I had an Email today from Brittany Ferries which included an item about the French Crit'Air stickers.

Brittany Ferries says, 'On January 1, 2025, Caen and Le Havre implemented low-emission zones, making the ‘Crit'Air’ sticker mandatory for all vehicles transiting the cities.'

This means that even if you are not planning to travel through or stay anywhere in an area that requires a Cit'Air sticker in France, you will need one to leave or return to the ferry ports at Caen and Le Havre.

Alan

As my ageing Volvo V70 is Euro 4 compliant, it would seem that even with the sticker, I will be banned from driving in most towns that have adopted the scheme. I presume, therefore, that there is no point in me having one..

Although not an official site, this seems to give clarity..

https://www.france.fr/en/article/crit-ai...itair-sticker-2

Mine has been in the top right hand corner for 8 years with no problems so far, my car is a saloon and the height is now similar to a 4x4 bottom corner ?

I have always stuck my Crit'Air stickers on the bottom of the passenger side of my cars and have never had an issue with that.

Given that more towns and cities in France require them, for less than £5, it seems a good idea to have one if traveling anywhere in France now.

Alan

I posted about this on here a while ago - we have bought and fitted the Crit'Air stickers to four cars now. And all have passed several MOTs with them in the required place - if an MOT tester fails you on it, then complain, because they are legal on UK driver's side. They must be in that position - anywhere else and you have just been lucky not to be fined so far - our French friends tell us that they haven't really got the system going outside Paris yet . They live in Bordeaux (which has an emissions zone) and we saw no stickers on any vehicles whilst there last summer! It will be enforced, apparently, at some point - and foreigners will be seen as an easy source of income, so it's well worth the £3/£4 it costs for a sticker.

As of last summer 2024 NO diesels at all can drive within the Périphérique (ring road) in Paris. Beware!

Rouen is a problem, because the autoroute from Calais to Bordeaux takes you into Rouen and then across the bridge over the Seine, before becoming a motorway again south of the city. That means you have to go into the Crit'Air zone there, unless you do a sizeable detour. Lyon has a similar zone that's hard to avoid. Rouen's zone can still be accessed by Euro 4 diesels by the way - and you can pay for 24 hour passes to allow non-compliant (older vehicles) to enter the zone. See the website below.

When up and running there will be camera systems to capture your details, which you will have given them by buying the stickers (the actual coloured sticker is meant to make it possible to spot offenders by eye, rather than by cameras which will be used on the motorways) - and signs when approaching Crit'Air zones will warn you when the zones are active (hot weather normally)

This website gives you further details across France (and other EU countries) and includes some maps of places like Rouen:

https://urbanaccessregulations.eu/countr...menu-147/france

So when the electronic system comes into operation, it will be logging the reg number of your car rather than the small Crit'Air sticker?

Alan

I reckon - how else can it work at speed on a motorway or ring road? The coloured sticker's just for any police on foot, or in a patrol car sat by the road, or even parking wardens, to spot around town. Otherwise just a photo of a badge, or even a beer mat of the right colour would work (just like the old UK car tax dodge). The fact you have logged your reg number when you buy the sticker means that they have it on their computer systems. This is how our car tax works now - traffic cameras identify number plates and issue penalties based on that. Thinking about it, if they just used the Crit'Air sticker colour to identify offenders, you could just get hold of a lowest pollution one and stick that in your mk1 V8 Range Rover...

I have a number of Guinness labels for sale if anyone is interested?