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I'm planning a trip that will cover France and Germany (and other countries).

Now since I will go by rental car it may be difficult to order environment badges in advance. For Germany I don't think it's a big issue since I'm supposed to be able to buy one over-the-counter at a TÜV station, but in France the corresponding option does not seem to be available.

Fortunately I'm not going to drive through a ZCR zone, but will have to drive into at least one ZPA (Grenoble-Alpes Metropolis), but will likely drive through a couple of others (Bouches-du-Rhône / Marseille, Côte d‘Or / Dijon, Drôme / Valence, Greater Lille & Lyon).

Can I hope that these zones won't be into effect for my planned vacation during june? How often are crit'air badges actually required in these areas and time of year?

I've done some research and found this page for the Drome/Valence ZPA where I can see the status for today, but am also able to enter different dates. Is this data authentic? Well I assume that I can't trust the info on future days (especially not far in the future), but is the info on past days reliable? In that case I could just check how many times the ZPA has been in effect...

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    The chances that driving will be forbidden are very low. This is not an answer as I am not able to check for statistics.
    – audionuma
    May 22, 2018 at 16:35
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    Depending on the weather, they might be applied (hotter means more pollution). If you're going by rental car, may I suggest you use a French dealership when you come over to France ? Depending on the conditions of your rental, I guess you can drop it at a foreign location and change of car ? French rentals will already have the crit'air thingy
    – Jean Rostan
    May 22, 2018 at 18:55
  • @JeanRostan That would be ideal, but as far as I know that would mean droppnig of the car in a different country which according to what I've heard is quite expensive.
    – skyking
    May 25, 2018 at 17:24

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I've searched a little and found one activation of the Parisian ZPA.

http://www.leparisien.fr/info-paris-ile-de-france-oise/transports/les-vehicules-polluants-interdits-ce-jeudi-dans-paris-21-06-2017-7075470.php
(And that's basically what I remember, as I live in Paris).

Unfortunately, it does not appears appears in the website you gave (it shows a text stating there was an alert, but does not update the pictures). So I will not trust it for old values. And it is almost impossible to guess future one.
Basically this site is more useful for ZCR information.

Before it was ZPA and crit'air, i remember two or three 'alternate driving' event in Paris.

On the other hand, most ZPA are quite new, and 2017 was not a very hot year. So we don't have enough data enough to predict what will happen in June.

A silver lining however : ZPA restriction only happens at the 4th or 5th day of the pollution alerts. So if you stay tuned to the news, you should know if there a risk a few days in advance, and might adapt your trip accordingly.

Additionally you can configure Waze to manage ZPA an ZCR.

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  • But at least it seem that the fact that there were high particle concentration were indicated on the page, so doesn't seem completely useless. Do you consider the page reliable for informing about the current situation or should I use another source of information while in france? Unfortunately I don't understand french very well (so what you find easily accessed information may be harder for me).
    – skyking
    May 30, 2018 at 5:24
  • I don't know how reliable is this site, i noticed that, despite the .fr, it's a german website. I tried to found a french gouv site, but there is none, and it's the only website i found while searching 'ZPA drome', even in french. My advice would be to use it in addition to another source (like Waze). Asking your hotel receptionist along the way should help too. But of course, both will only be helpful once on-site.
    – dna
    May 30, 2018 at 8:13
  • last option, come here a few days before. I give you no promise, but if I see your message, I will double check for you.
    – dna
    May 30, 2018 at 8:17

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