Theft concerns from car trunk in Provence?

Rick might say otherwise, but I’ve taken his warnings to mean don’t leave anything visible in a car. As long as you don’t have a hatchback with baggage showing through the parcel panel that floats behind the rear headrests, or a jacket/water bottles/guidebooks sitting out on a seat, dashboard, or console that can be viewed through the windows, no would-be thief would have any idea that you’re a tourist with goodies for the taking.

Anyone brazen enough to pop a trunk is a skilled crook, and there are always scum like that, at home and abroad. Still, anything hidden in a locked trunk should be safe under most circumstances. If it’s a place where a car’s going to be damaged by jacking up the trunk lid, that’s maybe a place not worth stopping.

Rick occasionally cautions about parking places where there’s always broken glass shards on the ground - obviously where burglars smash windows. If there’s nothing showing in the car worth grabbing, you won’t be a smash-and-grab victim.

Cyn is spot-on, the warning is about visible stuff. And even then, theft happens but is still rare. Nobody is interested in suitcases full of clothing and toiletries.

I had the same concerns in September 2019 but followed your plan of everything in the trunk, stowed before parking, and had no issues. Some recommend the casually folded French newspaper on the seat, etc. Parking in broad daylight in trafficked public areas is also a good precaution. Have a great trip.

It's best not to take any chances. But sometimes that is difficult or impossible. In that case, do the best you can. Everything in the trunk, no bags and nothing tempting visible. Anything extremely valuable (camera, phone, wallet, money belt loaded with cash, passport, etc.) should stay on your person. Park in a high-foot-traffic, well-lit place, and don't leave the car late at night. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Just take anything with value with you (e.g. mobile phones, computers, tablets, etc.).
Some valuables could also be hidden in the spare tire compartment inside the trunk, but it's not 100% theft proof either.
In any case, if you have stuff in the trunk, make sure you back the car against a wall or a tree so that it will be hard to open the trunk without moving the car.

All good advice here. If you are going someplace that is highly trafficked like the Pont du Gard in broad daylight and follow the advice above you should be fine. There will be enough people around which will deter thieves. If you are parking at some obscure place with no people around, you should be more wary.

It is a risk. Thieves are pros and will pop the trunk of an obvious tourist car. And most rentals are not sedans with trunks but hatchbacks which are easy to rob. Yeah they have a cover, but with the cover pulled, it is clear goodies lie within.

If you take the risk of course follow the obvious rules -- NOTHING visible -- not even a sweater or newspaper which might be seen as potentially hiding something; don't open the trunk where you park -- if you need to stow things or remove things do it before you get to the site; take anything it would be a tragedy to lose. When we stop for lunch in transit we always carry our messenger bags with electronics, cameras, ID/money of course and medications. We can replace clothes annoying though it would be, but these other things, particularly ID and meds are a nightmare to deal with if stolen.

I wondering if it is really worth it to add an extra hour+ to the trip to drive to our next hotel, unload all suitcases, and return to our day trip sites

Without knowing your itinerary we can only give general advice. And all the comments are on target. But if it really is just an hour or so to your next hotel, it might be worth it to go direct to the hotel first. Even if nothing is stolen, an attempted break-in can damage vehicle locks and set your schedule back more than a few hours. Speaking from personal experiences in Provence.

Just last week a friend told me about picking up a visiting researcher at the Avignon TGV many years ago, loading his suitcase and briefcase into the trunk and driving to a trailhead parking quite a distance from Avignon. Returning from a look at the panorama, they found the trunk had been broken into and the suitcase and hours and hours of irreplaceable research stolen. The police said that this particular parking area had been troublesome for a while. So do as Roberto, Janet, Cyn and others suggested.

To add on what Bets just said: my initial comment was related to parking at main sights. If you park at, say, Pont du Gard, in the middle of Orange, outside Gordes or Ménerbes... You really don't face a big risk. The risk is indeed higher in more isolated locations.

