There are all legitimate

.
Black plate are made of steel and white plate are made of plastic.
In France, there's no style for plates, except the colour (except for motorcycle but it isn't legitimate).
One year ago, a car must have a rear yellow plate and a front white plate :

Now you can have a rear and front white plate.
For my beetle, it's an other story because it's got its plate since 1970.
French system worked in this way, example :
237 FT **,
** : is the number of the department (like a State).
I live in Haute-Marne department, it's the number 52.
You can see the all black beetle with the number 70. 70 is the Haute-SaƓne.
Since the 1st april, French state changed the system of plate (too old) . The number of the department doens't appear, but it's possible to add it on the right of the plates.
the new system is : 2 letter, 3 number, 2 letter.
With this new system, the 1st car with new plate system got this number : AA 001 AA.
This is the new (shitty

) plate :

And a plate follow the car owner all its life, even if he got a new car.
The next time, I'll take some interiors of those VW

.