Buying Gas with a US Credit Card in France

If the gas station has an attendant, you'll be able to use your American cards. Non-chip cards won't work at self-serve pumps. Many gas stations are unmanned after 10 PM and on Sundays. Gas stations on the Autoroute rest areas ("aires" in French) are always manned.

thanks so much. Buying gas during daylight seems to be a must! Merci'

Note that non-chip cards don't seem to work at the toll booths on the highways either. Some booths are card only so the U.S. cards will not work. At least ours didn't. Some booths have self-use cash machines. These work well with Euros. Finally, there is usually one booth on the far right with a blue neon toll taker sign above the booth that has a real person in it. Just approach the toll booths slowly and choose wisely. We choose the card only booth once and had to back out with a crowd behind us. Not a friendly group.

Larry - that never would have registered with me. Thanks so much for your help. On our last trip to France, we could still use our US credit cards without a thought at the toll booths. times change. Merci'

If you buy gas during the day M-Sa, you shouldn't have a problem. Depending on the area, Sunday could be a problem, as a lot of places are closed. Tolls could be the bigger problem if you are going to more "off the beaten path" places. We have found an increasing number of unmanned toll booths for non-major city exits. Make sure you have a lot of coins handy if you know you will be getting off at an exit for a smaller town.

Although you should have no problem on the autoroutes, as already stated by posters, be aware that in rural areas there are very many unstaffed gas stations that never have attendants at all, any time, any day. It is possible to drive for very long distances in rural areas without finding a staffed station, so be sure to top off your tanks before getting too low.