We were making our way to Italy and our next planned stop after Lourdes was to be a 5 star campsite in Serignan some 3 to 4 hours or so to the east of Lourdes. Vanya has had enough of the inclement weather and wants a couple of days in a nice place so as to “realign” (my word, not hers).
And then we discovered we could have a problem. France has long operated a Low Emissions Zone around Paris (not dissimilar to that in London) which has seen us studiously avoid that city. The French system is known as the ZFE, which is short for ‘zones a faibles emissions’. It seems that since January 2025, France has extended the ZFE to include any city of more than 150,000 people and to travel through such areas, drivers (and this includes drivers of foreign registered cars and motorcycles) must first obtain and display a ‘Crit Air’ vignette. Failure to display a vignette is to break the law and will in all likelihood lead to fines.
We could apply for a vignette online but, having read up on the subject, it seems such applications can take weeks to process and, even then, the vignette is sent to the puchaser’s home address. That left us in the lurch because Toulouse and Lower Gascony, through which we would have to travel to get to Serignan, operate the ZFE system. We were left with no choice but to make a detour around Toulouse and Lower Gascony and that detour both added hours to our journey and prompted an overnight stop in Aigues Vives. The vicissitudes of life, eh?
And Aigues Vives? Don’t go there. The campsite got us through the night but there’s little else in this tiny village which straddles the D625 road. There’s a bakery and a church (although both were closed) and you can see from the Hotel de Ville and the odd statue alongside it… well, no more need be said except, perhaps, that we both now need to realign.
Postscript: Don’t rely on my website for the latest information on ZFE. Look for the official sources regarding this subject because it is a moving feast. Also, I have since read further about the ZFE and, while they may not be official sites, the following sites proved helpful to me:- www.frenchemissionssticker.com. and Connexionfrance.com.