Sightseeing in France with luggage in car

Always a risk. I met someone who had everything they owned stripped from a car in a half hour beach stop. As much as possible get to your lodging and stow luggage before touring towns etc in the area. If you must stop then always take your bag with valuables, meds, electronics, ID with you -- even at a truck stop for lunch and park where you can see the car when you can. Take turns using the rest rooms at stops.

The problem with stops is you have no way of knowing if you are in an area with an organized gang of thieves that rips off cars. There was one on line story where a guy stopped at a trail head to do a short hike with his research materials in the car. They were stolen and probably dumped down some ditch when the thieves realized they didn't have valuable things. To thieves but it was a disaster for him.

Never open the trunk at a stop -- arrange your stuff before arriving where you want to stop. Leave nothing in the car -- even a sweater on a back seat may lead a thief to break a window to see what is under it.

Mostly you will be okay -- but be aware that you may lose what is in the car and so don't leave anything it would be disastrous to lose.

Get a sedan not a hatchback. Put the luggage in the trunk in the morning when you leave your accommodations. Make sure that you do not need to open the trunk to put things away when you park. Leave nothing of value visible in the car. Back into parking spaces if possible. Don’t keep going back to the car after you park it so it looks like you could have forgotten something in it.

Def doing these things. We booked a Corolla and plan to have everything in the car. If it was a matter of half an hour or so I would just bring the stuff to the hotel, but for MSM, the hotel we are staying at the night before is over an hour away in the opposite direction of where we’re going after we’re going after is even much further away than that. It’s just completely impractical. Same with the museum between Emblas and Dijon. It is a good idea to take a smaller bag with our medicine and electronics although a lot of times museums won’t let you walk around with a bag so there’s that.

The main issue is that obviously you want to protect the important and expensive things, but I don’t want to be without all of my clothing either. It’s just a huge pain. For MSM in particular, it’s hard to believe that somebody has not realized they could make money offering a nearby luggage storage facility.

MSM used to have locker facilities in the parking lot but they don't now.

Most museums don't have a problem with small backpacks carried over the shoulder like a purse, or bags like messenger bags which is what we used for most of our car travels. The messenger bag came with us; it was a pain but better than losing everything.

When you leave the car, leave nothing in the passenger area that says 'tourist'.

I would not worry too much about this to be honest. Don’t leave anything on display or leave valuables in the car. Thieves don’t tend to go breaking into random cars on the off chance there’s something in the trunk. This has never happened to me and I don’t have off street parking at home (typical Victorian terrace) so my car is often out of sight and hearing.

All good advice, especially not leaving anything visible in the passenger compartment and not opening or rummaging around in the trunk, then closing it and walking away. That's like catnip to an observant parking lot burglar.

My advice would be to consider packing lighter so you can take it with you to the hotel on Mont-Saint-Michel. We first saw the Mont on a 6-week trip around France and England, and had only a cabin-sized bag and small secondary bag for each of us. We left nothing in the parking lot but our vehicle.

It can be done. And frankly, it will make the rest of your trip far more pleasant than it being a several-week-long wrestling match with large, heavy bags.

As others have said, leave nothing in sight when you leave the vehicle, not a map, coin, phone cable, etc. Don’t open the area where your luggage is stored after pulling into a lot. You never know who is watching. If possible, back into a spot by a wall and back up so far that the hatchback cannot be opened or that a person can’t walk between the wall and car. Also, don’t park in a remote spot. Try to park in an area where there are people walking by.

While you may reserve a sedan, you’ll get the “or similar” vehicle that’s on the lot when you pick up the vehicle. It may be what you reserved, but may not be. In all my years of renting vehicles, I’ve never had one broken into when stopping at places between lodging locations.

@jaimeelsabio I am so nervous that they will give me a hatchback! Hoping for the best.

I don’t think there’s a car on the market in Europe where you will be able to see into the trunk without any kind of cover. I have never seen a car like this so don’t worry about that.

My wife and I spent a few days driving around northern France in November (Amiens, Arras and the area). Like you, I was a bit nervous, but honestly everything felt quite safe and we did not have any issues. I'm sure it's somewhat different in bigger cities and during high season, but by keeping anything of interest out of sight, I think you minimize the chances of having a problem. We had an SUV, so there was a window into the trunk. We kept the cover on when our bags were in there and otherwise didn't leave anything that looked like it could be of value within sight.