Find a driving school - Not an easy course in and of itself, because so many go out of business. I went with L’Ecole de Conduite Francaise (ECF), a chain, to obtain my license. It was fortunate that I did. The other independently owned school I looked at went out of business. There are some schools in Paris that teach classes in English. Classes taught in English are expensive. When you sign-up with your driving school you pay a flat fee for the written test, in my case about $220 US. Then you pay by the lesson, $35 US per lesson, for the practical.

Written test - The written test is made up of forty multiple choice questions. You have thirty seconds to answer each and must answer 35 or more correctly to pass. What I found the most difficult about the written test, was that more than one answer could be correct on some of the multiple choice questions. This along with the fact that some questions are in two parts makes the written test in reality more than forty questions. Your driving school will give you a textbook for the written test that explains, if that is possible, the French driving code.

I spent a little over a month getting ready for the written test. I was not working and went to my school almost every day. The school had self-teaching CD ROMs available during the day and classes at night. Some schools have classes through out the day with no CD ROMs.

I was not able to take the written test when I wanted to. First there was a problem getting back my paperwork from the Préfecture. I was told it would take a month, but because I was outside the norm, a foreigner, it took longer. Then when I finally received the test date, the test was canceled because there was the smell of gas in the examination center.

If you get frustrated at times with studying for the written test, just remember that the actual test is easier than the practice tests. A friend of mine, the day before she took the written test, missed fourteen on a practice test, yet she passed when it counted.

After writing all the above it is possible to study on your own for the written test. No one I know has; but my local Préfecture said I could.

There are plenty of CD-ROMs that teach the written test.

Driving test - If this is the part you think will be the easiest, think again. It took me nine one hour lessons before I was “ready” for my driving test. That was with already driving for fifteen years! French driving schools make most of their money from driving lessons, they run about $35 apiece, and so in no time you will have spent a few hundred dollars.

You are going to spend a few months, my case three, to obtain a French driver’s license.