Rental Car in French Riviera

First 1 - dunno.

Second 1 - dunno. I've never seen snow in Nice or Monaco and I go nearly every winter. I would never drive other than the eastern Riviera in winter; I fly or take the train. It is so much easier. Cheaper, too. The tolls on the autoroutes in France are very expensive.

Number 2 - Never been to Lourdes. I'd take the train. From the Italian border to nearly Avignon the route is very hilly and winding.

Your last question - don't format and don't use numbered lists. Or read carefully the formatting help and still be confused.

Check with autoeurope. They have excellent prices and usually "winterizing" options. I've rented with them numerous times and never had to pay $400 for a week, let alone a day.

Though the roads are hilly and winding, they are generally in excellent condition and easy to drive. You might consider visiting Carcasonne as opposed to Toulouse and if you visit Albi, visit some of the bastide towns mentioned in Rick's guide. If you do hit snow, it would be between Montpelier and Lourdes.

We used Europcar for a rental a few weeks ago. (via AutoEurope - AutoEurope will show you all your options - Hertz, Budget, etc).

We had the car for 10 days - picked up in Avignon, dropped in Nice, it was about $400 for an automatic. We didn't get a small car (hard to get a small automatic) - it was a Citroen Cactus - nice midsize - smaller than an SUV but slightly bigger than say a Ford Focus or Dodge Dart. Before when we rented in France (2012) we ended up with a VW Touran. Best bet for getting an automatic will be at an airport or big train station. With Europcar - you do pay extra to pick up/drop off at airports (40 euro for us) or TGV stations, and there are extra daily environmental fees of a few euro a day. I think we paid another 100 euro or so on top of the rental for fees and picking up at the TGV in Avignon.

I can't reply to winter driving conditions...

Hi All,

Thanks so much for the recommendations and info. I browse through AutoEurope and Europcar voilaa got them :) couldn't believe where hubby got EUR400/day for auto car before whilst now we could get a small auto car for US300

Hi Phillip
the AutoEurope's winterizing option, is it a promo within a period? I was thinking of Carcasonne too but we just came back from Germany Rhine Valley and Rothenburg ODT region with the fortified towns and castles. I just think it might be similar? I also think either Albi or Toulouse since RS says Albi is a shadow of Toulouse and less touristy. Do you think I'd need a 4-wheeled drive car driving within this route?

Hi Nicole
the additional environmental fee and extra pick up charges on airports or TGV, is it stated already in the quote or they just add it up once we pick up the car?

TIA

There will be snow in the mountains around Lourdes, but Lourdes is in a river valley. I would guess there isn't a lot of snow, if any, but you should check that on a weather website. If there isn't snow, I would be prepared for rain.

I can't help with car rental questions. But here's my trick for numbering: don't use periods, but instead, use parenthesis, and put in two hard returns between items. If your list looks like this as you're typing it:

1) Item number 1

2) Item number 2

then the formatting doesn't get changed when you post. If you try to use periods, it does.

If you look at the 'fine print' of the Autoeurope page, I believe it explains that there could be extra fees added by the company. I did check into the europcar page and knew about the extra charges for picking up at the tgv etc etc. But we didn't get the total of the extra fees until we dropped the car, as some of them are daily fees so dependent on how long you have the car. And I'm not sure how other companies like hertz or budget or sixt deal with fees.

Here is the breakdown (I found the final drop off paper). We had the car for 9 days.
Uh...the paper is in French tho, so my translating could be wrong...prices are all in euros
Ecological fee 4.44 per day
Frais immat pfi (I don't know what this is in English!) 2.70 per day
Picking up at the tgv station 34.00
And another fee of 15.60 for...the car being an automatic? Not sure. (Says indemn. Carburant)
It was another 115 euro on top of the original rental charge. We didn't rent a GPS, but luckily the car had an integrated one.

And another fee of 15.60 for...the car being an automatic? Not sure. (Says indemn. Carburant)

That sounds like filling the tank with fuel. Or paying not to.

Hi Sherry
thanks a lot for what to expect around Lourdes in December :)

Hi NicoleP
thanks for detailing down the receipt for me. really appreciate it Dear :). now i could expect what extra charges for renting the car there. yup as Nigel said, the carburant is something to do with the fuel. I think the extra cost for the automatic transition is around EUR30?? (a bit forget) when I tick the box during car searching

I have put up my itinerary roughly as follows for the driving route. I try to avoid the snowy area based on the info i got so far. from Nice - Avignon or Montpellier - heading upwards to Toulouse - then straight to Lourdes. I am expecting snow in Lourdes.

If anyone could share more info (snow, terrain etc) in regards to my route above, please kindly share it here. I plan to book a small automatic car at the moment.

TIA

I think the indemn carburant charge was because it was a diesel (as I notice on my return statement it says carburant (carburetor?) - diesel). Tho I think the bulk of them are diesel.

The car was filled up only a few km's from the drop off and we didn't select the 'not going to refill with gas' selection (which is a lot more money).

