Drinking and Driving in France

I'm so glad to hear that France has a zero tolerance policy since I will be visiting and driving there with my family next month - and I too have zero tolerance for it! Here is the US, I just saw a report about a mother and 8 year old daughter being killed by a drunk driver just this week. What a horrific and entirely avoidable tragedy.

What's the penalty if you kill someone???

I hope Spain has zero tolerance, I'll be visiting and driving in Spain too!

When we were in Spain with my exchange student's family, the father had absolutley NO alcohol when he was driving. However, they told us that drunk driving is a huge problem, especially with young people. Be very, very careful on the roads and have a great trip.

When we lived overseas for military duty, we were issued a German "green" driver's license. In order to get that license, we had to sign a statement that if we were stopped for "under the suspicion" of drunk driving, we would be subject to their (the polizei) alcohol test which is a blood test right there on the spot. They don't just make you walk a straight line--they mean business. Then, and now on our current trips, if we are driving we do not have any wine, beer, etc. It's just not worth it. By the way, on our last trip two years ago, some of the restaurants now have non-alcoholic beer. My husband said it actually was very good. Thanks, Phil, for pointing this out to everyone.

@ Kent: I don't know enough about the subject to know whether Phil's units of measure are the same as ours; but I've been told by a "usually reliable source" (to quote CNN) who lives in Europe that the EU blood alcohol limit is lower than that in most US states, once you work out the apples to apples comparison.

In Germany (Europe is too granular for this) the unit for blood alcohol concentration is g/kg, that is gram alcohol per kilogram whole blood.

As far as I know, the usual American unit is g/dl, that is gram alcohol per deciliter of whole blood (but sometimes plasma).

The "rule of thumb" conversion is "BAC German / 10 = BAC US", this assumes that blood has roughly the same density as water: 1 dl = 0.1 kg.

But blood is indeed "thicker than water": 1 dl whole blood weighs approximately 0.1055 kg, 1 dl of plasma around 0.1024 kg.

So the "DUI limit magic numbers" of German law: 0.3 g/kg (possible misdemeanor), 0.5 g/kg (infraction) and 1.1 g/kg (misdemeanor) would translate to 0.028, 0.047 and 0.104 g/dl respectively (using the numbers for whole blood).

I use the same rule in Europe that I use at home. If I am driving a car afterwards, I have NO alcohol at all -- period. Maybe that is a good reason to take the train. :)

Since we enjoy a glass or two of red wine with our dinners, we consider only two options when we choose our accommodations: restaurant on the premises or restaurant or picnic locations within walking distances.

Thank you to Mark of Berlin for explaining the technical aspects of blood alcohol content (BAC) limits in Europe compared to the US. After reading Mark's post I deleted most of my first post because it contained some inaccuracies.

I just now did a quick search and found an article in Wikipedia with a table that may useful to those renting cars in Europe who might be driving after wine at a restaurant. The table is the first I've seen that facilitates comparison of the BAC limits in various countries. Here's the link to that table BAC limits in Europe compared to the US

To summarize what's int he table, the BAC limits do appear to be significantly lower in most (but not all) of western Europe, compared to the US.

The table is over-simplifying to some extent, but says the "BAC at which a person is considered to be legally impaired" in various countries is:

0.08% is most (or all?) of the US

but is 0.05% (40% lower than the US limit!) in the following countries:

FranceItalyGermanySpainPortugalSwitzerlandNetherlandsBelgiumetc.

The table says the BAC is the same as the US (0.08%) in:

UKIreland

The table is somewhat of an over-simplification, the actual laws are more complicated, as explained by Phil and Mark.

Bottom line: 0.05% is 40% lower than the US 0.08%

Thank you Phil for bringing up this subject. People also need to realize that a beer in Germany, for instance, will have a higher alcohol percent than in the US too. The wine also may be higher. Your best bet, just do not drink and drive at all. Public transportation is plentiful unless you are out in the country someplace, taxis are cheap and reliable in most cities, so there really is no excuse to drink and then get behind the wheel, even just one glass.

It does annoy me when people talk about getting hassled by the police or DUI's when the main, and only theme should be people getting killed by drunk drivers. Loss of family members, especially children is so tragic, especially for such a reason as "I only had 2 glasses of wine".

This is one of the reasons why when people ask about traveling along the Rhein, that I suggest going by train. All those vinyards and wine tastings can be tempting. If you do not have a car, you do not ever have to worry and you can taste to your hearts content.

Crikey! I didn't think there would be that much interest. Good to see that people are serious about the subject.

Phil

Phil, thanks so much for your wonderful respsonse to my initial question. Thank you for posting it for all to see.

I think it is very important that people understand that they must be careful and considerate if they intend to drink and drive in France. They also need to understnd that the Gendarmes can step out on any street, at any time, and stop your car, and stick a breathalyzer in your face.

In our case we were in a sleeply little town. They stepped out from the curb, did not ask for ID (oh..ohh...I had left mine back at the room), and stuck the breathalyzer in my face. I don't speak French ( "Je parle un petit peau Francais" I started to say, and he finished for me.)They did not speak English, so it was interesting. He kept saying something: I finally figured out that he wanted me to blow harder. He looked at the reading, smiled a big grin, and said " Au Revoir".

We had just celebrated my wife's BDay by dining in a Michelin rated restaurant. We waited until we had left Paris before we decided to splurge. We had been saving up our money for this occasion. We drank more than a bottle of a wonderful French Bordeaux; the food and service was just fabulous. We had a long leisurely four course dinner, and also shared two bottles of water.

I think that I was lucky. I am a very big guy, and we spent several hours lingering over our fantasitic French meal, but just the same, I let the celebration take precedense over common sense. The lesson learned; don't drink and drive in France; you never know when you will be stopped.