Gasoline, Toll Booths & the Chip+Pin Card

Yes, in my experience, most toll booths have a manned booth for cash payments. As you approach, look for the lane signed with the "man holding out his hand." Best gas prices are usually found at super marches that are usually located at the outskirts of towns and they usually have manned booths for payment where your card will be accepted. The gas available at the "aires" on the Autoroute will be more expensive, but you shouldn't have trouble using your card. If you are going to be driving on Sundays, be sure to gas up on Saturday to avoid getting stuck at an unmanned station.

Carolyn - perfect - exactly what I needed to know! Thanks so much!

As to toll booths, based on my recent experience, it seems rare to find an actual person at a French toll booth. However, there are always lanes that have machines that accept cash. And it's not just chip and signature cards that rarely if ever work at toll booths; I've had an Andrews FCU chip card for several years, and I've pretty much given up trying to use it at toll booths. On the other hand, it's always worked at unmanned gas stations; in fact, that's why I got it. One problem is that a lot of French supermarkets have stopped manning the booths at their gas stations. But if you plan ahead you'll be fine. I recall seeing someone comment that if the supermarket is open but the gas station is unmanned, you might be able to pay inside.

My chip-and-signature Chase United Explorer card worked at a toll booth and an unmanned gas station. (Thank goodness!) Both were for small amounts.

Supermarket gas and many other places: these typically are "walled in" with one entrance and one exit with a person sitting in a little booth at the exit. Make sure that you know what you owe before you approach the little booth because it's not a simple matter of walking back to the pump to check or pointing for the cashier-- those actions will be awkward as you will be in your car. We have been overcharged (or paid for someone else's pump). Anytime you hit one of these little booths you can use a swipe card as well.

Bring bills for the turnpikes to feed into toll machines.

I haven't driving in Switzerland. In France (a year ago), I always paid cash for tolls, sometimes there was a person, sometimes just a machine. The machines took up to €20 notes and all the change was in coins. Gas was considerably more expensive at the toll road rest stops. Just make sure you've got enough in the tank before you get on them. The price difference between other gas stations wasn't that much, so not worth driving around looking for one. I remember paying inside with cash or non-chip credit card, don't remember if I ever paid at the pump.

It seemed to me that pay at the pump didn't work where there was an attendant on duty, but don't know how universal that is.

When I've gassed up in France, which is usually at a supermarket, if there was a person in the kiosk, there was no pay at pump option, but if it was off hours or there simply was no person, then you used your at on the machine at the pump.

for the Pont de Normandy near Honfleur I did not see a manned booth. The only options to pay were via credit card or via coins tossed into a basket connected to a machine that adds up what you've tossed in. There did not seem to be a way to pay with euro bills. So my suggestion is to always carry 10E or so in coins in case you run into this somewhere else.

The advice to gas up on Saturday is good advice. Have cash for the tolls. We used 20 euro notes and smaller change in France. The other fly in the ointment is the parking garages. We were unable to use our cc (Andrews chip and pin) to get out of the garages at the exit gate. They generally have a machine on one of the floors of the garage to put euros in to pay the fee. So you need to take the ticket to the machine and pay there.

I was going to start a thread about our recent driving experiences in France, but this a a perfect place to post my information. France has taken the automated, no human arrangements to new heights (or lows?). We used the autoroutes from Lyon and points south without ever seeing a manned pay lane. There were lots of cc only lanes, lots for transponders ( indicated by a lower case t), and some that took cash. The cash lanes were indicated by a green, downward pointing arrow. They took bills up to 50 euros and gave change. If you run into a problem, somewhere in the vicinity there is a person who will help. Keep lots of cash on hand. The tolls may be more than you imagine,
We refueled several times at rest stops - - aires in French. They are usually easier to use than local stations, because somewhere there is a person for assistance. A common arrangement is one attendant in a booth. You prepay and get change if you don't use all the money.

We did encounter a new scheme at a Leclerc aire. You prepaid at the pump; but instead of change, you got a credit voucher. Of course, then you have to patronize them again. My husband didn't read the directions carefully and was unable to get the voucher. He did find an attendant, who seemed to assume that the machine, not the customer, had malfunctioned. He gave us the difference (14 euros) in cash. Score 1 for the foreign dummies! We decided to avoid Leclerc.
Refueling before returning the car was another challenge. Normally I take the prepaid fuel option, but Europcar didn't offer it. We were coming to Avignon from L'isle sur la Sorgue, so no autoroute. The first two stations we tried were unmanned and had no option other than cc's. I was beginning to think we'd have to eat whatever charge the agency laid on us. The third try, however, was a success. The station. had a person inside the convience shop to whom we could pay cash. Fortunately, we had allowed plenty of time for all of this.
The moral of these stories is not that you shouldn't rent cars. We find it very convenient for getting to the kind of places we like. You just need to be prepared for things to be really different from home. Also, don't assume that things will be the same in one region as they are in another. I think I read that the autoroutes are managed by private companies, so there is no uniformity. Lots of cash on hand and a goodly time margin are your friends.

I was in France for about 3 weeks last June and used mostly cash when going thru toll booths with an occasional attendant.

I used my chip CC for all my gas purchases, all self service. No problems experienced.

The tolls may be more than you imagine,

you can get a good idea of how much using viamichelin.com, which calculates tolls for any route you choose and estimates fuel costs (choose the type of car you're driving).

If you run into a problem, somewhere in the vicinity there is a person who will help.

Thankfully they haven't completely done away with humans. One came in handy when none of my CC's worked at the toll gate.

Refueling before returning the car was another challenge.

That's the principal reason I got an Andrews chip and PIN card several years ago. All gas stations on the road to the Geneva airport were either closed or unmanned. I figured: So how much more could it be to let the rental agency fill it up? A lot; about double.

There are toll booths that are unmanned in more rural locations and the only "help" available is a voice over an intercom which was no help at all for us on one occasion.

In my case I was lucky because the voice on the intercom eventually came to my car and straightened things out. Of course, it was on the outskirts of Paris with about 40 lanes, so they needed some humans around.