If you are hiring a vehicle to go to France, please do let us know if you will be driving/riding in Paris, Lyon or Grenoble. We will need to apply for a Crit Air Sticker for you.
The French clean air stickers – called Crit’Air vignettes – are part of a six-category sticker system that applies to all motor vehicles in certain areas to identify what emissions they produce.
The six categories have six colours that denote how heavily polluting the vehicle is according to its Euro emissions standard
The vignette, or sticker system has been introduced to reduce the emissions output in larger cities, so on days where certain cities are at risk of reaching their Euro emissions limit, heavily polluting vehicles can be refused entrance based on the Crit’Air sticker they are displaying on the windscreen.
The initiatives applies to all cars, motorbikes and lorries and affects both French residents and foreign drivers/riders – although if you have a particularly old car that does not conform to any emissions standards, you won’t be eligible for a vignette and you won’t be permitted to drive/ride your vehicle during those times when restrictions are imposed, so between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday.
Models registered before 1997, motorbikes and scooters from before June 2000, and trucks and buses from before 2001 are the main offenders in terms of emissions.
It is also worth noting that the Crit’Air scheme also applies to disabled vehicle owners.
The stickers are currently in use in Paris, Lyon and Grenoble. 22 other Cities are looking to introduce this system.