Learning to drive in France
We’ve reached that scary time in every parent’s life where a son or daughter is 16 years old and thinks it would be a good idea to learn how to drive, so we’ve been finding out the rules for teenagers learning to drive in France. Think ‘stress’ and ‘expense’ and you will be pretty close.
The first challenge, before teenager is allowed behind the wheel, is that they have to spend at least 20 hours in a test centre learning about the highway code (autoguide de la route), and then pass a test about it. For example, when overtaking a cyclist what is the minimum distance to leave between your car and the cyclist? Or, how many glasses of wine are you allowed to drink before driving?
I’m sure no normal adult knows 90% of these rules but it is a good ploy for keeping young people off the road for as long as possible, so the harder the questions the better.
Of course, young miss isn’t interested in this stuff, she just wants to be out there driving a flashy car and looking cool. This is a few months away for us at the moment, but involves two aspects – the first of these is to have at least 20 driving lessons with a qualified instructor, and the second is ‘accompanied driving’. I don’t have a problem with the first of these……but the second is a bit more scary!
Over the course of a year or so (the legal maximum is three years) she has to drive 3,000 kilometres with us accompanying her and offering words of wisdom. Have you ever offered words of wisdom to a teenage girl learning to drive? I sense it might become rather stressful at times. The accompanying adult must have had a clean licence for at least three years, be over 28 years old, not be drunk etc – so we can’t just pay some other young person to go along for the ride instead of us.
To make matters worse the ‘accompanied driving’ is at about 10 kmh less than normal driving speed limits – so presumably there will always be a long queue of irate French folk following close behind demonstrating that they forgot all about safe driving and braking distances as soon as their driving tests were over. The ‘conduite acompagnée’ also has to include time driving in towns and on busy roads, so we can’t just go and drive the tractor around the field for a fortnight and claim we have done the necessary.
Of course, there will be extra challenges if your own 16 year old wants to learn in France but hasn’t lived here long – a pretty good level of French language, both written and spoken, is going to be crucial.
Happily a youngster has to be at least 18 before they have passed all the tests, including the final ‘yes you’re safe to be let out alone’ test, and completed all the accompanied driving so it is quite a while before she will become a serious hazard to the general public. Planning a visit to northern Lot-et-Garonne in the summer of 2012? Think again, it might be dangerous!
(Footnote: I’m sure you are eager to know the answers to the French highway code questions above: (1) when overtaking a cyclist you need to leave a gap of at least 1.5 metres, reduced to 1 metre in towns; (2) one small glass of wine or a half-pint of beer is usually enough to reach the blood alcohol limit for driving in France. The risk of crashing is increased tenfold in those who have three small glasses of wine or a pint and a half of beer before driving…)
My current plan is to dispatch the girls to friends’ in the UK for one of those intensive courses, which is still easier and cheaper than learning in France. Once they are 18 they can change this UK licence for a French one. And of course they will benefit from having all those extra catagories for driving mid-sized lorries, small buses, etc on their French licence without having to trouble themselves with the time and expense of doing the extra tests here.
Triples all round, I’d say! Though not, obviously, for the designated driver.
Perhaps we could set up some kind of business exploiting this useful loophole?
That’s interesting Jon, I’d wondered about doing that as well.
But would you not need a valid UK address for them to put on the licence application?
You would need a UK address, but I don’t think you’d be obliged to demonstrate permanent residence.
With all this you wonder why there are so many accidents in France.
Perhaps by the time they get through there is a degree of over confidence. My concern always is that there is far to much theory and not enough practical.
But that’s cultural. Theory first and then put it into practice. Music lessons are organized along the same lines!
The problem can also be changing the British license for the French one. When I did this for myself, the required paperwork had been destroyed in the UK and it was a job for the D system.
At the end of the day though, I was actually pretty pleased with the conduite accompagnée for my kids as it meant two years’ driving with supervision before their being let loose on the general public. Apparently the accidents are among the ones who haven’t done it.
Bon courage!
Like you, we faced the approach of our eldest daughter’s key birthday with trepidation – she can never find the car in a car park let alone drive it….
We were astonished to find that it would cost approx 1000euros for the obligatory 21 hours of lessons plus the test – just so that she could drive accompanied with us.
Because I have a bugbear about people driving who CANNOT PARK THEIR VEHICLE – I took her to the Intermarché carpark regularly to practise. After a couple of months, she decided that it was not worth passing her driving test yet since she would not be in a position to drive for several years (lack of funds, going to Uni, etc) so we were let off the hook!
It of course might have been that tree she kept reversing into (because she DID NOT NOTICE IT) that put her off…..
Great result! For our own daughter the Intermarché car park stage is still a month or two away. Fingers crossed they also have a suitably positioned tree – we can always go in the middle of a foggy night if that helps.
I still have dreams about the time she was negotiating around the empty carpark on a quiet Sunday afternoon, when out of nowhere a juggernaut appeared coming towards us at right angles.
After a few moments of inaction on her part, I advised her to brake.
And she replied….’What brake?!’