French CRIT airAm i
Having sorted that I can obtain my German emissions sticker in Germany can one also buy the crit air sticker once actually in France?
I didnt think I needed it so did not get one (and there is no time to get one now) as I will not be travelling through Paris, Lyon or Grenoble however we will be travelling through Montpellier area which as I understand it can become a crit air area if pollution is high? Am I understanding this correctly?
Presumable if we didn't have one we would either have to stay put or go round the area. Panic is starting to set in.
Maybe our plan for our big adventure - travelling through 8 countries was not such a good idea!
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Slightly off topic but................I need to get a new crit air as we've changed the motorhome. I remember having no trouble last time but I cannot remember how to change a word document into PDF (I copied the reg doc into word to enable me to reduce it to the required 400kb) Any help/alternative method gratefully received.
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although we have no particular plans to access any of the French cities on their list, I have just applied....
oddly, we are euro 5+ and the summary table for light commercials suggested (for our emmisions level and reg date) that it should be level 1, yet the actual application generated level 2....
ipad (certainly in landscape mode) not a good partner for the form filling, eg the reg date wouldn't allow the drop down of any month or year so had to scroll back each month....hmmm...
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with an iPad, you can just take a picture of the V5 page 2 and upload that....no need to convert any other docs.
an app called Image Size will reduce it if too big.
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It only takes about 4 days to get one. I applied last weekend and I think it arrived on Wednesday, very efficient are our continental friends.
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Having a Criti Badge regardless of Class still means you need to check whether you can drive in a zone on any particular day, especially if you have a higher number badge, e.g. currently all Class 2 badges can drive in all zones in France but Lille has an amber warning is in place indicating a possible restriction in the next few days. I haven't come across restrictions so far but with the summer coming on this could be the first year we see the system swing into full use. The GREEN-ZONES App has been updated so you can put your own vehicles details in with its badge classification and the map view will indicate your ability to drive in the current zones.
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Like birderbilly I applied last month and had the French envelope through the door 4 days later, BUT, within hours of applying I had a CritAir Cert’ via email and a very good English explanation that I could travel with this email version. I was very impressed with this service which cost me €4.10. Well done France, if only..............
BillC
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Hi BB, I used my iPad and photo of VO5 with no problems, but my rig only came up with a 3. But that will do when we are in the dung with no deal! Just trying to cover the options; no plans to enter any of the cities listed, but as the Bordeaux ring road could figure into this, I thought I would like to be sure.
I kept a lookout for you in BP during your trip North and saw your notes about Aires on the West Coast of France, so could see where you were heading. Have you looked at “CampingCarPark.com”, they are growing quickly and have some interesting locations.
Pity we didn’t get to meet! What are your plans for the rest of the year? We also loved it on Ile de Re so are thinking about that around June time. We’re trying to be brave and tackle Granada in the Autumn, but we are quite new to Spain, so let’s see what happens....
BillC
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I used my iPad and photo of VO5 with no problems
Your iPad has dandruff?
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Bill, are you a member of any other forums with a PM facility where we can chat or do you have an email address you are happy to put on here?
i can pass on some helpful stuff perhaps....
or perhaps you can ask Ro to pass it to me.....data protection?
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Thank you for the helpful advice. It wasn't easy but finally sent off application. Hopefully it was all correct and when it arrives our daughter will send it onto us as we are in Spain for about a month first. That should give us enough time to calm down!
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Bev. You should receive a confirmation by email in a few days and your sticker shortly after. The confirmatory email is sufficient evidence for the French authorities; so if you depart before your sticker arrives just place the email on your dashboard and you will be fine.
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I’m not a complete computer novice but initially I was struggling to compress the scanned registration document to a size which would be accepted by the online application. Eventually I googled ‘reduce pdf to 400kb’ and it brought up several sites to do it online and voila job done in about 10 minutes. Doh! Why didn’t I do that earlier?!! As a footnote, it was easier for me using the PC rather than the iPad. I have since received an email with a document that would be sufficient while awaiting delivery of the sticker. Apart from the resizing of the document, well done France for a slick process.
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Hi all.
I've just spent a whole day trying to get a proper overview of the Crit'air scheme for our next trip to France and had to wade through a lot of badly written 'explanations' which simply confused the issues so I thought I would distil my findings for other members.
1. The Crit'air vignettes are NOT compulsory for all roads in France. You only need them if you wish to go into the centre of Paris (inside the Peripherique) or other city centres using the scheme. If you drive the peripherique to transit around Paris you do not require a vignette. Towns are progressively converting their centres to being Emission zones Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Bordeaux and Strasbourg to come. Again, if you are only bypassing these zones you do not need a Crit'air.
The sole purpose of Crit'air seems to be to progressively phase out and ban diesel vehicles and the system is being constantly tightened up to achieve this. e.g. this year Crit'Air level 5 has been banned from most zoned cities, next year maybe Crit'air 4 and so on. The Crit'air is a method of classification of vehicles so they can be outlawed and scrapped, it is not a licence or a transit fee. One Crit'air vignette will last the life of the vehicle once it is registered.
2. These Low emission zones are also being imposed in all other European countries but, typically for 'unified' Europe, instead of an overall common scheme, each country has it's own colours, own vignettes different fine levels and own names for the zones and the classifications. Doh! For instance LEZs in Germany now number 58 cities, but you can pick up their vignettes at the first TUV garage you come to as you enter. The price is around Euros 15.00 .
The only common denominator in the Europe-wide schemes is the Euro1 thru Euro 6 engine classifications on which all the schemes are based.
3. City centre low emission zones in France are designated ZRCs but the French have also developed ZPAs which are a further set of 'temporary' low emission zones which can be brought into effect when traffic and atmospheric conditions create high levels of pollution. These zones equate with the 'Departaments' boundaries and the local Prefecture decides when to invoke them. This is to my mind an unworkable extension of the ZRC zone system. If you look at a map of these ZPAs they form a chain right across the middle of France and during summer may lead to more polluting vehicles (such as motorcaravans) having to make large detours around them. The implications for schedules and missing Ferries is obvious.
The EU term these 'Green Zones' and Prefectures can invoke them in a matter of hours. You can see their locations on this map of France and get other info on other European countries methods Here: https://www.green-zones.eu/en.html
These Green Zones have greatly increased the complexity of the schemes to beyond that which most drivers can fathom, so realising this the EU has kindly set up a Smartphone App called 'Green-Zones' (free) which correlates whether any of the ZPAs are currently invoked or not or whether you can transit freely through them. Additionally cities throughout Europe are working with Google to develop a 'Green Zone' function for their navigation App 'Waze'. You input your car type and your destination and Waze reroutes you around ZCRs and ZPAs along the way. Waze is also free to use but a bit buggy and crashes from time to time. Still very useful though.
Here's probably the sanest overview/explanation of Crit'air for CMC members to bone up on: https://www.aph.com/community/holidays/paris-anti-pollution-sticker-crit-air/
Hope all this helps someone through the Crit'Air minefield.
I haven't mentioned the furore over Classic Cars, or inability of the system to cope with grey-imports or home conversions, sigh, maybe later!
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