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How does French property tax relief work based on household income?
Eligibility for relief from the taxe foncière is assessed with reference to your family quotient parts
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What is the difference between carte de séjour and carte de résident?
These are the two main categories of French residency card, or what is known broadly in French as un titre de séjour
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What are France’s Mon Espace Santé and Dossier Medical Partagé?
Health databases can be checked by patients and professionals
Is a scooter different from a mobylette?
What is the difference between a mobylette and a scooter? I thought they were the same, but it appears not. B.R.
BASICALLY a mobylette is a ‘moped’: it is low-powered and typically has pedals to assist the rider in getting uphill.
In fact Mobylette was originally a French brand of two-wheelers of this type.
The formal legal term for the category is now cyclomoteur, which are actually no longer obliged have pedals but are legally-defined as being a two or three-wheeler of no more than 50cc and with a top speed of 45kph.
A small scooter also falls into this cyclomoteur legal category, but it does not have pedals – your feet rest on a flat area.
As with a mobylette, small scooters up to 50cc can be ridden from age 14 with a short course leading to a road safety certificate (brevet de sécurité routière), typically offered to young people in collège.
Scooters from 50cc to 125cc technically fall into a category of motocyclette légère (light motorbike). They can be used on motorways and require you to pass an A1 licence test from age 16, or a seven-hour training course if you hold a car driving licence (permis B). However, the latter is not required if you held your licence before 2011 and were insured for a scooter at some point in 2006-2010.
More powerful scooters generally require full motorbike licences, with the exception of three-wheelers, which may be as much as 300cc to 400cc, but can also be ridden with a permis B plus the training course.
