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VACCINATIONS IN FRANCE - UPDATE

It appears the vaccine rollout is ramping up as promised and people are now finding it easier to book an appointment. For online bookings (and to check if your priority group has been called up yet), you can visit: https://about.doctolib.fr/covid-vaccination. This gives you details of which ages and groups (for example, certain illnesses, particular professions) are eligible, which dates and which vaccine. As the information is constantly changing and updating, if you would like to be vaccinated against covid-19 it’s a good idea to keep checking either Doctolib.fr, Sante.fr or directly with your doctor.

UK DRIVING LICENCES

A spokesperson from the British Embassy in Paris has recently confirmed that the UK and France are in the final stages of negotiations concerning a reciprocal agreement between the two countries. Without this agreement, British driving licence holders have found themselves unable to exchange their UK licences to French ones. When asked when the UK and EU would reach an agreement on driving licences, Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Conservative, House of Lords and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport) replied: “All EU/EEA Member States, except for Italy, have confirmed reciprocal arrangements for exchanging licences, confirming that a retest will not be required for resident UK nationals. Most of our agreements are permanent arrangements and a small number require formal agreements which will be concluded before the end of this year. Where these agreements are needed, the UK has secured interim arrangements with the relevant Member States. All EU/EEA countries have confirmed that International Driving Permits will not be required by UK visitors.” The British Embassy has said published guidance should be issued very soon. UNMARKED SPEED CAMERA CARS ATCHOUM !

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At the end of April, la Sécurité routière announced they are set to triple the amount of private unmarked speed detection cars. At the moment there are 83 cars in France (these operate in Brittany, Normandy, Centre-Val de Loire and Pays-de-la-Loire) but this will increase to 223 and will include Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Grand-Est, Hauts-de-France and B o u r g o g n e - F r a n c h e - C o m t é (these regions are due to begin around now). La Sécurité routière stated: “The number of [speeding] tickets issued as a result of a violation detected by a speed detection car (whether private or not) represents 9.2% of all tickets issued as a result of speeding detected by a camera.” They also said that authorities are preferring to outsource speed camera monitoring to private companies, to “free up and better use the skills and qualifications of law enforcement” in other areas, such as testing drivers suspected of driving under the influence of drink or drugs.