One other thing - if you are going to use your Amex to reserve/rent the car (as we did because of the damage coverage) - make sure you use the card of the person who is going to be the main driver. I may have screwed up our damage claim big time (still wading thru it) as I used my card to rent the car initially...and even tho my husband and I are on the same account, the lady on the phone said HIS card had to be used. (OK - I guess I had to read the really fine print as nowhere did I see that stated - and when I asked on the phone about damage coverage before renting the car, I wasn't told that either). He did use his card when we picked up the car (for the hold they put on your card) and also used his card when we returned it to pay the extra fees. I am hoping AMEX will help us as the car got scratched and we were charged about $600 (they were deep scratches - not surface - I won't go into it). So let this be a head's up!

Hi NicoleP

thanks for alerting me in regards to the credit card. my hubby also feels really aware of the extra charges they could put through our card without authorization. My drop off time would be on 31st of January which I doubt that'd be anyone in the office but we'd still be able to drop off key. we are quite worried dropping off the car without any inspection though.

Oh - we were totally aware of the scratches (we were in an indoor parking garage with very narrow openings to go down/up levels and hubby scraped the car along the wall going around a corner ). So they aren't charging us for something we (ahem...he) didn't do. We used Europcar one other time and dropped the car in Ouistreham and no one looked at it at the time and we had no issues...just make sure you take pics - I would do pics of any damage on the car when you pick it up (which should be noted on the rental agreement) and maybe even take pics when you drop off to show you didn't (or did) do damage to the car...

LOL, Nicole! I did the same thing in a parking garage in Avignon on the passenger side! We also had to duck-tape the driver's mirror back on when it was sideswiped the same trip.

That's why I really like the 'lease-back'/'buy-back' contracts for longer rentals in France (worthwhile for 15-17+ days). Zero deductible and no embarrassing explanations needed.

oh my, i also have concern with the parking spaces in France. I wonder if hubby could park with range of just cm between cars (from what i've browsed and saw in Paris streets). also based on your info it seems the whole parking garage are like tiny caves

Hi Diane
what does it mean by the zero deductible from lease back/buy back contracts? i only need the car for 5days at the moment but it seems interesting to know more of the leased car contract options. I might need it in the future :D

TIA

Jen - after some small parking spot issues in parking garages, I know if we rent again in France, we will look for outdoor parking lots if we can. I got out of the car a few times and helped hubby get into the spot (and he's used to backing into our garage at a funny angle every day - but he was stymied by these small parking garages - I guess because he wasn't used to the vehicle.) And I saw lots of other passengers getting out of cars to guide the driver into the parking spot.

The nice thing about the car we had, it actually had rubber bumper pads on the side...so it helped with doors hitting the car...not so much scraping along a wall in a parking garage. Sigh.

Peugeot, Citroen and Renault all have a version of it. You get these through a travel agent or a car broker and there are actual forms to fill in and sign. They must be arranged at least 4-6 weeks ahead of your travel dates. Pick-up and drop-off is offsite (shuttle) during office hours, at most major airports in France. The minimum contract period is 3 weeks, but start making economic sense at around the 15-17 mark. (I have signed for 3 weeks and called to make an appointment to return the car a few days ahead - that works fine.)
These cars are brand new and you get EXACTLY the make and model that you sign for. For me, these have always been the very best option for France. I have wished more than once that this type of contract be more readily available elsewhere in Europe!

Ahh, the horrors of tiny French parking garages. I think I know the one that Nicole's husband had trouble with in Avignon--and it is stressful navigating the narrow ramps between levels. This is why you need to rent the smallest car you can that will accommodate your group. Also, remember that automatics usually are only offered in larger models--not compacts or minis.

T. - our parking garage we had an issue with was in Vence - by contrast, the ramps in the one in Monaco were nice and wide (tho the parking spaces were still a little small-ish)

Hi Jen,

Just thought I'd throw our recent experience in as well. We were in the Provence region in late August and rented a car in Arles through Europcar. It was booked online before we left the US, i found a decent rate on the car, and declined all rental car insurance coverage as instructed by AMEX. We use AMEX exclusively when renting cars, and carry the additional car rental coverage through AMEX as well. (Not trying to promote them, but it works for us!) We had the car for 5 days, and returned it very early in the morning at the Nice, Fr. airport. There was no attendant on duty when returning the car due to the early hour. We did NOT take photos or a video of the car....a mistake! We had no damage done to the car and felt fine about leaving it as we would in the US.
About 2 weeks later my husband mentioned that his car rental bill seemed very high, about $300 too much
for that rental. I contacted Europcar and got an invoice stating we had damaged the bumper and were being charged about 273 Euro for that damage. After a couple emails to Europcar i notified AMEX. I submitted my information and details of the rental, including the slight scratches on the bumper that were already on the car when we rented it in Arles. These scratches were noted there at the rental by the agent.
AMEX dealt directly with Europcar at this point, we didn't need to do anything else. They kept us updated on our claim, and interestingly enough they got nothing back from Europcar to substantiate their claim against us. I am happy to report that just a couple of days ago we were notified by Europcar that they had indeed made an error!!! We are being refunded the 273 Euro.
I absolutely believe that they do this routinely when you don't purchase their insurance. I think many people probably just pay the bill because it is difficult to fight due to the fact that all correspondence from Europcar came to us in French. Just my opinion. Be aware!