Tolls in France

It will be a tidy sum but that is why the roads are as smooth as glass. Most toll booths take debit cards and cash (because cash makes no enemies). Before the Euro when France used francs, I called the excessive tolls akin to being de-franced.

Full marks for using Viamichelin - an excellent travel planning site! The site usually costs routes by Tolls (the French have excellent Tollways, and well worth using) and by use of gas. To get the most correct estimate of gas costs,you need to make sure that you have the right type of car plugged in - go to "more options: bottom left. I always pay with cash - I think you can use a credit card at some booths, but I am not sure. Most of the booths are manned and so will give change, receipts etc. I hope that helps!

You can double-check viamichelin's toll calculation at the official French autoroute website: http://www.autoroutes.fr/index.htm Just plug in your route(s) in the upper right. When you enter the autoroute, you'll be given a 'ticket.' You pay when you exit. You can pay in cash or use a Visa/MC. Be sure you go through the manned toll lanes, not the automated ones. No, you don't have to have coins. But they can be useful if you want to give the attendant the exact amount.

Everybody's partly right. I'm probably partly wrong, but I drive a few thousand miles in France each year: For tolls, viamicheline is close sometimes. Switching it to euros for a particular route does not make it more accurate. I was unaware of the other site, have not looked at it, and obviously have no opinion about it. For gas, it stinks, but it only has something like five types of vehicles and I always rent a small cheapo that goes forever on a drop of gas. Additionally, I don't know where it gets its gas prices which can vary widely. There can be a toll variance depending on where you get on near a city, especially down south. In a bunch of tries, a credit card worked once. Never tried a debit card. I've only used cash for the last eight or ten years, maybe longer. I've never, ever seen a toll plaza that did not have a manned both. Often there's no entrance ticket, you just come up on a plaza and cough up money.

I would not get on a French tollway without having about twenty euros in coin. We ran into a couple of unmanned tollbooths early morning and early evening that required us to frantically dig through carry-ons and purses looking for coins, since our American credit cards wouldn't work there....... I don't remember the exact locations, although one was on our way to Calais and we had already unloaded most of our euro coins. ( By the way, we also had a similar experience near the Dublin airport.)

An American friend recently insisted on paying the tolls after I collected him from Toulouse. We went through six of his cards before we found one that the auto toll booth would accept. You don't have to enter a pin number - I guess it just depends on the individual banks.
Roger

And of course, there is no law that says you MUST drive on toll autoroutes. There are almost always other highways unless you are in a dead rush.

Thank You! I will take all advice. I'll have Euros in paper and coin, and we'll have credit cards. I like receiving the ticket in advance and paying upon exit. We will be driving the area for three days. We'll get off the highway for the scenic drives. Obviously, when we want to get around effortlessly, we'll jump on the HWY. I also rented a car with a GPS, I just wanted to have a heads up on toll costs.

'I'm probably partly wrong' Based on what Cynthia said and a back-channel from a very polite broad who I respect, it seemes that there are, indeed, unmanned toll boths.

To clarify Ed, the source to whom he's referring is abroad, not a broad.

"I don't know where it gets its gas prices" Ed, you input the price of fuel, just like you select the type of car.

There are unmanned toll stops in France. BTDT. They are most likely to be found at minor exits. If yoú're going from one major city to another (or a popular tourist destination to another) you will almost never need to pay a toll where this isn't a manned booth.

Bets: a broad Lee: dumb me

We just returned from 2 weeks in France with lots of autoroute driving. I found via michelin right on target on the price of the tolls. We made sure to have enough cash on hand to pay the tolls. When you go to the toll booth be sure to get in a lane with a green arrow. Other lanes only take credit cards (non-american ones) or are unmanned. Most of the lanes we went through were manned. The one time it was automated the machine took paper bills or coins. We found the auto routes to be very easy driving, well signed and quick. Have fun!