Putting Your UK Car on French Plates

A guideline on the Procedure for homologation of English cars imported into
France (Putting Your UK Car on French Plates)

In order to put a car on to French number plates it is necessary to go to the Préfecture or Sous-Préfecture in the Département in which you live. You will be asked to complete an application form and to pay the charge for this service by cheque. However, you will have to assemble the following documents to submit with your application :

A certificate of conformity - this is normally obtainable from the manufacturer’s head office in France and will cost something over 100 euros. However, it is sometimes possible to ask your local dealer (concessionnaire) to obtain this certificate on your behalf, and this may be free of charge.

If the car is at least 4 years old it will have to pass its French MOT (contrôle technique). This will probably mean that the headlamps will need modifying. You will need the pass certificate from the contrôle technique and possibly the invoice(facture) for the headlamp modification for your visit to the Préfecture.

(Please note that some UK vehicles which are not generally available in France or are over a certain age may also have to be inspected by the DRIRE)

Once the above documents are obtained it is necessary to take these documents,plus the car’s UK registration document, your passport and a French utilities bill as proof of your residence in France, to your local Hôtel des Impôts to obtain the « Quitus » for the vehicle (a free document proving that the VAT on this vehicle has been paid in a member country of the European Union).

Now that you have all the above documents, the final step is to take them to the Préfecture together with a Distingo 20 envelope obtainable from the Post Office for 1.66 euros (this is for the “carte grise” to be sent on to you). There you will normally be helped to complete the application form if necessary, and you will be given a receipt for those papers (car’s
registration document etc) which will be retained by the Préfecture. This is just in case the Gendarmes ask you to show your car’s papers before you receive the new French registration document (“carte grise”).

Within ten days or so you will receive the “carte grise” which gives your new number plate.

You need to take this original document to your garage so that they can supply and fit the plates (there will, of course, be a modest charge for this.) And, finally, please remember to issue your insurance company with a photocopy of this new document so that they can issue you with a revised insurance certificate.

Will it?

A popular English language French newspaper reported on recent EU proposals which could allow UK inheritance law to apply to British expats living in France and to their whole estate, including property.

This would totally change the current rules where owners of French properties are subject to long standing Napoleonic laws which require that property is almost always passed through the blood line to children etc with little choice available for the owners.

This decision, if converted to law would allow you to choose your heirs.

Not signed off yet and could take years to be approved, but a very important development which affects hugely the affairs of Brits who choose to live in France.

One to watch!

It's official - Britain & Ireland have worst quality of life in Europe!

A recent article posted online by the Telegraph, states that British people have the worst quality of life in Europe, according to a report which highlights the long hours, bad weather, low life expectancy and high price of many consumer goods.

In a study of ten of the largest European countries, Britain came last followed by Ireland, with France and Spain topping the table.

The report which analyses 10 European countries against various key benchmarks, from the price of gas, electricity, fuel, food and drink to the amount each country spends on education, health to working conditions and the weather.

The top three countries are France, Spain and Denmark, with Sweden, Ireland and Britain coming eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

The study comes less than a week after the United Nations moved Britain out of the top 20 list of most desirable countries to live in for the first time.

New low cost routes serving Dordogne region

Ryanair recently announced 4 new routes for SW France served from their newly formed base at Leeds-Bardford airport.

From March 2010 it plans to base two of its fleet at Leeds Bradford and will offer flights to Carcassonne, Limoges, Montpellier and Nantes. Limoges airport, situated just to the north of the region and only 75 mins drive from the Dordogne capital of Perigueux will shortly enoy this additional service to the region offering easier access from the North of the UKFlight times

This comes close on the heels of the announcment that Jet2.com would start a new service next year between Leeds Bradford and Bergerac.

Flights depart every Saturday from May 17, 2010, and will include an additional Tuesday service available between June 28 and September 12.

Prices start from £29.99 inclusive and are available for sale already - planned timetable is:

Leeds Bradford to Bergerac
Saturday, departs 8am, arrives 11am
Tuesday, departs 11.30am, arrives 2.30pm

Bergerac to Leeds Bradford
Saturday, departs 11.30am, arrives 12.30pm
Tuesday, departs 3pm, arrives 4pm

Do you have a French accent.... on your keyboard?

For those of you who have always wondered how you can type your French grammar correctly on an english keyboard, here are the shortcut keys to press for each. Practice and Enjoy!
á é í ó ú accent aigu Press Alt Gr + press vowel

è accent grave Ctrl + top left key (`) then press letter

ç c cedille left Ctrl + comma then press c

â accent circonflexe left shift + ctrl + 6 then press vowel

ü trema Shift + Ctrl +( ;) key then press letter

Now you have no excuse whe emailing your French friends!

UK car plates to French?

One of our cars, a left hand drive, that we recently purchased in the UK, is still currently on GB plates.  The car has been correctly exported from the UK and is insured in France. Naturally, we had intended to get the transfer or "rematriculation" to French plates in due course.

Having just recived a letter from our insurers, this has now gone up the priority list somewhat! - In short, the insurers have stated that following recent pressure from the French government, they will refuse to insure any vehicles, at renewal of the policy, that are not on French plates.

A fair cop guv!  and rightly so - for our useful guide on how to go about this click here: http://www.dordognepropertyagency.com/links/info.aspx

Tell us what you would like to know about living in France!

Hello to all "Francophiles" and lovers of France!

This is our first post on our blog and we love to hear from you!

My wife and I first moved permamently to the Dordogne region of France at the end of 2002, having made the decision to leave the UK for good. Our reasons for making the move were a straightforward combination of our desire to get of the UK (we were becoming very concerned about the decline of quality of life) and the simpe fact that we loved France as a country.

We gave up our regular contact with friends and family, quit our very comfortable jobs in the UK and took the leap, having decided to set up a business as professional registered estate agents - see http://www.dordognepropertyagency.com/

We have since moved house three times, got married here (one of the most magical days imaginable) have been blessed with our two lovely sons and we are loving every minute of our lives here in France.

In our business lives we now spend our time helping many other people to acheive the same dream.......therefore:

We are posting our first blog to now ask all of you, what is it that you would like to know about life in France? Do you have questions about property or the market here? Are you thinking of making the move yourselves?

Please tell us about any subject that you would like our comments on. This is very much an experiment for us as we are new to the world of blogging - hopefully we can help some others who would also like to "make the leap" whilt creating some interesting discussion threads at the same time.


Hope to hear from you soon!
Tony - Dordogne Property Agency