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Comment: French children's parties are low key affairs - fortunately
Columnist Sarah Henshaw notes that smaller celebrations with home-baked treats are still the rule in France
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Letters: France needs a new strategy to stop spam calls
Connexion reader says the new legislation will not work just as previous rules failed
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Letters: VAT threshold reduction would hurt small businesses in France
Connexion reader notes that the additional tax burden would bring more bureaucracy with it
Driving licence swap rejected
More than two months ago, we applied to Nantes to exchange our UK driving licences for French licences.
We have had our applications returned with a refusal.
Apparently, as we do not fall under one of the obligatory categories (eg. imminent expiry for a driving offence) we should continue to use our British licences and wait for further advice to be issued. We applied early as we have an overseas trip planned and will need valid drivers’ licences and international licences.
Mary Jane Michael, Hautes Alpes
We reply: The CERT in Nantes states that it is no longer processing non-obligatory exchange requests received after December 15, 2018, pending more information about procedures after Brexit. In a deal, UK licences would be valid until the end of 2020, and in a no-deal, France says there would be a grace period to change them, probably of a year. Unfortunately, you cannot get an international licence to accompany a UK licence without a UK address.