Crit'Air Sticker for Reims - Champagne ZFE Guide 2026

Reims is the capital of the Champagne region and a popular stop for UK drivers heading into eastern France, Germany, or Switzerland. Unlike many newer French zones, Reims runs a genuine low-emission zone: Crit’Air 4, 5, and unclassified vehicles are banned from the city centre at all times. If you are driving an older diesel, this is a zone to take seriously.

Reims ZFE boundaries

The Reims ZFE covers roughly 3.5 square kilometres of the city centre, bounded by the inner ring of boulevards including Louis Roederer, Joffre, Lundy, de la Paix, Victor Hugo, and Dieu-Lumière. The zone includes the area around the UNESCO-listed cathedral, the main shopping streets, the railway station, and most of the central Champagne houses.

The wider Grand Reims communes are outside the zone, and the A4 and A26 skirt the city rather than entering it, so a restricted vehicle can pass Reims on the motorway network without difficulty. Be aware that the A344, the short spur that feeds from the A4 into the city, falls within the zone perimeter rather than outside it. Bypassing is fine; using the spur to reach the centre is not.

Which categories are banned?

Reims has tightened its ZFE in stages:

• Unclassified (pre-1997) and Crit’Air 5 - banned since January 2022
• Crit’Air 4 - banned since January 2023
• Crit’Air 3 - no restriction yet, with any further phase not expected until later this decade

The zone operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no weekday or weekend exemption. Motorcycles and other two-wheelers are exempt from the restriction.

Champagne tourism and the ZFE

Reims is the gateway to the Champagne vineyards, and the famous houses are a major draw. Several of the grandes maisons have their cellars in central Reims, inside the ZFE. If you plan to tour cellars in the city or visit the cathedral and the Palais du Tau, you need a compliant vehicle and a valid sticker.

The vineyards themselves, along the Montagne de Reims and around Épernay, sit outside the zone. If your trip is focused on rural cellar visits and tastings, you can largely avoid the centre, but most visitors want to see the city itself at some point.

Getting to Reims from the UK

Reims sits on the A4 and A26 motorway corridor, around 300 km from Calais (roughly three hours). It is a natural first overnight stop for UK drivers heading towards Alsace, the Alps, Germany, or Switzerland. The motorways skirt the city, so you only enter the ZFE if you exit towards the centre for fuel, food, or a hotel in the historic core.

The two-wheeler exemption

Reims does something most French zones do not: it exempts motorcycles and other two-wheelers from the restriction entirely. Elsewhere a Crit’Air 4 motorbike is treated much like a Crit’Air 4 car, so if you are touring on two wheels this is a genuine difference worth knowing. It does not extend to cars, vans or anything heavier.

Reims as the gateway east, and what comes next

Reims is where a lot of UK drivers spend their first night on the way to Alsace, Germany, Switzerland or the Alps. Its position makes it a useful place to take stock of the rest of the route, because the zones ahead are stricter rather than looser.

Strasbourg bans Crit’Air 4, 5 and unclassified across all 33 communes of its Eurométropole, continuously. Crit’Air 3 is admitted there for now, but only until the end of 2026: the exclusion has been deferred to 2027 rather than dropped.

If you are continuing into Germany, note that the Crit’Air sticker has no standing across the border. German cities operate their own Umweltzone system with its own Umweltplakette, and one does not substitute for the other. A trip taking in Reims, Strasbourg and then Freiburg or Stuttgart needs both.

Fines and enforcement

Driving a banned vehicle in the Reims ZFE carries a fine of €68 for a car, rising to €135 for heavier vehicles. Enforcement is through a combination of camera checks and police patrols. As Reims bans real, common vehicle categories rather than just pre-1997 cars, the risk to a UK driver in an older diesel is genuine, not theoretical.

How to apply from the UK

Through France Stickers, you can get your official Crit’Air sticker delivered to your UK address for just £7. Enter your registration, confirm your vehicle details, and we handle the French-language application for you. The sticker is valid for the lifetime of your vehicle and covers every French ZFE, not just Reims. The ban reaches Crit’Air 4, which covers most diesels registered before 2006. Check your registration free to see where yours sits.