Will a rental car from Hertz or Avis have a toll pass on the windshield? Cars here in the US esp in Florida have a pass that just charges your credit card so you don%26#39;t have to stop at toll plazas. Is there a prepaid toll card you can purchase? We will do a good bit of driving from Paris to the Normandy coast to the Loire and back to Paris. Seems like the tolls will really add up.
Thanks
|||
%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;Will a rental car from Hertz or Avis have a toll pass on the windshield?%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;
I have never seen a rental car either in the US or in France that has a toll pass included as part of the rental. Toll tags may be purchased of course but even with the extensive amount of driving I have done in France I have never really felt compelled to spend the money for the pass.
Tolls do add up but obtaining cash at an ATM machine has always worked for me.
|||
I have never encountered any significant delay at a toll point on the French autoroutes.
In any case, if you want to see France you should avoid the autoroutes, which have all the interest of an American Interstate. If you have the time, it is much better to use the roads marked in red or in yellow on a Michelin map.
|||
You can buy toll tags (the Liver-T), but you have to apply by mail and have the tag sent out to you. They cost 12€ (from memory). Each Autoroute in indivifually owned and maintained, so you can%26#39;t buy an unlimited use pass.
There is usually not much of a delay at Peages (toll booths) - the worst one you will encounter will probably be the one on the Aquitaine (the A10) just south of Paris. If this is busy having a pass won%26#39;t make any difference, the whole area will be choked.
You can just use your ordinary credit card (NOT a debit card) and go through a lane marked %26quot; CB %26quot;. Put in the ticket, put in your credit card, the barrier goes up, you leave after remembering to collect your credit card.
This is almost as quick as having a tag.
|||
I agree with Wizard - the French toll roads, although in excellent condition and, with the exception of the A6, properly sized for the traffic, have not made the investment in true by-pass lanes for pass holders. So when you find yourself in a traffic jam (%26quot;bouchon%26quot;), the entire toll plaza is jammed and the pass holders do not have any advantage.
I should sound a note of caution on the %26quot;no traffic jams%26quot; opinions expressed. The delays coming into Paris on a Sunday evening after holidays or long weekends are the worst delays I have ever experienced - anywhere. They are particularly bad when coming in from the south or west, and should be planned for and avoided.
|||
I don%26#39;t pay road tolls by credit card, because my bank slaps an %26quot;overseas transaction fee%26quot; onto any charge made outside Australia, no matter how small.
As I approach the toll payment, my wife has her purse at the ready and I head for one of the lanes that has an icon of a uniformed person collecting money. I hand the person the ticket, the amount of the toll comes up on a display near my head, and we pay cash. It takes only seconds.
In case you don%26#39;t understand the reference to a ticket, when you enter a French autoroute you go past a machine from which you take a ticket that indicates your entry point. You then have to use this ticket when you leave the autoroute.
However, there are a few autoroutes which do not have this system and instead just have toll gates at intervals. The A8 near Nice is like this.
|||
Quote: %26quot;I should sound a note of caution on the %26quot;no traffic jams%26quot; opinions expressed. The delays coming into Paris on a Sunday evening after holidays or long weekends are the worst delays I have ever experienced - anywhere. They are particularly bad when coming in from the south or west, and should be planned for and avoided.%26quot;
I had planned to take a day trip to the Loire valley on a Sunday. Now I%26#39;m not so sure. If I wait until after 8 or 9pm to go back to Paris, do you think it would be less congested? How much are the tolls on the roads between south Paris and Tours?
|||
Tolls between Tours and Paris are about 20 €.
The worst traffic jam I ever had was coming into Paris from Tours on the Sunday of the first round of Presidential elections in April 2007. It started in Orleans where two motorways join, sped up for a while, and from outside of Paris it was two or three hours to travel the final 40-50k.
That was an exceptional day; if you watch or read the news they have predictions every weekend as to how bad the traffic will be. This Saturday, for example, begins the two week vacances scolaires for the Paris region - there will be advance advice re the traffic for Friday night, Saturday morning, etc., same for the return the next two Sundays.
If coming into Paris on a Sunday I like to arrive in Paris no later than 5 pm or not until after 10 pm.
|||
There is also an official website for travel information, some of which is in English …gouv.fr/en/rubrique.php3… The pretty coloured charts are nice and easy to follow too :-)
|||
We drove from Tours to Paris in August - don%26#39;t remember what day of the week it was or what highway, but we did encounter some backups at what seemed like very frequent toll booths. What IS crystal clear in my memory is wishing we HAD A GPS!! The signage was less than we are used to.
Connie
|||
My worst ever Peage experience was on the A10 on the 2nd last day of the May school holidays last year. It took me almost 2 hours to get from the A11/A10 junction to Orly Airport, inlcuding almost an hour at the peage.
The only other proper delay I have experienced was near Rouen on the A28 when the barriers broke down. It took me about 15 minutes to get through the gate.
Sunday afternoons on the A10 though - forget it. I have done it a number of times and it has never been a comfortable experience
No comments:
Post a Comment