15-04-2019, 11:48 AM
(15-04-2019, 08:12 AM)reckless Rat Wrote: Since 2009 French registration plates have a format AB- 123- DE and the Departmental code is now optional. There is no guarantee that a new style plate carrying a "30" for example marker at the extreme right ( the bit in blue) is from the Gard. All you can be sure of is that when the plates were issued the owner elected to have the 30. You can choose what you like. These new style national plates remain with the car for its entire life and have no real relevance as to where the current owner may live. They might, but then again they might not. Only the old style plates (the rears are yellow, which are numbers, two or three letters and then a departmental code) can be relied on to be local and they are becoming fewer and fewer as the cars are sold on or scrapped. Having said that, three of my cars carry old style plates with the Gard (30) marker.
Yes, not as easy as it once was. The result is that, instead of a tour though the lovely countryside with a stop for lunch in a decent reatuarant, one tends to either cross the country in one go without even stopping for fuel - or miss the autoroute costs entirely by going through Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. i.e. a visit to Switzerland costs £90 less this way than going through France (and diesel in Luxembourg is just 0.99 Euro a litre). Of course, in a Seven, things are very different and the country roads can be a great pleasure.