Every weekend: above 7.5 tonnes, banned from Saturday 22:00 to Sunday 22:00, across the whole network. Same before public holidays.
Alps winter Saturdays: up to five Saturdays a year with an extra daytime ban on the ski routes.
Snow: separate temporary bans set per prefecture. Those aren't on any calendar in advance.
Layer 1: the fixed weekend ban
la circulation des véhicules ou ensembles de véhicules de plus de 7,5 tonnes de poids total autorisé en charge affectés aux transports routiers de marchandises, à l'exclusion des véhicules spécialisés et des véhicules et matériels agricoles tels que définis à l'annexe II du présent arrêté, est interdite sur l'ensemble du réseau routier les samedis et veilles de jours fériés à partir de 22 heures et jusqu'à 22 heures les dimanches et jours fériés.
Arrêté du 16 avril 2021, Article 1. Consulted on Légifrance.
So: above 7.5 tonnes maximum authorised laden mass, combination included, banned across the entire road network, from Saturday 22:00 to Sunday 22:00. The same applies before a public holiday: from 22:00 the evening before until 22:00 on the holiday itself.
Note the difference from Germany: there the ban only starts Sunday 0:00 and ends at 22:00. In France you're already stopped Saturday evening. Anyone planning to drive through France on a Saturday night the way they would through Germany ends up parked two hours earlier: in France the curtain falls at 22:00, in Germany not until midnight.
Layer 2: the winter Saturdays in the Alps
On top of the weekend ban, France has additional bans on a limited number of Saturdays, in winter on the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes road network:
durant cinq samedis au plus, de 7 heures à 18 heures, ainsi que de 22 heures jusqu'à 24 heures. La circulation est autorisée de 0 heure à 7 heures et de 18 heures à 22 heures.
Arrêté du 16 avril 2021, Article 2.
On those Saturdays you may only drive between midnight and 7am, and between 6pm and 10pm. This covers the ski corridors: among others the A40, A43, A41, A410, A430, A480 and A48, plus connecting national and departmental roads towards Chambéry, the Tarentaise and Briançon.
Which Saturdays exactly is published each year in a separate order that appears in late December. For 2026 there were five:
| Winter 2026, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 7, 14, 21, 28 February and 7 March |
| Summer 2026, whole country | 11, 18, 25 July and 1 and 8 August, 7am to 7pm |
Arrêté du 26 décembre 2025 on the additional traffic bans for 2026.
The dates for 2027 will therefore appear around late December 2026. They consistently fall in the February school holiday weeks, the busiest turnover days for the ski resorts.
Layer 3: what happens when it snows
This is the question everyone searches for, and the honest answer is: a snow ban isn't in the national order. What stops you in snow is a temporary measure from the prefecture of the département or zone, declared case by case. Trucks then get held on car parks or road sections until the road is clear again, sometimes with an overtaking ban or a mandatory route as a lighter variant.
Because those decisions are taken case by case, there's no calendar for them. What does exist:
| Bison Futé (bison-fute.gouv.fr) | the official French government traffic information service, with current restrictions and the annual brochure listing all truck bans |
| Météo-France Vigilance | the official weather warning per département; orange or red for snow is the signal that prefecture measures may follow |
In practice: see an orange or red snow warning on your route through France, check Bison Futé before you set off. Once you're stopped in a queue, the instruction given on the spot applies.
The ban can also be lifted
It works both ways. Article 7 of the same order gives the département prefect, or the zone prefect for a wider area, the power to lift the driving ban for part or all of a banned period, in a crisis or events affecting public safety. After heavy snowfall you see this regularly: the Sunday ban gets temporarily lifted so stranded trucks can move on.
Arrêté du 16 avril 2021, Article 7.
Who falls outside it
The order has fixed exceptions, including for perishable goods and agricultural products, and a system of prefecture exemptions for special cases. The full list is in Article 4 and Annex II of the order. Drive under an exception, and you have to be able to show it at a check.
What it costs
How a French fine works, with the three amounts per class and the deadlines, is covered in how a French fine works.
Sources
- Arrêté du 16 avril 2021 relatif à l'interdiction de circulation des véhicules de transport de marchandises à certaines périodes, Articles 1, 2, 4 and 7. Consulted on Légifrance.
- Arrêté du 26 décembre 2025 relatif aux interdictions complémentaires de circulation des véhicules de transport de marchandises pour l'année 2026 (the specific Saturdays and the Alps road network). Consulted on Légifrance.
- Bison Futé, the official French government traffic information service, for current restrictions and the annual truck-ban brochure.
The French text is quoted verbatim, the explanation is translated. Snow bans are temporary prefecture decisions and differ by situation; this page describes the system, not a current state.
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