New car number plate system in France
We don't know about you, but we love to play 'car bingo' whilst driving in France - looking at the last two digits on the car number plate which denotes the 'departement' and shouting out the area. So, if you spot a 73 it's Savoie, 74 is Haute Savoie, 13 is Marseille and watch out for bad driving etiquette from the 75ers (Paris!). Now it's all changed!
After much kerfuffle and moaning, the new car number plate system came into force on the 15th April, bringing France in line with Europe. Gone is the Carte Grise vehicle document and in comes the new SIV (Systeme d'immatriculation des vehicules) with a 'certificat d'immatriculation' that stays with each car.
The new plates will have the format 11 AA 11 (instead of 123ABC73 etc), which shows no indication of the departement in which the vehicle is registered. This, in essence, was what the debate was all about prior to the new system being passed. (Presumably so you know when to let a local out at a junction and when to 'cut up' a tourist at a roundabout!). The concession is that a driver will be able to choose to put on the plate a department number, but they don't even have to be living there!
For example, an Olympic Lyonnais football fan living in the centre of Paris, could opt for a 69 (Lyon's department), but it is not part of the car number plate identification and is set in a box in the lower right hand side of the actual plate, along with the flag of that region. It is similar to the box on the left hand side of all present number plates that shows the country code (GB for the UK, F for France CH for Switzerland etc).
Seeing as the Savoyards and Haute Savoyards are very proud of their departements, we're expecting most new cars to have the 73 and 74 incorporated into the plates, so car bingo isn't dead, you'll just need better eyesight to read the less conspicuous placing of the department numbers!
At the moment the new system only concerns new cars being registered, but as of the 15th June, secondhand cars being sold will be given a new number plate when the new owner registers the vehicle.