Absolutely agree. And if you park in an isolated area back the trunk up against a tree or a rock or a cliff face.

I have this same question with one wrinkle: we are traveling with our 4 kids and have a minivan (no contained trunk). We're all traveling just with backpacks. Would it be wise for us to carry our backpacks around on those days and/or look for a hotel where we could check our bags for a few hours?

A suggestion I read earlier on this forum makes sense to me: Buy a heavy chain and padlock at a local hardware store and run the chain through the handles of your suitcases. Ideally, also attach it to something inside the trunk or luggage area. The idea behind this is that it makes it difficult to steal the luggage quickly.

The thing is as a tourist you have no idea if the place you park is a major target for organized thieves. And yeah, leave your backpacks in a van and odds are pretty fair they will be gone when you get back and you will have to pay to replace the car window. It is always best to deposit your stuff at a hotel or apartment and then do your touristing from there.

Thieves can spot a rental car in an instant by the license plate number, how sterile it may be on the interior, telltale stickers in the windows, or by the simple fact that there are no floor mats, something rental cars seldom if ever have.

I personally would never leave anything of value in a rental car, no matter where it was parked.

We learnt the hard way. Our hire car BMW station wagon (from Paris) got broken into at Arles whilst we were waiting to be able to check in to our hotel. Parked in a carpark across the road from the police station. Broad daylight and lots of other cars parked there. They smashed a side triangle window and lifted up the door lock. Dropped down the back seat and stole our 2 suitcases and laptop in a back pack. Police found our bags the next day. We didn't get the backpack and laptop back. Laptop was on its last legs anyway and I had been backing up my photos onto a USB stick each day that I carried in my bag at all times as well as putting them on the laptop. I would have loved to have seen the faces on the thieves when they tipped the suitcases out and found boring clothing of middle aged fat people. LOL We'd had a deer jump on the car 2 days before the robbery in Dordogne and the side mirror was taped on with strapping tape but was serviceable to get us back to Paris. Then we got robbed at Arles. We had no choice but to backtrack to Montpelier to get a new hire car. It was a real pain in the butt as we missed our trip to Pont du Gard and had to pay double road tolls which are very expensive. So it did put a dampener on the trip and my husband wanted to drive straight back to Paris but I convinced him to continue on with the road trip. It makes a good story now.

By the way, these rules apply at home too!

I can't even count how many of my fellow business travelers I personally know of you have had laptops taken in smash and grabs because they left the case in site when they went into a restaurant or someplace. Main reason I will NOT take an SUV from a US rental agent.

I did the Provence tour a few years ago and just left everything in the truck. It was fine every time. (I also peeled off the GIANT "ENTERPRISE" or whatever sticker it was that was on the bumper and stuck it in the trunk! :)

We do what acraven says above. The bad guys are probably not walking around with bolt cutters. They rely in speed for their nefarious deeds. We also do not take much in the way of valuables on our trips. Before departure you should evaluate what technology you really need. Will a phone and inexpensive tablet be sufficient? Those could be carried with you, leaving another bunch of thieves with a case of used clothes like the ones who got Kamala’s. Lol. (Not that it wouldn’t be a real pain to have to replace all one’s clothing in a place where one is unfamiliar with the stores!). Many of the other suggestions are wise and pretty simple to implement.

Thank you all for your wise and thoughtful advice!!

Just be smart and do what you can to avoid being a victim; Thefts can happen anywhere, as others have noted.

Worse situation I've encountered - we had a rental car in Costa Rica and were instructed to remove the radio as often as we could but especially in a hotel or similar parking area at night! That was new one. We'd had a very stressful drive in a monsoon at night and forgot to do that. I awoke early morning in a panic and dashed out to the car. The radio was still in place. In hindsight, I did wonder if we could have told the rental agency to just keep the radio but then we'd be at risk of someone thinking it had been stolen. On that same trip, we discovered that the spare tire was flat. Luckily we had not needed it but since then, I try to remember to check for a useable spare.