Where parking is prohibited

Stopping or parking: they are not the same thing

Stopping means immobilising the vehicle for the time needed to let people get in or out, or to load or unload goods. Parking is a longer immobilisation, for other reasons. The distinction is crucial: wherever stopping is prohibited, parking is necessarily prohibited too. But the reverse is not true: in some places, parking is prohibited while a brief stop remains tolerated.

Where BOTH stopping and parking are prohibited

In the following places, you may not even come to a brief standstill. Stopping there is an offence, because it directly endangers or blocks other road users:

• On pedestrian crossings and cycle crossings, as well as less than 5 metres before these crossings (on the side you approach from), so as not to hide pedestrians stepping out.
• On pavements and, in built-up areas, on raised verges; on cycle paths and less than 1 m on either side of a cycle path.
• On the carriageway, on railway tracks and on level crossings.
• On and under bridges, in tunnels and, as a rule, at junctions (unless indicated otherwise).
• In front of a vehicle entrance (garage door, resident access), except in front of your own and with your own vehicle, or if the number plate is displayed there.
• Double parked, that is, alongside another vehicle already stopped or parked along the carriageway (with the exception of two-wheelers).
• Anywhere the vehicle hides road signs or signals (signs or traffic lights) from the view of other road users.

Where only parking is prohibited

In these places, you may not leave the vehicle parked, but stopping (long enough to let someone in or out, for example) remains possible if it causes no obstruction:

• Along a broken yellow line painted on the kerb or at the edge of the carriageway: it means precisely "no parking, stopping allowed".
• Less than 1 metre in front of or behind another vehicle already parked, and more generally anywhere your vehicle would prevent another from getting out.
• Less than 15 metres on either side of a bus, trolleybus or tram stop sign.
• In reserved spaces (disabled persons without the special card, electric charging vehicles, taxis, etc.) and wherever an E1 sign prohibits parking.
• Wherever road markings (crossed-out bay, hatched area) or a sign forbid it.

Obstructive and dangerous parking

Beyond the specific places, the highway code prohibits any obstructive or dangerous parking. Even where no sign or marking prohibits it, you are still at fault if your vehicle reduces visibility, narrows the usable passage or forces others into risky manoeuvres. Parking is notably dangerous near the brow of a hill and on blind bends.