Pretzel
I phoned my insurers to ask how I get a green card and they told me that my insurance certificate will suffice. Do you know this to be true or do you actually have to have a green card?
My understanding is - and it's been 6/7 years since i worked in insurance....that under a standard UK policy you automatically have the minimum cover required in the EU country that you are visiting, that is usually third party only or similar. You no longer need a green card document in your hand as your certificate confirms you have this cover and this is sufficient for the local plod who if just concerned that you are driving legally.
If you want your policy to continue at its UK level (ie TPF&T or Comp) then the insurer needs to extend the policy cover and this is still referred to as Green Card cover (even though you don't need the bit of paper). Most insurers charge you a bit extra for this.
Certainly this is my experience and this is what my insurers (privilege) tell me, however I posted this a little while ago and someone said that their insurer automatically gave them their full policy cover without them needing to notify them. Whilst not wishing to doubt whoever it was, this is not my experience and I'd be surprised at that approach as most insurers still view brits driving on the wrong side of the road as an additional risk and charge accordingly for it (hence the reduction in the number of ins co's giving free cover as they used to do a few years ago.
The short answer is phone your insurers and make sure that they are answering the question of whether your cover continues in full whilst you are in France rather than do you need an additional piece of paper to keep the local plod happy!
Edited to say:- I'm not sure I've seen sensible and Le Mans trip in the same sentence without a negative in there as well!
