Handicap tag

No they are not valid, there have been various versions of this question over the years.

Yes, you may find some inspectors who will leave the car alone, but not all.

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An old reply . . .

Posted by Nigel
East Midlands, England
09/11/10 07:44 PM
9385 posts

""I don't have good news here, Jerry, I'm afraid. I have seen European blue badges here, and British ones in Europe. But I have never seen a non-Eu one. I went to the Glasgow web page about blue badges and it said the following,¶ "11. Visitors from abroad- use of Blue Badge ¶ The Blue Badge Scheme provides a national arrangement in the UK and a partnership arrangement in most European countries, for parking concessions for disabled people who travel either as passengers or driver, but not for countries out-with Europe. ¶ Therefore only visitors from Europe can use their Blue Badge while staying in the UK.¶" .... sorry""
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Another suggestion . . .
I will be traveling w/husband who is a double amputee. I plan on renting a transport wheelchair @ $25/wk (4 small wheels) here in the States & take it with for when DH tires on his prostheses.

I expect every village, town and city in France will have its own rules about the acceptance of foreign disabled cards or tags. In most places the inspectors won't even know where Colorado is. You can inquire at the Marie (Town Hall, sort of) in whichever town you find yourself, about the local regulations.

The answer unfortunately is maybe. France has been signed up to the ECMT Resolution 97/4, which should ensure reciprocity, but it often comes down to the policy of the local traffic authorities for countries outside of the European Model Parking Card. It might also depend on the policy of Colorado to French cards.

The literature is just not very clear on this in general - Nigel is quoted above about a Glasgow site saying no, whereas I found a London site that said yes.

We've used a Washington State placard in France on at least 2 trips, most recently in 2010 and had no problems. My Mom used a walker so the need was obvious.

I didn't hope for much good news on this topic, but Carolyn's experience is better than expected.

Honestly I have seen so few handicapped parking spaces ... that it wouldn't seem to make a world of difference. I think you will end up having to drop off the person with the issue an find a space in area and walk back most of the time.

In Paris it will be next to useless to have the tag anyways... almost no parking anywhere and if you find a spot it will not be near the entrance of 99% of the sites. Best to budget for taxis in the city.

The only place I ever see handicapped parking spaces in Europe are the chain store shopping centers that you usually find on the outskirts of towns (Carrefour, Aldi, Mediamarkt, Ikea, etc.) and sometimes in parking garages. For most of the attractions that people travel to Europe to see, though, parking, if available at all, is usually located a distance from the attraction. If the lot even offers handicapped parking, it's position might cut maybe 30 seconds to two minutes out of 10-15 minute walk.

We drove both in Provence and the Riviera a few years ago in June. We did find some handicap parking spaces in some towns and used a CA placard and had no problem at all.

Concessions vary - for example some countries waive on street parking charges or time restrictions. It is not only about dedicated spaces.