After more than forty years of driving, eight cars, 154 fines, and fortunately only five collisions, I am now in possession of a French driver’s license. That was not a good idea. I would have preferred to keep my Dutch driving license. Not out of patriotism but of personal interest; that French driving license with only 12 points is terrible. If you sneeze once and pass a radar check with your eyes closed and three kilometres too fast, you immediately lose one point.
It could even be worse. You are approaching a zebra crossing, and someone is lingering at the curb—or Tiktokking, texting or sleepwalks. If you pass the zebra crossing without stopping, and the police happen to see this because they are driving behind you, you will lose 6 points. SIX POINTS. Out of 12. And also a few hundred euros poorer.
Sitting duck in a car
Until recently, the rule was ‘if someone has a foot on the zebra crossing or makes a movement to walk on the zebra crossing’, you must give way. The rules have been further tightened this year to the benefit of pedestrians. As a motorist, you have become a sitting duck; even if the light for the pedestrian is red and the ‘pieton’ crosses (while that is not allowed), you have to give her/him/it priority.
In France, I had to throw my own priority rule overboard. It was simple: ‘If you smile friendly or raise your hand, you will be given priority’. Unfortunately, that no longer works. I now stop very exaggeratedly and wait until someone crosses the road. Or until cars behind me start honking.
Blink
Another rule I can no longer ignore is turning on the blinking signal in time. Because no one in our village ever turns on their turning signals, I have adopted this local custom. As a result, we all turn around a roundabout every day and see who leaves at what point. But if the police catch you leaving the roundabout without blinking, you will lose four points.
Luckily, the police are never everywhere, so we get away with it. Unfortunately, the responsible government is currently installing intelligent cameras everywhere that can register license plates and also your incorrect driving behaviour. Long live IT.
Driving too fast
The most significant point destroyer is, of course, speed. And that always goes wrong. It requires quite a bit of concentration to drive from Cannes to Sainte Maxime. The traffic signs change every ten minutes from 70 to 110, to 90 and then 130 again. Fortunately, all French people have ‘Waze’ turned on on their mobile phones, which warns in time about section checks and speed cameras.
And if a group of police officers secretly measure speed with a sneaky radar gun, they are quickly reported via Waze. I have both Flitsmeister and Waze turned on because I’m terrified of losing my driver’s license. Without a driver’s license, I can no longer make visits, and that is, of course, not good for the business.
Back to school
Suddenly, I only had 5 points left and decided to do an ‘internship de permit’. Anyone who attends a re-education school for two days earns four points again. You can only do this once a year, so quite a few people come for the 2nd or third time. I don’t have particularly good memories of school, but necessity makes law, so last Monday at 8:00 am, I showed up at ‘France Stage Permis’ in Nice. A driving examiner and a psychologist kept us busy for two days, improving our awareness and road use.
Listening to the teacher
As little children, we were divided into groups and given, for example, three small pieces of paper. We had to write down our emotions for the word RADAR. All those answers then went to a group that inventoried all emotions and classified them per primary emotion. A debate about your attitude and your responsibilities on the road followed this.
The group was highly varied, from retired to a 19-year-old truck driver without points (for speeding) and anybody in between. The general atmosphere was cheerful and not too serious, much to the dismay of the teachers, who did everything they could to make us feel guilty for a long time.
We heard about statistics and the number of deaths on the road that have fallen drastically thanks to radar checks. The figure is now 3,500 deaths per year. That is a good result for a population of 60 million, but the French want to achieve 0 deaths. According to them, the only way to achieve this goal is to reduce the speed further. We have been warned.
Points and fouls
Crimes related to alcohol or drug use
Driving with a blood alcohol level between 0.5 and 0.8 g/liter of blood (0.25 and 0.4 mg/liter of exhaled air) 6 points
Driving with a blood alcohol level equal to or greater than 0.8 g/liter of blood or in a state of noticeable intoxication 6 points
Repeatedly driving with a blood alcohol level equal to or greater than 0.8 g/liter of blood or in a state of noticeable intoxication, revocation of driver’s license.
Refusal to submit to a blood alcohol test 6 points
Driving after using drugs or refusing drug tests 6 points
Repeated going after drug use, driver’s license revocation
Offences related to failure to comply with speed limits
Speed less than 20 km/h 1 point
Speed equal to or greater than 20 km/h and less than 30 km/h 2 points
Speed equal to or greater than 30 km/h and less than 40 km/h 3 points
Speed equal to or greater than 40 km/h and less than 50 km/h 4 points
Speed above 50 km/h 6 points
Transport, detention, use of a device intended to detect or disrupt speed controls (radar detectors) 6 points
Equipment and seat belt violations
Not wearing gloves on motorized two-wheelers 1 point
Not wearing a motorized two-wheeler helmet 3 points
Not wearing a seat belt 3 points
Traffic and parking violations
Continuous line overlap (traffic lane and emergency lane) 1 point
Crossing a solid line (emergency stop lane) 1 point
Acceleration of a driver about to be overtaken 2 points
Left-hand traffic on two-way roads 3 points
Dangerous overtaking 3 points
Crossing a solid line (traffic lane) 3 points
Failure to respect the safety distances between two vehicles 3 points
Change of direction without prior warning 3 points
Driving on a hard shoulder 3 points
Dangerous parking 3 points
Using a handset while driving or a hands-free kit, headset or headset 3 points
Refusal of priority 4 points
Failure to stop at a red light stop sign or yield 4 points
Failure to stop at a red light stop sign or yield 4 points
Driving at night without lights or driving in insufficient visibility without lights 4
Failure to respect pedestrian priority 6. points
Vehicle violations
Not respecting the transparency of the windscreens
(windshield driver and passenger and side windows) 3 points
Violations Number of points withdrawn
Driving despite administrative or judicial suspension of the driving license or withholding of the driving license 6 points
Accidental injury caused to a third party resulting in work stoppage 6 points
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