french driving licence

[loobles]

I am about to show how stupid I am!

Lived in Marseille for many years and had to exchange my english licence for a French one.  Had to move back to England.  Carried on using my French licence until my bag was stolen.  Applied for a replacement English licence.  Now I want my French one back.  Is there any way of doing this without having to go through the whole rigmarole again just by saying I lost my French one?  They will have all my details so will know that I used to have one.  Evidently the address on the old one is no longer valid anyway. 

 

Also have old Carte de Sejour can I simply renew that?

Advice please!!

[Tony F Dordogne]

Ummmmm, why would you want a French driving licence and carte de sejour if you don't live in France any more.

Bottom line is you can't legally have both an English and French driving licence as you would have to surrender the british licence to get the French one.  But you could apply to get a new one in the UK.

As you don't live in France and have a French address, except as a maison secondaire perhaps, you should be on English papers.

[loobles]

Sorry didn't make myself clear.  I am moving back to France for good, hence my need to sort the papers out.

 

thanks

[Tony F Dordogne]

In that case, it's very straight forward.  Take your UK driving licence to the Prefecteur/sous-P with the relevant forms and cheque book and ask at your Mairie for the papers for a titre de sejour but be aware that some Departements no longer issue them DESPITE them being available by law, unless that is you'll need the mark 2 titre de sejour which is discussed in detail on the healthcare thread.

[Tony F Dordogne]

In that case, it's very straight forward.  Take your UK driving licence to the Prefecteur/sous-P with the relevant forms and cheque book and ask at your Mairie for the papers for a titre de sejour but be aware that some Departements no longer issue them DESPITE them being available by law, unless that is you'll need the mark 2 titre de sejour which is discussed in detail on the healthcare thread.

Though I would think that you could try the 'it's been stolen' reason for your permis, they may well just issue a replacement, assuming it's still in date etc etc.

[minnie]

If you went down that route, I wonder if they might have expected you to report the loss of the French licence to the police before issuing a replacement licence.  If they insist on this then you could be in bother if you produced the UK one for replacement - they'd know that you hadn't been truthful.

Personally I'd just go in with the UK licence and swop over.

[loobles]

The only problem is that I will be on their system as already holding a french licence.  I suppose I could wait to see what they say and just explain the whole thing to them.

Thank you all for your replies

[Sunday Driver]

As Tony says, you can't have two licences.  Préfectures send exchanged UK licences back to the DVLA, so no reason to believe a reciprocal arrangement doesn't exist, in which case, your French licence record will have been cancelled.. 

Just bite the bullet and follow the correct exchange procedure.  You've done it before so you know what's involved.