Driving in France

viamichelin.com is your best resource for that. It tends to be more accurate than GoogleMaps for French routes and it estimates the total cost of a route, including gas and tolls.

All the tolls I have visited accepted credit cards, although my chip card would sometimes not work. Have coins handy.

Thank you!

I drove from Rouen west to the coast, down through MSM, a loop around Brittany then to Chinon last September. Other parts of the country might have different experiences.

Each toll plaza was somewhat of an adventure. All but one took a credit or debit card but I think all of them required a couple of tries with multiple cards. Fortunately, I only resorted to using cash at one toll booth because I wasn't carrying a lot of cash.

I was glad none of them were crowded so no one had to wait behind me.

I think via michelin was a pretty good estimate for toll costs.

My chip cards have almost never worked at toll booth machines in France. On the other hand, I usually only try 1, and if it doesn't work I'll pay cash rather than going through my wallet to try others.

we drove from Paris to the Dordogne this fall and then to the Ardeche and back to Paris. We found that the Vinci managed toll booths in the south including about every 5 km along the Riviera accepted our chip/sig credit cards. We found that many of the booths in the north did not. I can't remember who manages those toll booths. I remember one spot where there were no manned booths that took money and no automatic money accepting stations where we backed up a long line of cars as we tried 4 difference credit cards. We finally pushed the help button and got someone on the intercom who spoke English and told us if we had exact change we could deposit it in a box there and he could lift the barrier. The toll was something like 19.40 Euro; we had a 20 and put that in the box and he let us through. This was not a money counting slot -- only a sort of last ditch option managed remotely and he took our word for it that we put the right amount in.

We usually travel with a purse of coins for toll baskets and those exist some places but there are stations where only credit cards are accepted but where US cards are not.

Within Rick Steves website (this one) within the section driving in Europe, France and your question are addressed. France's toll roads are owned and managed by at least 10 companies. The credit card systems are not altogether compatable, especially for US chip cards. Therefore always carry ample cash/coin and use toll lanes that accept cash/coin to be safe. Use ViaMichelien Maps app for toll / mileage estimates.

One final tip--always use the booth with the green arrow--that means the machine takes cash. These machines always also have a credit card slot, so you can try your card first. Maybe it will work, or maybe not. At least if it doesn't, you have the option of paying cash. Also, be sure you have bills of 20 euros or less--the machines don't take 50-euro bills.

Thank you everyone for your valuable advice. Leaving for Paris tomorrow and then to the countryside!

I usually set my GPS to avoid tolls. Solves that problem. It takes longer, but I want to see the countryside anyway.

For driving in France, be sure that each driver registered on the car rental form has either an International Driver's Permit (which is used in conjunction with your home D.L.) or a certified translation of the terms of your D.L. in French. Either of those is compulsory for driving in France.