Driving In France and 'Air Quality Certificate'

Admin, Thu Aug 24 2017

You may have seen on the TV or in the press about the requirement to register your car and get a Certificat Qualit? de l'air when driving in certain areas in France.

Don't display the Certificate in your car or enter a restricted area and you risk a large fine.

Whilst a lot of our members 'Classics' won't qualify being pre January 1993 and 'Euro Rating' regieme, for those who travel to France in a modern or 'future classic' you should apply for one.

Apply online - Click Here - direct to the French Government department and it only costs 4.8 euro per certificate, per car and not a 3rd party site which charges additional fees.

A certificate should arrive in under 2 weeks (mine did)

There are 6 classes of certificates. The air quality certificate helps to favor the least polluting vehicles:

Favorable parking arrangements;
Preferred traffic conditions;
In restricted traffic areas (ZCR) or in the event of a pollution peak.
The air quality certificate is mandatory to circulate in the restricted zones established by certain local authorities (Paris) or to circulate when the prefect introduces the differentiated traffic during certain episodes of pollution.
Re: Driving In France and 'Air Quality Certificate'
Admin, Wed Sep 06 2017

1504720170 1 FT710 Critair

Above are 2 official examples of 'Crit'Air' stickers in place on car windscreens.


On the LEFT as class 3 is a 2008 2.7 Turbo Diesel engined car, on the RIGHT in class 1 is a 2017 1.4 Turbo Petrol engined car (both images have had some detail removed for security.)

The actual class will determine where a car can go depending on the restrictions applied in any particular area. central Paris and Lyon are the only places you may be stopped entering in anything under class 1, but that can and will change in the future.