Hi,

I am 21 and planning a trip to France in November. After doing some research the information I have is that you have to be 21 to rent a car, and have at least 1 year driving experience. I am wondering how strict French car rental companies are with the driving experience rule? I am Canadian and have been driving for nearly 4 years (through the graduated licensing program), but was recently issued a new drivers license (I don't have any restrictions on my license). Despite having over 1 year driving experience, I will have no way to prove it as the date my new license was issued was less then 6 months ago. Any tips/suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks!

Hi r,

I don;t think that it will matter. I used a reissued license that was only 6 mos old. OTOH, I am somewhat over 21.

Check with your rental agency.

You don't have to rent from a French company. Use AutoEurope, a broker, and they'll deal with the age issue for you.

I have found the age requirements to be quite universally specific among the major car rental companies. 21 years of age is the minimum with one year driving experience. Licenses can be reissued at any time, there are a host of reasons why: you move, it´s lost, your qualifications change. The fact that the license was dated six months earlier does not define your overall driving experience. Your interests may be well served by clarifying this issue directly with the rental company with your explaining at what age your driving began.

While I believe you will ultimately prevail in finding a suitable rental company, there is often a young drivers surcharge paid by those 21-24. This and other surcharges are not included in quotes made by Autoeurope or other brokers.

While the date on your license may not define your driving experience, in France, you have only one license your whole life. So people expect to see WHEN you started driving by looking at your license. This problem actually came up for someone on Slowtrav when he tried to pick up the car, and was forced to phone his insurance company in Canada to prove the extent of driving experience. This involved an 8 hour wait until the company opened!

We actually had our French insurance cancelled by a company who assumed we had lied when we said we had been driving for 30 years, but had a license for only 15 of those (we had to give up our Ontario license to get the French one) This was despite explaining to the original agent, that even if we had a copy, it would only have been good for 5 years.

Frankly, if you have anything, like an insurance policy, that has more information, I would bring it.