FRENCH Crit’ Air Sticker for Australian, American and RoW Bikes
 

It is compulsory for all foreign vehicles driving in France to have a Crit’ Air Certificate which can only be obtained beforehand via a single government site and mailed to you in advance of arrival in France.

This site requires selection of ‘Country of Registration’ from a drop-down list that DOES NOT include Australia, the US, Canada, SOuth AMerica, Asia etc etc. Only European and Europe adjacent countries.

How do people from other countries (in my case Australia) obtain the legally required Crit Air certificate?

Or am I missing something about whether it is actually required or not?

Thanks

Greg

It's not compulsory unless you want to enter a low emission (Crit'Air) zone, which is only in certain cities. Outside of those you can travel freely with no sticker.

I have Crit' Airs on my cars but not on any of my bikes. Nobody has ever checked in any way that I'm aware of and I travel through some pollution controlled areas fairly frequently. That's not to say it won't happen in the future or they're not bothering, but if you're on a non EU reg bike I'd think you're fairly low down the priority list.

The cities that have a clean air zone will have a bypass to avoid entering it . If u go on the French site it will have a map of each city and it is very obvious how to avoid stumbling into one . As with anything if u do get caught without a sticker inside a zone then hopefully it will b by a gendarme who also rides.............

Certainly in my main city of interest - Grenoble - it looks like they've had to come up with some 'creative' exemptions to the zones as because of the surrounding mountains there's not much in the way of bypasses. So all the main motorways - that go right through the centre of the city - as well as some of the shopping areas that you can't reach in any other way, have had to be declared pollution exempt routes.

It's worth noting that there are 2 zones where crit air apply. The fixed zones which are always active like city centre etc. Also zones which may come in to force at high polution times, ( often an extesion of the fixed zone) these are possibly the ones likely to catch people out. I've also read (unconfirmed) reports that in 2025 all towns of 150,000+ population must set polution zones so it will become more of an issue in time perhaps?