Licence swapping

[penryar]

Has anyone here swapped their UK licence for a French one? If so when you swapped over, did they take over your trailer towing entitlement?
I passed my test long enough ago to have B+E (Car + heavy trailer, whatever that means) and don't want to lose it when I get a French licence.

[neil-f]

You may find that you get extra cats on the French licence a friend of mine got HGV motorbike etc that he did not have on his UK licence! Would suggest you take a photocopy of your UK licence before you surrender it so you have proof of UK entitlements.
Cheers
Neil

[chateaucharly]

I am assuming for one reason or another you are in a position where you have to change your license. I only ask as we have never bothered to change our Uk licenses to a French one as there is no need according to EU rules.

[penryar]

No particular reason for swapping licence other than the old paper one is held together with tape and is looking a tad ropey.
For what I've been reading about licences, if you get stopped by the Gendarmes for a pointable offence, they make you swap licence so they get to put the points on a French licence. Might be tosh, but I'm in no rush to find out. That obviously only applies to permanent residents over here.

[jim hobbs]

Hi Steve
I have just replaced my old falling apart paper UK licence for a shiny new card type. Can be done easily via the internet. A trailer licence may prove useful if you have to rescue us again!!
See you at the Bergerac concours?
J & C

[neil-f]

If you no longer live in the UK what address do you have on your licence issed by DVLA? As it is a paper licence it is not very new! so the UK address could be out of date? in which case if you use it in the UK you may be commiting an offence as you are required to notify change of address to DVLA.

[penryar]

neil-f said:

If you no longer live in the UK what address do you have on your licence issed by DVLA? As it is a paper licence it is not very new! so the UK address could be out of date? in which case if you use it in the UK you may be commiting an offence as you are required to notify change of address to DVLA.

See thats the rub, given the current political situation in the UK I have absolutely no intention of setting foot back in the country for the foreseeable future. Been over here for 4 years so far .

[Abbott]

penryar said:

No particular reason for swapping licence other than the old paper one is held together with tape and is looking a tad ropey.
For what I've been reading about licences, if you get stopped by the Gendarmes for a pointable offence, they make you swap licence so they get to put the points on a French licence. Might be tosh, but I'm in no rush to find out. That obviously only applies to permanent residents over here.

That is true. 4 years ago I got done for Grand Vitesse, They took my license away on the spot and had to go to the prefecture to get it replaced by a French one so they could load the points. Getting a French license is fairly straight forward depending on how busy your prefecture is. As also noted above be careful to check that they translate your entitlements correctly when they handed me mine I had lost the motorbike but gained an HGV. Probably more helpful in the long run but no good for biking

[HappyGoLucky]

To get the new plastic UK licence you need a UK address! We made that mistake when Mrs IAS lost her licence when we lived in Malaysia... got the forms, sent em off and nothing! Called up the DVLA who said they couldn't issue a licence outside of the country and we should contact them when we returned to the UK (6 years later!)

I've been stopped for speeding here a few times - in both French and UK plated cars - and have never been asked to surrender my licence. That said, I know someone who has and he's still running UK plates so there doesn't seem to be a lot of consistency.