on to your licence.

But yes, carrying enough cash money is a good idea.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Ace wrote:
"David wrote:

My advice to anyone driving in France is to carry some cash- say £300.00
because if you pick up one of the "on the spot fines" ( typically £60 to
£120) and you only have a credit card you are likely to be driven to a cash
machine and then left to make your way back to your car. If you weigh this
up it could be quite a proformance and very inconveinient. I dont know what
they would say about not having a licence with you but as long as you have
oter identification how bad could it get?
Take care and enjoy yourselves. David

IME they tend to get you to drive to the atm in your own car,
following behind, while they hang on to your licence.


Tactics seem to vary. I have seen people get away with the smaller
fines just by pleading they had no cash or Eurocheques. Escorting cars
to cash machines is not effective as they would need a fleet of cars
on standby to do this. They normally try and hold onto a piece of
documentation and hope that you will return for it.


But yes, carrying enough cash money is a good idea.


Seconded. Place the max fine FFR5000 / EUR750 in an envelope in the
glovebox.