France has – like Germany – decided to adopt a scheme where certain types of vehicles are prohibited from entering cities or city centres depending on the emissions they produce. Unlike ULEZ or Barcelona’s LEZ (to which TW560 has already (2021) been multiple (2022) times and has an official account)
Unlike Germany, these zones can be combined with time-based limitations and – crucially for older cars that aren’t driven a lot, such as old-timers, there are exemptions that can be easily obtained digitally for a number of days per year.
The agenda for the reductions is very aggressive: after 2025 only Euro 5 and 6 cars are allowed anywhere in cities.
These restrictions are valid also for motorbikes … and the TWIKE.
Time to get such a sticker, as I drive regularly to France and have just been lucky not have been caught. (for example during TDF2023 that saw us staying overnight in Grenoble – a city with an extensive exclusion zone, in which we absolutely were during that stay!
Getting the sticker is very easy. Order it via the official government website, part with a few Euros and wait for a few weeks to get the physical sticker.
The sticker is valid for the lifetime of the vehicle.
If you need the sticker earlier, you will get a digital version sent to you within a day which can be used as a temporary fix until the physical one arrives.
In my case it took a little over two weeks for the letter to arrive.
A clever combination of adhesive layers makes the application of the sticker a very easy task.
And here we are: TW560 is ready for the (French) future of personal transport without any limitations in cities!
The sticker matches the current Swiss motorway sticker very well 🙂
I’m planning on a quick trip to France later this year – stay tuned!