Car Rentals Toulouse to CDG

Toll roads are expensive in France. You pay them as you come to them, in cash or perhaps sometimes if you have a credit card that works (oftentimes American cards don't work in the tollbooths).

agendavideo, Some (but not all) Autoroutes are toll. In general Autoroutes near or in cities are free, long distance Autoroutes have tolls.
You can look up routes on: https://www.viamichelin.com/
This will give you routes, with distance, time and cost (Fuel + tolls). For example, for Toulouse to "Aéroport Charles de Gaulle" gives:

Distance: 703 km including 682 km on motorways
Time: 06h53 including 06h13 on motorways
Costs: €91.92 including Toll €35.30, Consumption €56.62

The times given assume you do not stop. In practice, add at least 25%
For most toll Autoroutes you pick up a card when you enter the Autoroute, or where the toll section starts. When you exit you put the card into the machine, and it calculates the toll based on how far you have travelled. For some short sections there is just a toll booth charging a flat rate.

For more info see here (this is the official website of the toll companies): http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/payment-methods.htm

Look on Viamichelin web site to estimate tolls for your route. I sure would not drop off site with the idea of 'grabbing a taxi' -- they aren't that easy to find in outback nowhere. We have not found dropping at airports to be more expensive although pick ups at airports are. Tolls are pretty stiff in France and they are run by different companies so your US credit card might work fine in southern France but you might find booths in the north that don't have money baskets and don't take your cards; it is really fun to find yourself holding up 25 honking cars behind you as you try card after card. We finally pushed the help button and were told where to deposit the 19 Euro we owed -- we didn't have exact cash and so put a 20 in the box and the agent lifted the gate. There were no manned booths at the station; the help guy was in some central office but he did speak English and he could control the gate. Some booths have coin baskets, all take cards (but maybe not your card) and in some areas there are toll stations every few km; this was a real pain in the riviera but at least the Vinci stations took our cards without problem. If you can get an ez pass type thing for the car it would make toll booths a lot easier and with a 5 week rental I would look into renting one of those if possible so you an just breeze through in the ez pass lane.

thanks to everyone who has responded, very good information!! : )

Any experience with rental car insurance? Do you recommend buying at agency when picking up car or pre-advance through
3rd party? I've never rented car in France but I've read that not all insurance is honored by rental agencies on the continent.

Thanks in advance,

As to rental insurance/CDW, I've never purchased it from the rental agency in France, but always have relied on the insurance provided by my credit card. However, if you'll do a search, you'll see that many people are not comfortable with that. At least in France, it's not really a question as to whether the rental agency will "accept" your foreign insurance. They prefer that you buy it from them, but I've never run into an occasion where they will insist. However, most US CC rental insurance is secondary (although not Amex Premium), so if you cause damage to the car, the rental company will charge your credit card and it's up to you to deal with your credit card company to get reimbursed.

Thanks for the reply to my question on car insurance. I've come across a few posts where people who relied on their
credit card for CDW were disappointed when they had to process a claim. Seems it can be quite a hassle for some. Where others didn't have any issues.