Driving in France

Finn,

The short answer is "Yes". You will need either an IDP or a translation of the terms or your license in French. You may never be asked for it, but if you are asked and can't produce one, your holiday experience may not be entirely pleasant.

You may find this recent thread interesting - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/international-drivers-permit-cac23053-be26-409f-ae5f-c2b062920309 .

The accurate answer, in my view, is a qualified "yes." In other words, "yes" if you want to obey the law and reduce the potential for a fine in the unlikely event a police officer or Gendarme were to ask for it.

Is it necessary? Generally not in practice. I would be willing to bet that the majority of Americans who rent cars and drive in France either are unaware of the requirement or choose to ignore it. The small slice of folks from the U.S. who post on this website probably constitute a more aware and informed part of the entire pool of Americans who visit France.

Yes, IF your licence is from a non-EU country legally you need an IDP as well as your licence in order to certify that your licence is valid.
Will this ever be checked - only if you are stopped by the police and you are asked for your licence - i.e. probably/hopefully not.

When was the last time you were stopped by the police where you live and they asked you to show your licence? Possibly not for a long time. Does that mean a licence is not needed?

The rule as stated by the French government is:

Si vous venez en France pour un court séjour (pour des vacances par
exemple), vous pouvez conduire avec votre permis. Il doit être valide
et être rédigé en français ou accompagné d'une traduction officielle
en français ou d'un permis international.

"If you are coming to France for a short stay (on holiday, for example) you can drive with your license. It must be valid and be written in French or accompanied by an official translation into French or by an international driving permit."

In my experience I've never been asked for the IDP, but as Chris says, the moment you are asked for one in France/need one it will be very hard to get around it, as you can't get one outside of the US (if you are from the US).

Incidentally, I have always wondered if this technically means that those Canadians with a license issued entirely or partially in French -- Québec-issued licenses are in French and a number of other provinces such as Ontario or New Brunswick issue bilingual English/French licenses -- don't legally need an IDP when driving in France.

Yes, you need one - so pick it up at a AAA office. Save money by having some passport photos in hand.

I think the bigger thing you run into driving in France are the toll booths. Keep small currency (under 10 euro bills and coins) on hand, just in case. France contracts with different agents for their toll booths so a credit card that worked at the last booth may not work at the next one. For whatever reason, I've found a card that doesn't work the first time will work if you try again. Sometimes I go through every card I'm carrying twice, debit and credit, and something finally works. On two occasions, out of about 40 toll booth experiences, nothing has worked and I've had to resort to feeding the machine cash. I don't think I've paid more than eight euro at any single toll booth, many are under five euro - and they're spread out (not every few miles).

When I lived in Paris in the 90s, you needed an international drivers licenses after 1 year of living in France. However, it was never enforced. I lived there for 12 years and I was stopped 3 or 4 times. I would give my US license and they would just let me go with a warning.

Mercí beaucoup all :)

Why, why, why is there this reluctance to spend $25 for an IDP? It is a mystery to me that people will spend thousands on a trip, hundreds more for travel insurance, maybe $100 more for a good seat on the airplane, oodles of euros for dinner at a Michelin rated restaurant, but that little $25 for the IDP causes so much tooth-sucking. Oh, well ... pas mon affaire, but it is a puzzlement.

No reluctance here :)
I looked up the topic on AAA and it’s actually only $20. I printed the applications so hubby and I can take our extra passport photos and head on over to our local SoCal Auto Club. Again mercí beaucoup to all.

why is there this reluctance to spend $25 for an IDP?

The OP only asked if it was needed in France. I'd be reluctant to spend anything on something that isn't needed. I drove in France on vacations for 20+ years w/o an IDP, but since it became clear a few years ago that it was now needed, I get one each year.

Why, why, why is there this reluctance to spend $25 for an IDP?

Why indeed. I don't understand it either. No reluctance shown here, by the way, just have seen it in many other postings about the IDP too many times. The same people who will continue to pay $5 + a percentage for every ATM withdrawal or refuse to consider a different credit card if the one they want to use has foreign fees when there are zero cost options easily found, rant about having to pay the $20 - $25 one time for the IDP. It is no different than having a regular driver license at home. How many times are you required to show this when driving? It has been probably 30 years since I was stopped and required to show my license, but I continue to renew it so if I do get stopped I don't get fined for driving without a license. And the fine for not having the IDP where it is required in Europe is close to €500 now.

Andrew writes:

Incidentally, I have always wondered if this technically means that those Canadians with a license issued entirely or partially in French -- Québec-issued licenses are in French and a number of other provinces such as Ontario or New Brunswick issue bilingual English/French licenses -- don't legally need an IDP when driving in France.

Having lived in France for several years, having dealt with French bureaucracy on a number of matters, and having observed that the Police Municipale, the Police Nationale, and the Gendarmes all seem to view traffic enforcement as beneath them or not worth their valuable time, my opinion is that a French-language license issued in Quebec or some other French-speaking jurisdiction would be fine in France with no IDP. After all, the language you quoted refers to licenses "être rédigé en français" as not needing an IDP.