Drunkenness or alcohol intoxication: why the difference matters

In everyday language, “driving drunk” and “driving under the influence” mean the same thing. Legally, they are two different offences, with different consequences. If you are summoned to appear (citation) for drunkenness, it is well worth checking whether that classification is correct.

This article is part of our overview of drink driving.

Two offences

Alcohol intoxication (article 34 of the Road Traffic Act (loi relative à la police de la circulation routière)) is an objective state: a breath analysis or a blood analysis shows a concentration above the legal limit. Your behaviour plays no role. The figure is enough.

Drunkenness (article 35) is the loss of permanent control over your actions as a result of drinking alcohol. It is a factual state, which the police infer from what they see and hear. No minimum concentration is required, and a high concentration does not on its own prove drunkenness. Someone at 1.2 per mille who remains perfectly coherent is intoxicated, but not necessarily drunk.

Article 35 also punishes driving in a similar state, in particular because of drugs or medication. On this, see our articles on drug driving and driving on medication.

Both offences can be charged together. One does not rule out the other.

Why the difference matters so much

Heavier penalties

Drunkenness is punished more severely than mere alcohol intoxication. A driving ban (déchéance du droit de conduire) of at least one month is then mandatory. The judge can also impose an alcohol interlock (éthylotest antidémarrage), even if the measured concentration was low. See our article on the alcohol interlock.

Immediate withdrawal

Anyone found in a state of drunkenness immediately loses their licence for 15 days, whatever the measured concentration. See our article on immediate licence withdrawal.

Your insurer

After an accident, your motor liability insurer first pays the victims. It can then try to recover that amount from you. With mere alcohol intoxication, the accident must, as a rule, be a consequence of the drinking. With established drunkenness, that link appears obvious much more quickly in practice, and the insurer succeeds more easily in its claim against you. A conviction for drunkenness can therefore also hit you hard financially, long after the judgment.

How do the police establish drunkenness?

Because drunkenness is a factual state, everything depends on the observations in the police report. The police generally use a form listing the signs of intoxication, such as:

• the eyes: sleepy, glassy, heavy eyelids;
• the face: dazed or flushed;
• behaviour: aggressive, overly cheerful, confused;
• gait: stumbling, looking for support, standing with legs apart;
• speech: slurred, incoherent remarks;
• orientation in time and space;
• the smell of alcohol.

The more signs are ticked and the more concretely they are described, the harder it becomes to dispute drunkenness. Someone who stumbles, looks for support, slurs their words and does not know where they are has little chance. If the report only states that you smelled of alcohol and seemed sleepy, while you spoke normally, walked normally and were well oriented, there is room to dispute it.

The evidential value of the police report

In traffic matters, a police report has special evidential value: what it contains stands until proven otherwise (article 62 of the Road Traffic Act). That evidential value, however, only applies to the factual observations the reporting officer made personally, not to the conclusions drawn from them (Cass. 16 January 2001).

This is crucial for drunkenness. “The person concerned was clearly drunk” is a conclusion, not an observation. The judge must assess independently whether the signs described justify that conclusion. A police report made up mainly of general phrases and containing few concrete observations therefore gives the defence something to work with.

Other elements can also play a role:

• camera footage, for example from a bodycam or a petrol station;
• witness statements;
• medical explanations for looking sleepy or walking unsteadily, such as fatigue, an injury or a medical condition;
• the time between the events and the observations.

What does this mean for your defence?

If you are prosecuted for both alcohol intoxication and drunkenness, dropping the drunkenness charge can change your position considerably: no mandatory one-month ban, fewer arguments for an alcohol interlock and a stronger position towards your insurer. It is therefore one of the first points we examine in a case.

Frequently asked questions

Have your case reviewed

Have you been summoned to appear for drunk driving? We read the police report with a critical eye and check whether the observations really justify the classification. Contact us.

Law as at 28 September 2026. We update this article when the rules change.