My french driving license story
In this infotainment article, I will share my experience over the last 2 years to get the French “Permis de Conduire.” Sharing this with you as I think it will be worth the time to share knowledge, resources, and links, and above all will be an interesting read. So tighten your seat belts and, On y va!
The background
I have been driving in India and UK since 2012, and have driven around 20,000+ in Indian cities like Delhi, Noida, and GURUGRAM (if you know, you know). So, I thought driving in France would be easy peasy 🤣
So the rule says that you can drive in France on a Foreign license as long as you are on a short-term visa or a student visa. Just carry an attested translation of your (Indian, in my case) license.
So during my master's in Paris, I could rent a car from sites like getaround.com and go anywhere I liked. But like all good things, the masters finished, and so did my privilege to drive around. And since I could not simply exchange my Indian license with a French one, I embarked on a 2-year long journey to get a french driving license…
The procedure to get a license
So the steps are fairly simple:
- Register to get a NEPH number
- Clear the theory exam
- Do the driving classes
- Pass the practical exam
Now, there are two main ways of getting a license — go to a driving school, “Auto Ecole” which will take care of everything for you, or do things on your own as a “Candidat Libre”.
Now for the driving schools, you have 2main categories:
- French Speaking schools (those found in your neighborhood)
- English Speaking Schools — like Zipee and Fehrenbach in the Paris region
As a “Candidat Libre” you need to go to online schools — like Ornicar, Stych, Lepermislibre, etc. to do some driving classes.
In the following sections, you will find all the steps I took in my journey of getting this the ‘permis de conduire’.
Step 0: Gather all the info
If you are going through an Auto Ecole, they will give you all the study material and will answer all your questions. Although most things will be in French, be ready to brush up on your french skills.
However — If you are a Candi Libre like me, you need to gather all the resources on the internet.
For starters, here are some useful links I found:
- Applying for a French Driving Licence — I can not recommend this group enough! As an Anglophone in France, this is one place where you will find everything. The group is run by a one-woman army Kim Cranstoun, kudos to her!
- Blog by ICT- a step-by-step guide to getting a license in France.
- Conduite Online — excellent videos on how to park your car.
- Fcd Autoecole — a good collection of videos to understand how things work on french roads.
- Ornikar — and other similar websites of online schools have some free as some free online theory exam material and mock tests.
Step 1: Start preparing for the theory exam
Be it auto ecole or candi lib, the first hurdle is to pass the theory exam, also known as (épreuve théorique commune or ETG). The format is 40 MCQs — you must get at least 35 correct to pass.
The exam is held at most post offices. And there are appointments available almost every day. Here is a link to read more about it.
I registered with Ornikar to get their study material and did some mock tests before writing the final exam(s).
- I score 31 on the first attempt.
- I figured out the sections I was weak in — working on those — got 28 this time, thanks to some weird french words I found in the exam.
- I tried again and got 34 this time- unlucky me!
- And finally, I passed the exam with 38/40 — everything worked out on that day.
Be it the lack of french knowledge understanding or being overconfident at exams — It took me 4, yes, four attempts to finally pass it.
Please be aware some times (which was definitely NOT the case for me), the exam can be surprisingly more difficult than the mock tests.
Often, I think taking an exam would have been a better option. I will leave that to your judgment of french to see if that is an option you should consider.
Phew, they definitely test your persistence!
Step 2: First driving lesson
So after passing the theory exam, it was time to go for the first driving lesson. Having driven already in France, I was fairly confident about it.
And I impressed the evaluator from Ornikar, he recommended 5 hours of driving lessons, and I was ready for the exam!
He just asked me to register on the Candilib portal. And he told me to do it fast as there was a long waiting on the portal.
Step 3: The long wait….
What started as an abnormally long waiting period to get an exam with the prefecture for a practical exam date was a classical example of french bureaucracy!
This was anything but normal — I tried different things — from paying a third party to booking a slot for me using web scripts. or taking things in my hand to try to use someone’s script I found on GitHub to get a place for me.
But nothing worked out!
At some time, almost 100,000 people were waiting for an appointment with the prefectures across France for the practical exam.
There were various petitions signed up. Some protests, but nothing changed.
UPDATE:
Now that people have suffered through it enough. The government has scrapped the old system for the following departments — 45–75–77–78–91–92–93–94 and 95. And if you live in these departments, you can simply book an appointment now on the new RdvPermis platform.
Step 4: The system is screwed up; let us take another route
After waiting for a year and seeing that doing things on my own was not working out, I decided to move my file to a Driving School.
They insisted that you give an exam through them I had to do minimum of 20 hours. Not left with many options, I decided to go for it.
I sometimes think I could have done that from the very beginning. But
Life is only 20% of what happens to you, and 80% is decided by how you react to it.
Anyways, I did the 20 hours, appeared in the driving exam, and FAILED!
I made a very small mistake of stopping the car at a round point after the line, and the inspector mercilessly decided that it was an ‘eliminatory mistake’.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!
I did not give up, did another 10 hours, and appeared in the exam after 1 month, and this time, I passed with a score of 29.5/30. I feel immensely proud when I see my evaluation sheet 😁😁
So here are some takeaways from my driving school experience:
- Ornikar instructors are amazing — If you get the chance, try to drive with Ornikar instructors. Since they work on a rating and active feedback mechanism, they are way better than the ones you find at driving schools.
- Choose wisely — Not every instructor is the same at the auto ecole. Ask for the instructor who has the best chemistry with you. Remember — if you don’t ask it, you won’t get it.
- Learn from youtube — And like most things in life, Youtube has the best teachers in the world, and you should definitely leverage that on technical things like how to park your car, etc.
Step 5: Finally, I passed!!! Time to buy a car 🚗
Last week I bought my mine own car. But I am more proud of the fact that I am now driving it with a hard-earned French driving license.
How much money did it cost me
So depending on the route you choose to take — English Speaking Schools are super expensive, as they need to provide you with a translator for the written exam. And the online ones are the cheapest as they are supposed to be ‘disruptive’ in this ‘rotting system.’
For me personally, I took 10 hours with Ornicar, 400 Euros, and 4 attempts of theory exam — 150 Euros. The first shot of driving 30 hours — 1000 Euros, and then another 10 hours since I failed once — 500 Euros. So almost 2000 Euros.
But I was naive and did a lot of things stupidly if you do things smartly (that is the reason I am writing this)— go to an auto Ecole (now since the online ones have appointments available), do everything with the same school, do not rush for an exam date — you should be all good in almost about 1000 Euros.
I hope this article was useful for you, and best of luck with your Permis de Conduire Journey. If you have any questions leverage the power of social media channels- we still live in a very helpful world.
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It will encourage me to finish part 2 of this series — where I reflect on this 2 years journey and identify the things I did (I wish I had not) and some things I could not do and I wish someone would have told me already.
And I answer the big question of whether to pass with an auto school, online school, or go on your own for the French Driving License.
