wow, yeah the wife wants to visit Paris unfortunately. I have no interest in it personally, I managed to dwindle it down to 2 days in France, the rest in Switzerland thankfully. Its a beautiful country and I've only been skiing when I was young so I'm really looking forward to it. We have two youngish kids too so trying out some lakes etc.European driving is much easier and quicker than the UK, unless you are visiting big major cities.
I see you are heading to Switzerland........unless you have something specific planned for France, skip it, you can get to Geneva in one day quite easily. Once in Switerzland you really do have access to some of the best roads in world!!!! Its honestly like driving through some kind of endless car advert, no traffic, beautiful roads, amazing scenery, pretty much everything that is the opposite of driving in the UK!
Regarding Spotify, been to France a few times now in our Tesla, no issues with connectivity - Sat Nav does take 10 minutes to catch up once you exist the ferry/train, but thanks to Brexit, extra checks means you will be sitting in a traffic jam at passport control for about 30-45 minutes anyways.
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Same here - with the tunnel, you do passport control and immigration at the country of departure.
Not been on the ferries to France for a while but from what I recall, only Customs is at the far end.
Unless you really need a break, I’d go by Tunnel and if you want some food, head into Calais or Cité Europe for a better meal.
Not been on the ferries to France for a while but from what I recall, only Customs is at the far end.
Unless you really need a break, I’d go by Tunnel and if you want some food, head into Calais or Cité Europe for a better meal.
If you're heading into Paris you'll need the Crit-air thing, it like their congestion charge exemption. A few other cities require it too,
As others have said, get good Europe wide cover including recovery to home, Even if the car is covered by Tesla in a breakdown, they'll only take you tot he nearest service centre and if parts are not available you could end up leaving your car there for a while!!!! I'm pretty sure somebody said they ended up flying home and had to fly back to pick it up!
When we did it we didn't bother with the tag. Personal choice of course, but we actually took a little more time and kept off the payages when we could.
But otherwise - just enjoy it. It's easier than you think, maybe excluding Paris
I don't know how vital the Crit'Air vignette is, but I was advised to get one by a French friend who warned me that it is quite easy to unknowingly enter one of these zones and get a quick fixed penalty. The vignettes are very easy to get and look reasonably cool. The RAC provide information about them here and the official French government site is here. They only cost €4.51 and take a couple of weeks to arrive. If you have to travel before it arrives they send you an email with a printable QR code on it.
Well they are unlikely to stop you in a Tesla, as obviously the Crit'Air are emissions-based so you qualify for the zero-tier anyway.
And FPNs abroad do not travel back home... However if you apply for one, you are giving them your name and address linked to your registration... So technically that could be cross-referenced later for other fines, say speeding or parking...
Not suggesting anything here... anyone on this thread can do as they wish...
I don't think that any clean air zone just recognises the car — you always have to apply for your exemption. And the "fines don't follow me home" argument works if you never want to go to France again in that car, but they do keep a record and they will stop you if you are a persistent offender.
In France at least they don't use ANPR... just old-school bobbies on peak pollution days that will check if an old gas-guzzling car driving through the city has the right Crit'Air sticker colour displayed... you're not at risk from my experience...
I'm afraid that they've caught up technologically. FPNs now arrive at your UK address a few weeks after your French crime spree and that can only happen if they use ANPR. Major cities enforce their clean air zones with cameras.
I was specifically mentioning Crit'Air. 100% certain it is not ANPR enforced. It's been deemed illegal by the French ICO. But speeding fines were, obviously.
I am using the past tense here, because, unless you had a different experience, FPNs do not arrive at your UK address anymore since January last year: the cooperation agreement allowing French authorities to query DVLA has actually been voided since Brexit.. So relative impunity since then.
Also as they are using a different font, if you had a 1 in your reg like I did, it was often mistaken for a capital I (I could witness this in parking lots), and therefore wouldn't return a match anyway...
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oh really? Didn't see that on the list. Better get one in case we pop in - only planning on stopping on the outskirts but for a fiver better safe than sorry
Spoke about Crit'air with a french colleague. He said manually enforced, and you'd have to have a miserable bugger of an inspector to stop a tesla. Their aim is to improve air quality, not dish out fines.
That said, I always think UK plates on your car are a good way to "stand out", and €4.50 is cheap enough to think you may as well order it
Not ANPR enforced
That said, I always think UK plates on your car are a good way to "stand out", and €4.50 is cheap enough to think you may as well order it
Not ANPR enforced
To get the Crit’Air if you are in a leased vehicle, you’ll need the vehicle documentation from the lease company which involves a significant admin fee and postage delay. I was looking at it for Annecy, but local friends were oblivious to the scheme! In that city it looks more like the authorities ‘could chose to implement’ if air quality fell on a given day.
I’ve decided to skip it.
I’ve decided to skip it.
VE103b only cost £10 from Zen Auto - and you really do want to take one with you anyway. Once you’ve got it just upload a picture of it for the Crit. VE103B Certificates
thats good to know, I'd rather not muck about with French police and just have it. I'm more of a "make my life easier" sort of person rather than try and save £4, which is the cost of a rubbish coffee these days....for some reason.Drove through Reims twice without a Crit d’air last month. It’s all good
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