I passed the written part of my driver's exam!!!

[phread]

Not big news, but I am posting it because it was so different than the tests I have passed in California and Quebec.

First, driving school runs about 700E and is obligatory. You go there to watch slide show after slide show of driving situations with questions. For example, a photograph taken from the driver's seat of a car in which you see an intersection with a green light, but the head of a pedestrian discretely hidden behind oncoming traffic. Followed by a series of questions. a) I should stop b) I can play chicken with the granmère crossing against the red light. There are forty questions and you are allowed five errors. the practice tests are difficult. I never got less than 7 errors.

So, today was the day of the test. You have to sign up about a month in advance and canceling can cost about 70E. Ça ne rigole pas! The testing center is in the 15th arron and serves the entire city. Upon arrival the street is littered with young adults from African, Asian and European backgrounds (my neighborhood is too white and I find the burst of color refreshing) nervously chatting or doing a last minute review. There were over 100 of us and we were divided into 4 rooms of 30. You are called by name, given a remote to answer your questions and told where to sit. It took 45 minutes just to get us ready to take the test. Then came the explainations and the actual exam, in slideshow format.

At the end we are again called by name, the remote feeds our responses into a machine and the monitor annouces, "No!" or "C'est bon" In front of everyone, of course. In our room only four passed.

Now it is back to driving school for 10-20 hours of behind the wheel lessons before being allowed to pass the driving part of the exam. With 20 years of bad habits under my belt, I can tell you, those sessions are a hoot. Only added to by the wandering hands of the instructor (when I was 16 I had to crush an instructor's hand between the steering wheel and my knee... why do I keep getting the creeps?) and his propensity for slamming on the breaks unannounced whenever he feels the urge to jump out and pee, buy a magazine or chat with a pal he has noticed crossing the street.

Wheeeee!! What a joy!

[Shoesy]

Well, let me be the first to congratulate you, phread. Hurray for you!!!

[Happygoin]

I'm trying to get my mind around how expensive it is! I would think there wouldn't be that many young drivers...where on earth do they get that kind of money?? Yikes!

I can understand how you feel, Phread...after driving for so many years, all kinds of bad habits are ingrained. Good for you!

I also love that you posted this in Current Events

[geordy]

Gosh, after walking in Paris I would never have thought the drivers had to go through all that to get a license !!!

Never considered that part of living elsewhere! Since I took my first written test(actually written then!) when I was 16 and road test at 17 I'm sure I'd have some difficulty too!

I had to take another "written"(on a computer screen by then) test in my 20's to switch from a NJ to New York license. Since I live in Manhattan I have not driven much in many years!!

Bonne chance with the rest of the process!! Esp. the instuctor! ;D

[goldenmama]

That sounds like a hoot, Phread! Good for you!

[sistereurope]

That sounds harder than passing the bar! Congrats Phread - let us know when you have that piece of paper in hand!
(So with all that mandatory driver education I wonder if French accident rates are lower than those in the US?)

[cybee]

Whoah! That certainly sounds rigorous! So glad you passed your test! But now you have to put up with wandering hands instructor during behind the wheel lessons ! Sacre bleu! Certainly not an easy path to getting a driver's license! I suppose a lot of people in France don't get a license, what with the cost and difficulties involved! Thank goodness France has such a good train system! ( I suppose in light of driving near the Arc de Triomphe....with what appears to be crazy driving in general...but yet seemingly few accidents...certain skills are helpful!)

[Ray(aka) tripnebraska]

Phread,
Congratulations, on passing your exam.
I could see you in one of the sharp little Mercedes Benz B200's I saw in Paris, or are you a convertible driver.

[annettecinca]

Oh my, Phread! What an adventure! Congrats on passing the written portion--you're right, that is nothing like taking the test here in California! I just went thru this with my 16 year old, and I'm really really glad she didn't have to do it the French way! (especially with the wandering hands!) I guess you're just too cute!

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

Congratulations -- and now I understand why I see so many "auto ecole" signs in France!

[andi]

Congratulations Phread!!!! I am very impressed that you are taking the tests in France as well as the ones you have already taken elsewhere, I am yet to take one in any country so BRAVO to you. ;D

[Anne]

Phread, you ONLY paid 700 euros for your driving licence
I just enrolled my daughter in a driving school two weeks ago, and the bill was 1130 euros for the whole "conduite accompagnée" process : theoretical lessons + official test (she is allowed to fail once here "for free"), 24 hours driving lessons (of course, that will be more than you) and the driving test . Unfortunately all the major schools here were in the same price range .

[Happygoin]

It is certainly understandable, in light of how much they paid to learn how to drive, how taxi drivers can drive so "skillfully" in Paris. My breath is usually held from the time we hit the city to our doorstep, when I heave a great sigh of relief and surprise at finding myself still alive.

[luckyluc]

I had no idea that learning to drive could be so expensive in France!

In Canada a regular driving school class of 25 hours theory and 12 hours on the road (the classes are mandatory) plus the cost of a driving licence come to 480 Euros or about 690 Can $.

How much would that cost in the USA?

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

LL -- no idea, no one here (other than timid teens) seems to feel much need to "learn" how to do this (they seem to think -- as if! -- that it's an inherent skill!).

[phread]

Anne - Mine is cheaper because I am already an experienced driver and only require (by law) 10 hours of driving instruction. AND it really gets my goat because driving school is not required in California or Quebec if you are an experienced driver, so there was no cost at all!!!
SE - SO has passed two bars, and this is the only exam he has ever felt he bombed (he passed).

[Shoesy]

I believe that there is definitely a correlation between the fact that it's difficult and expensive to get a license in Paris and the fact that the drivers are wreckless: once a driver has finally gotten his license, he feel that he owns the road.

[kasthor]

Phread, congratulations !

I'm surprised though, couldn't you get an international drivers license and avoid the whole process, I guess not but I'm wondering why?

And maybe as a little point of explanation for all of you who got their drivers license in high school, in France it is a huge business and a real pain to get the license, it can cost up to 2000€ according to how many hours you need and how often you fail. Added to that, the government has declared war to "driving criminality" meaning casualties in car accidents, drunk driving etc, so the tests also have become harder and many people think (this is unofficial) that they make a lot of people fail their practice on purpose, so they train more.

The result is very undemocratic, due to this many drivers lost their license or can't afford to have one and a recent study showed that more than a million Frenchmen would drive without a license at all...

I got mine in Germany and back in the days I paid the equivalent of 450€, this has become more expensive now but still, in France we all feel it is just a big rip off.

[phread]

An International Drivers license is only valid for a few months. There are only four states in the entire US that have a reciprocity agreement with the French. For the rest of us, by law, we are supposed to start from scratch. I real pain that I have avoided for four years, driving in a grey zone with a valid CA license.

Ray - It is a deisel 5 series BMW. Personally I am a convertible Mini gal, but it is a company car and our choices are somewhat limited. On the plus side we only pay for hte parking.

[Anne]

Shoesy, what you wrote about some people in France thinking that they can drive as badly as they want once they have managed to pass their license USED to be true, but it isn't anymore : everyone's license has been turned into a "permis à point" = "license with credits" some years ago . So your licence has a 12 points credit on it to begin with, but each time you are caught by the police doing something nasty with your car, they take some points off your license . There is an official scale of penalties according to how seriously you broke the rules, and some single offences are worth as much as a 6 points penalty . Penalties add up and you need as long as 3 full years without any new penalty to retrieve you 12 points back . Most people in France have some points missing, and quite a few end up losing their license, that's why Kasthor wrote that some people drive (illegally) with no driving license anymore . Which is not very wise either, because if they have an accident there will be no insurance ...