Hi there,
since January 1st this year here are the main rules.
1/ maximum altitude is set to 150 meters (AGL)
2/ This altitude can be reduced to 50m or 0m in the vicinity of an airport, airfield or ultralight strip. See this map for details :
Cartographie spécifique aux Drones en France To be on the safe side : saty 2.5km away from ultra light airstrip, 5km away from airfield with runway less than 1200m and no ILS. Double that latest distance for any runway that exceeds this length and with ILS approach (instruments).
3/ Urban and suburban flying is strictly forbidden. Stay away 50m from city limits (city is defined in VFR aeronautic maps. So you can definitely forget Paris. Since the recent attacks there is also an extended restriction in Paris that you can consult here :
https://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/dossier/3rdparty/LF-R 324_A4.pdf
4/ Automatic flying (litchi/autopilot/follow me) is limited to max altitude of 50m and 200m horizontal radius (max weight of the drone is set to 2kg)
5/ The pilot must always have LOS conditions (Line of Sight)
6/ Recording or taking shots with a camera is allowed if privacy is respected and footage/photo are not commercially exploited (filming people on private properties without their consent is an offense)
Getting a special permission would require you to 1/ to be a qualified/approved drone 'commercial' pilot. Need to be registered as a pilot in a company and be trained in the first place ! 2/ for urban flights, ask an authorization to relevant authorities (most of the time to entities that we name préfectures, equivalent to state representation ).
So all of that requires a bit of planning, persistance... and do I need to mention that ... a bit of french language !
That covers it...I think !
