Was it compulsory to have Yellow headlight lenses when running through France in the late 60s/early 70s ? . . .anybody ever get done for not having them?
It is an interesting question and I went Googling. It was certainly no longer necessary to have yellow lenses after 1992.
Yellow or Orange lenses do help with night vision, we had yellow fog lamps in the UK and I knew ships have red lights to read charts by.
However I am not sure about this bit I found 
Yellow headlights came into use end of WWI to differentiate French vehicles from German. France was the only one to use them and many foreigners complained about the abrupt change of colour when they crossed the border, that it could disorientate them and make night driving more dangerous. By 1993 France decided to have the same headlights as the rest of Europe. That makes it easier for drivers to have only one colour of headlights.
Nice one Malc 
The French have won a war though…The French Civil War…They were fighting…The French
I too heard that the yellow lamps were to differentiate French vehicles from German vehicles, although I thought it was the second World War, I wonder why they kept them for so long? Maybe they were waiting for the return of ze Germans and in their typical lazy way, couldn’t be arsed to keep changing them 
I used to run through France a lot in the 80s/90s, never had a yellow headlamp and never got nicked for it 
I used to run into and through France in the 60’s70’s & 80’s never had yellow headlights and never got nicked or stopped for it mind you got loads of flashes from the frogs i dont think they liked them, my theory is that they (the frogs ) are a bunch of genetic defects and their eyes have not developed as well as the rest of us so they need the amber glow as their sighting equipment is not as good as the rest of mankind.
newmercman:
Nice one MalcThe French have won a war though…The French Civil War…They were fighting…The French
I too heard that the yellow lamps were to differentiate French vehicles from German vehicles, although I thought it was the second World War, I wonder why they kept them for so long? Maybe they were waiting for the return of ze Germans and in their typical lazy way, couldn’t be arsed to keep changing them
I used to run through France a lot in the 80s/90s, never had a yellow headlamp and never got nicked for it
I never used yellow lenses in France but I did buy some of that yellow dye in a bottle when I was running UK 
Talking about yellow lenses 
, back in the sixties the Headlight Magazine used to advertise night driving glasses, which were like sunglasses but with yellow lenses. Yes I bought a pair in the Windrush Cafe on the A40 and at the time I thought that they worked but they were bloody hopeless when you turned the headlights off .
I.M.H.O. when driving through falling snow yellow headlights did make a difference as you didn’t seem to get as much glare as you did with white headlights and I never got a pull while in France ( well not from the police) 
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Used to stick the wrappers from Lucozade bottles on the headlights to turn them into fog lights.
Ray
I remember reading the thing about the yellow lights been so the French could tell if they were german invaders. You would think the luffwafe overhead blowing seven bells out of everything would have been more of a clue.
Would you have been able to order a new car in the uk with them as I remember seeing the odd car with them here or could they have been imported cars.
LB76:
I used to run into and through France in the 60’s70’s & 80’s never had yellow headlights and never got nicked or stopped for it mind you got loads of flashes from the frogs i dont think they liked them, my theory is that they (the frogs ) are a bunch of genetic defects and their eyes have not developed as well as the rest of us so they need the amber glow as their sighting equipment is not as good as the rest of mankind.
There was another possible explanation as to why you got flashed a lot by the frogs and that was the fact that most UK lorries had their headlights adjusted for driving on the left so when over on ‘the other side’ they could have thought that you had your lights on full beam.
A good few years ago, I bought my wife a 2CV for her 21st birthday and I tried to get yellow lenses for the headlamps to make it a little more authentique (if thats a word!) I ended up buying yellow headlamp bulbs instead. Looked effective enough but you couldn’t see anything with them and one garage, although begrudgingly passing its MOT said that they struggled to get the alignment setting due to poor brightness (or excessive dullness) Anyways that little deux chevaux is enjoying its retirement in the South of France - foreign registered vehicles over there seem to be popular as they tend to dodge the insurance and license and tax requirements (not to dissimilar to all the eastern blocski cack over here)
rondavies:
LB76:
I used to run into and through France in the 60’s70’s & 80’s never had yellow headlights and never got nicked or stopped for it mind you got loads of flashes from the frogs i dont think they liked them, my theory is that they (the frogs ) are a bunch of genetic defects and their eyes have not developed as well as the rest of us so they need the amber glow as their sighting equipment is not as good as the rest of mankind.There was another possible explanation as to why you got flashed a lot by the frogs and that was the fact that most UK lorries had their headlights adjusted for driving on the left so when over on ‘the other side’ they could have thought that you had your lights on full beam.
Ron that is the reason as dipped headlights used to have the beam into the near side and so they would be shinning to the off side on the continent but the yellow lenses did stop the glare. There was a couple of M/C cops who preyed on british drivers after you had gone over Tanquerville bridge heading towards Rouen and would pull you for anything known as Bill and Ben but with a bit of haggling you could usually get away with about 10 francs and before the HGV license they would ask for a international driving license which was bought for not much from the AA but it had a photo on and I got stopped a couple of times and asked for it but that stopped when HGVs came out.
cheers Johnnie
rondavies:
LB76:
I used to run into and through France in the 60’s70’s & 80’s never had yellow headlights and never got nicked or stopped for it mind you got loads of flashes from the frogs i dont think they liked them, my theory is that they (the frogs ) are a bunch of genetic defects and their eyes have not developed as well as the rest of us so they need the amber glow as their sighting equipment is not as good as the rest of mankind.There was another possible explanation as to why you got flashed a lot by the frogs and that was the fact that most UK lorries had their headlights adjusted for driving on the left so when over on ‘the other side’ they could have thought that you had your lights on full beam.
Dont get me started on that 
Could never understand why there was such a big deal about R/H/D motors having" beam benders" fitted for driving over the water . . . Cant recall many “Johnny foreigners” using them over here ?
Hiya…i’ve just spent 7 weeks in France (campervan) never bothered with benders or yellow,
the french still have yellow on there lights because the can’t be bothered to take them off.
these new motorhome lenses don’t have any markings so you don’t know where to put the benders
plus the adhisive marks the plastic lense, after a few weeks and you need £300 quid for 2 new headlights
as you say do they bother over here in britain …NO…
John
I used to have my headlights set in a rather neutral dead ahead position neither to the left or the right and then used spotlights to light up the bit you were aiming for, this solved the problem for me maybe it would have caused a problem for some firms but not for us we had some good mechanics at Wyatt’s and nothing was a problem for them.
robert burns big fancy scania is running on yellow
I did have a pair of yellow glasses for shooting clays, they were supposed to make them easier to see, or was it, I was such a crap shot?
It wasn’t just a question of which way the lights dipped that used to wind them up. On Dutch trucks we still got flashed all the time for not having yellow headlights.
It was just a French thing!
David
That makes sense to me ! bloody surrender monkeys !
Probably had yellow lenses during the war to show up their spines. 900x20. 
Those beam bender things are a pain in the arse. I drive over to France fairly often to see the outlaws and half the time I swear they didn’t do a thing as with the modern clear plastic lenses there are about two thousand different positions to place them depending on the make of car.
I don’t bother any more.