Riding a motorbike in France: the rules visiting riders need

Carry your licence with the motorcycle category, the registration document and proof of insurance. EU licences are valid as they are; UK photocard licences don't need an International Driving Permit. UK-registered bikes need no green card in France, according to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, but they do need a UK identifier on the rear: a UK sticker or a number plate that shows it.

If you cross from the UK, the EU's Entry/Exit System registers UK passport holders' fingerprints and photo at the border. Allow extra time at the port on your first crossing.

France has three kit rules that catch out visiting riders. All three apply to foreign riders as well as French ones:

• Gloves: rider and passenger must wear motorcycle gloves with a CE mark, certified to the EN 13594 standard. Riding without them is a fine and a point on a French licence.
• Helmet reflectors: the helmet must be approved (ECE or NF) and carry four reflective stickers, one at the front, one at the back and one on each side. New helmets sold outside France usually come without them; reflective sticker kits are cheap from bike shops.
• Hi-vis vest: carry a CE-marked high-visibility vest on the bike (EN ISO 20471 or EN 1150) and put it on if you stop at the roadside after a breakdown, an emergency or a crash. You don't have to wear it while riding.

The French road safety agency, Sécurité routière, and the government's Service-Public site publish the details.

Most French motorways (autoroutes) are toll roads, paid at barriers by distance. Motorcycles, scooters, trikes and sidecars are class 5 and pay noticeably less than cars (class 1). There's no vignette.

• Use the lanes marked with a card symbol or a staffed lane. Many riders keep the card in a tank-bag window or a jacket pocket so they don't have to take gloves off at every barrier.
• Electronic toll badges for bikes exist, but some operators bill them at the car rate. Check with the badge provider that you will be charged class 5 before you rely on one.

The free routes nationales and departmental roads are usually the better riding anyway; save the autoroute for the long transit days.

Road	Default limit
Autoroute, dry	130 km/h
Autoroute, rain	110 km/h
Two-way roads without a central divider	80 km/h, or 90 km/h where signed
Built-up areas	50 km/h

The 80 km/h default on ordinary two-way roads can be raised to 90 km/h by the local authority, and many départements have done so on some of their roads. Follow the signs and assume 80 unless you see 90. Riders on a French probationary licence have lower limits. Speed cameras are frequent.

France now allows filtering (circulation inter-files) under a national decree, with strict conditions:

• only on roads with two separate carriageways divided by a central reservation, and a speed limit of at least 70 km/h;
• only in dense traffic, and only between the two leftmost lanes;
• at 50 km/h at most, and 30 km/h at most when one of the lanes is at a standstill;
• only on bikes up to one metre wide;
• not through roadworks, or in snow or ice.

Breaking these conditions is a fine and points. Outside them, filtering counts as dangerous overtaking.

The famous high cols of the Alps and the Pyrenees are closed in winter and open again from late spring as the snow is cleared. The highest roads on the Route des Grandes Alpes, are often the last to open. Check the current status with the département's road information before you set off. Some cols also close to motor traffic for cycling events on summer days.

Keep the standard silencer in: loud bikes are what turns villages against riders.

Several French cities, including Paris and Lyon, run low-emission zones (ZFE). In these zones, and during pollution alerts in other cities, motorcycles need a Crit'Air sticker showing their emissions class. Foreign-registered vehicles need one too. Bikes are classed by Euro standard; a Euro 3 bike is Crit'Air 2, a Euro 2 bike Crit'Air 3.

Order it only from the official certificat-air.gouv.fr site, using the option for vehicles registered abroad, and allow time for it to arrive by post. Look-alike sites charge more, and some are scams. On a bike the sticker goes on the front, where it can be seen. The rules for ZFEs are under political review; check before you ride into a city.

Supermarket fuel stations are usually the cheapest; motorway stations the dearest. In rural France many stations are unstaffed out of hours and card-only, and not every foreign card works at the pump, so fill up in the afternoon rather than counting on a 9 pm top-up in a small village.

The south and the Atlantic coast are rideable most of the year. The Vosges and the Massif Central are best from May to October. The Alps and the high Pyrenees open fully in early summer.

• Eurotunnel (LeShuttle) from Folkestone to Calais carries motorcycles, and the crossing takes about 35 minutes.
• Dover to Calais or Dunkirk by ferry, the classic quick crossing.
• Portsmouth to Caen with Brittany Ferries, a longer crossing that puts you in Normandy, closer to western France and the Pyrenees.

Ferry crews usually help strap bikes down, but take your own soft ties in case.

• Route des Grandes Alpes: Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean over the highest cols, with French Alps biker hotels.
• The Pyrenees and the Col du Tourmalet, with Pyrenees stays.
• The Vosges Route des Crêtes: ridge roads a day from Calais, with stays in the Vosges and Alsace.