Hi, can anyone help! My husband mislaid his driver license the day before our trip to France. I cant drive! We planned on driving around in a friends car! is there any way around this?

No, there is not. (Unless you want to break the rules.)

Do you have a local DMV office that can give him a temp?
Check with your Car Insurance agent and make sure you carry an insurance card for the highest value vehicle you have insured.
The insurance agent might have a photocopy of his Driver's License. It would be handy to have the DL# to verify.

YOu must be able to get a copy of the license at your DMV, other people lose theirs also. I don't understand why you can't get one immediately, they issue licenses on the spot at my DMV, they make them themselves. You don't get them in the mail, and you don't need temp licenses, that was the old days when they didn't make them at the DMV.

You will need ID and proof of who you are and your residence, sure.

oh, is your issue just that you are leaving tomorrow? well, I think you need to delay the trip a few days, that's all, or not drive.

What Christina said. You need a replacement license before you leave.

You have no need for insurance - US insurance is useless in europe. You would be covered by the insurance on the car by the owner.

But you definitely need a license - driving without one and being caught - esp if there is an accident - can be VERY serious (as in jail).

Driving without license is not an option. You need to change something if you cannot secure a license.

1. Delay trip.
2. Find an alternate way to get around. One should have a back up plan in case one cannot drive at last minutes for any reason: alternate driver, combination of taxi, bus, train, etc.
3. Hire someone else to drive you around.
4. Change itinerary

Actually, when a driver is stopped in France and cannot immediately produce his licence, you normally are given 48 hours to go to the police station to show it.

Ask him where he used it for identification. Since he is not renting a car he won't need it unless he gets nabbed by the police. I once flew to Pittsburgh and reached for my wallet to rent a car. The DL was not there. Then I remembered that I had clipped it to the sun visor when I took the kids to the beach. I called my wife. She faxed it to the Hertz desk and I was able to rent the car.

Kerouac:

Can we be clear?

You seem to be saying that it's NOT an offence in France to drive without having a licence with you. It's an offence, presumably, to drive unqualified. And it's an offence to fail to show a licence to a policeman within 48 hours.

So, from a criminal point of view, the poster might be legally OK to drive as long as someone, somehow, gets a duplicate licence in the US and couriers it to him (which, as far as I'm aware, would be the case in Britain: most foreigners may drive as long as they're qualified, and usually have 7 days from being stopped to present a licence .)

BUT: is that all?

1. Does anyone (except the poster's French friend) know how that affects insurance? It's presumably an offence (and a huge financial risk) to drive uninsured: but what requiremnents does the chum's policy make about physical possession of the licence?
2. Do police extend delayed presentation to non-residents? For French residents, they've got a sanction for non-presentation: for non-residents, they've got no way of knowing the foreigner won't run away. My suspicion is that there's no fixed law about this: it'll be at the discretion of the officer concerned

The truth is: none of us (not even Kerouac, and quite possibly not even the poster's friends) really knows the answer to all of this. The sensible option, surely, if for the husband to make arrangements to get a duplicate issued and couriered - and until it arrives, rely on taxis and public transport.

For me, the main point is that the person has been validated by state authorities to drive a car. That is not at all the same as driving a car without having a driver's license. In France, if you are pickpocketed (yes, it does happen), the police station where you make your declaration gives you a receipt for the stolen documents that you have declared. This generally includes the driver's license, and this green receipt allows you to drive a car temporarily. If the police stop you, you even get a little bonus time to prove that you have the legal right to drive. I seriously doubt that everybody who has lost his license or had it stolen remains totally grounded until a new license is received, even in the United States.

(Naturally, you cannot rent a car with just a green receipt, but that isn't the problem in this case.)

true, but in the US, they can look into a database to see if you have a license. If you are abroad without one, they cannot do that. Would you lend a foreign friend your car to drive around if they couldn't produce a license?

Yes, I would, as long as I know they possess a license that can be produced sooner or later.

Yes, but the local poice - or the insurer of the friend's car - may well not be so understanding. If the driver is in europe there is no way they can produce a license untl they have returned home. If it were my car I wouldn;t let them drie it.

The internet exists, even in Europe.

Yes, but if they have lost the license there is no way they can prove that it exists. I can't see some state DMV office agreeing to provide info on a local driver's license to a cop in France.

And without that, he has nothing but the word of the people involved. Do you think a cop here would take that? It's like the dog ate my homework.

This is my first time using this forum, thanks so much for the replies.

I should have mentioned that we,re from Ireland. My husband contacted the people that issued it in the first place, they are now looking through their records for it. If they can send us a copy is that sufficent?

In the meantime we are using public transport, don,t want to take any risks!

Tanks again for your replies, very helpful!