The kit the gendarme expects to find.

Rules differ by country and they move (Spain rewrote its breakdown rules in January 2026), so treat this as the state of play, verify anything critical before a specific border, and note that fines quoted are the standard rates, not promises.

Lights: beam converters first

UK headlamps are set up to kick the beam left, towards our kerb. Drive on the right and that same kick points straight into oncoming windscreens, which is why beam adjustment is a legal requirement in France and most of the continent, day or night. In France the on-the-spot fine is around €90. Many newer vehicles have a flat beam pattern or a "tourist mode" in the settings menu that does the job without stickers. Check the handbook before you buy converters, because sticking adhesive patches on lamps that don't need them is money and lens clarity wasted. If your lamps do need them, fit the converters at Folkestone, not on the autoroute hard shoulder.

Spare bulbs are the perennial argument on the ferry deck. The short answer: they're recommended almost everywhere and a hard requirement almost nowhere these days, and Spain, which for years insisted on a bulb kit plus the tools to fit it, has moved its attention elsewhere. Carry a set if your van runs halogens; a €15 kit beats a night on an aire with one headlamp. If you've got sealed LED units that no lay-by mortal can swap, nobody sensible expects you to carry spares for them.

Breakdown kit: triangles, beacons and hi-viz

A warning triangle is required kit in France and across most of Europe. The old advice to carry two came from Spain, which required a pair for Spanish-registered vehicles. That rule has now been overtaken: since 1 January 2026, vehicles registered in Spain must carry the connected V-16 flashing beacon instead, and triangles no longer count for them. Foreign-registered vehicles, including UK motorhomes, are the exception and can still use triangles in Spain. Carry two anyway. They're cheap, and on a dual carriageway you want one behind the van and one ahead of the bend.

Hi-viz vests are where France catches people out. The law requires the driver to have one within reach inside the cab, and anyone who steps onto the carriageway from a stopped vehicle must be wearing one, so in practice you carry a vest for every travelling seat, stored in the cab, not buried in the garage under the levelling ramps. Getting out without one, where the vehicle is a hazard, risks a €135 fine. A vest you can't reach from the driver's seat is legally a vest you don't have.

Angles Morts: the over-3.5-tonne rule

Since January 2021, France requires "Angles Morts" blind-spot warning stickers on all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes: lorries, coaches, and yes, motorhomes, including foreign-registered ones. The stickers are a standardised 17 × 25 cm design, fitted one on each side and one at the rear, at prescribed heights; any compliant kit comes with placement instructions. The fine for going without is €135. If your van is plated at 3,500 kg exactly, you're outside the rule; at 3,650 kg you're in it. Check your V5C rather than guessing, and put the stickers on before the ferry. This is one of the easier things for a péage camera or a roadside check to spot.

The UK identifier

Since 28 September 2021 the GB sticker is dead. Your van needs to display "UK": either a UK sticker on the rear or a number plate carrying the UK identifier with the Union flag. An old GB sticker or a plate with a Euro-style GB badge no longer counts anywhere in the EU. Two wrinkles worth knowing: in Spain, Cyprus and Malta you need the UK sticker regardless of what's on your plate, and in Ireland you don't need any identifier at all. A sticker costs a couple of quid at the Post Office; the awkward conversation at a Spanish checkpoint is free but longer.

Low-emission zones: Crit'Air and the German green sticker

France's low-emission zones (ZFEs) apply to foreign vehicles, full stop. Driving or parking inside one (greater Paris, Lyon, and a growing list of cities) requires a Crit'Air vignette on the windscreen, classed by your vehicle's Euro emissions standard. It applies even if you're only passing through the zone, and it's also the mechanism for temporary restrictions when pollution spikes. Order it only from the official government site (certificat-air.gouv.fr); it costs under €5 including postage to the UK and lasts the life of the vehicle. Copycat sites charge ten times that for the same sticker. Fines for driving unstickered in a zone reach €135 for larger vehicles, and vans too old to qualify for any class can be barred from the zone entirely when restrictions are active.

Germany runs a similar scheme with the Umweltplakette. Dozens of city-centre Umweltzonen (Berlin, Munich, Cologne among them) now admit green (class 4) stickers only, foreign vehicles included, with a €100 fine for entering without one. Most diesels from roughly 2006 onwards qualify, but motorhome classifications can be quirky, so order in advance online or collect from a TÜV or DEKRA station on arrival. Other countries run their own city schemes: Brussels and Antwerp want a free registration, and several Italian cities simply close their historic centres to traffic. The habit to build is checking each city on your route, not assuming one vignette covers the continent.

One order of stickers, one box behind the passenger seat, and the whole list is done for years. We keep a current, linked-up version of it on the Europe kit page: triangles, vests, converters and the sticker sets that actually meet the specs.

The vignettes, the tolls and the aires all get paid for in euros while your bank thinks in pounds, which is its own small mess. Stops & Stays handles multi-currency trip costs by logging each one at the price you were charged, in the currency you were charged it.