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Plate Atlas
Driving abroad

Driving in France

The licence plates you will see on the road in France, how to read them, and what a car from abroad needs.

FRANCE5080110130

Speed limits

Default limits for cars, unless signs say otherwise, as on the signs at border crossings.

In towns
50 km/h
Outside towns
80 km/h
Expressways
110 km/h
Motorways
130 km/h

In rain, 110 km/h on motorways and 100 km/h on expressways. Some roads outside towns allow 90 km/h where signed.

Before you drive

Environmental zones
Paris, Grenoble, Lyon, Strasbourg and other cities have low-emission zones (ZFE). Every vehicle in them needs a Crit'Air air-quality sticker showing its emission class, and each zone sets the lowest class allowed. In Paris the zone applies on weekdays from 8 am to 8 pm.

Rules and prices change. Check the official site before you travel.

F

Country code

Cars registered here show the country code F. Plates carry it on the blue EU band, which counts as the country sign: no separate oval sticker is needed in the European Economic Area, and the plate is also valid in other countries of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. A car from abroad shows its own country code at the rear in the same way.

Reading the plates

Plates carry no regional code, so the letters and numbers do not tell where a car is from.

These codes are from the previous system (1950–2009). Plates issued today carry no regional code, but older cars still have these. Area codes on the map

Plates you will see

  • AB-123-CD

    Standard · Since 2009

Older plates still on the road

  • 1234 AB 75

    Standard · 1950–2009

Plate formats and history of France

Sources