car travel in France/ theft of contents

Thieves know what rental cars look like, so they target them. Sometimes there are bar codes on the windows, sometimes it's the license plate. One suggestion used to be to toss a local language newspaper on the back shelf of the car. Couldn't hurt.

Any car, anywhere, can be broken into, at any time. That's just facts. Hide your stuff in the trunk and, if something is really really important, keep it on your person.

Valuable items (e.g., jewelry, laptop) that are not necessary to your trip are usually best left at home. Smaller items (phone, camera, tablet) that you have decided to bring would be safest in your own possession as you explore Giverny. Note that car rental Collision Damage Waiver and other types of insurance usually cover theft of the car, but not theft of your possessions from the car.

While leaving luggage hidden in the trunk, you might also leave the individual bags unlocked. Then, any would-be thief who finds time to rifle through it could see that it's just clothes and books.

Put everything in the trunk, even the maps. That's what all the French members of our family have always done and have always advised.

As everyone has said, do not leave anything visible in your car. Cameras go with you, guide books go with you or get tucked under a seat or in the glove box. Everything goes in the trunk. Basically the same rules one would use traveling in the US. Overall. I would not worry any mire than if I were traveling in the states.

As others have said, have everything in the trunk out of sight. That is our number one. In addition to that, we also never open the trunk any place we are leaving the car. (we organize before we leave for the day so that everything we need is in the car not the trunk.) That way if someone is "watching" the parking lot and looking for an opportunity, you have not given them a sneak peak at what is in the trunk.

I would highly advise to follow Rick Steves' advice and leave nothing in your car. When thieves see rentals, they presume it is a traveler who has left things in the trunk and won't waste time breaking into the trunk. We had the trunk of a rental broken in an attempt to steal but of course we had nothing in it to steal. We always keep our passport, credit cards, etc hidden in clothes in front of us where someone would have to take all of our clothes off to get to it and never bring anything irreplaceable with us. Keep in mid that thieves frequent touristy places looking for rental cars and if they see you get out, they actually know the average time people spend in each site! Just because they don't see you put things in the trunk won't matter- they will presume you do and they are right in many cases.

Thankfully in France the days of telling a hire car from the licence plates, such as '75' for Paris, are long gone, and the last hire cars I had in France had no outward signs they were hire cars. The car will have a departement code on it but this is the owners choice, the number stays with the car for life. Following on from phred's comments, I do use the newspaper trick, even in my own car.

If you are stopping during the day, keep what you don't need in the boot and don't go to it on arrival at the stop unless you have to. I've left things in the boot during the day in hire cars and in my own car, which stands out in France, with no problem. But I try to keep to the busier parts of the car park, and if necessary reverse as tight to the rear wall as possible.

If the car is a hatchback, keep the shelf on, and lowered, ie rearrange the contents if they are nudging the shelf up.

Adding to the previous comment, but keeping it separate, is on the road I play 'spot the hire car'. I can spot them in the UK, in Ireland and a couple of other countries. One place I cannot spot them as easy is France. Tourist cars yes, even ones from France, but not specifically hire cars. I would not worry too much about the car appearing to be a hire car, the ticks and signs to the observer won't be as obvious as you might be expecting.

Well, I had a different experience from the last posters. When I rented a car at Europcar at CDG, it came with a decal in the rear window that bragged how this was a "Europcar" vehicle. There was no way to remove it or hide it. I was frustrated, to say the least, but also jet-lagged and not willing to go back in the rental office and wait in a long line for a different car. Fortunately, we didn't have any trouble with car thefts on that trip, but we kept everything out of sight--as we would in the States.

The only time I've had things stolen from a car, everything was out of sight in the trunk, and they broke into the trunk while we were parked for 15 minutes at a parking lot at a famous Hawaii viewpoint.
The police later told me the bad guys can break into a trunk in 10 seconds and they often target rental car because they believe the goodies are in the trunk even if there is nothing visible in the car.
I assume European car thieves are at least as well organized as Hawaiian ones.

What would you do if you had a rental car with your stuff in New York City, Miami or Honolulu (or substitute any big urban American city)?

Further to MC's comments, here in LA rental cars stick out like a sore thumb. There are 3,4,5 big bar code stickers on most of the windows, the registration is brand new (sometimes it's from Arizona), and the cars are base models in primary colors that are easily resold after a year or two.

When I had a rental car in Italy some years back the plates said ROMA which some folks later told me is a sign that it's a rental, esp. once you leave Roma.

And yes, just because you do everything right doesn't mean someone won't take a chance that there are goodies in your trunk. If there aren't, it's no big deal to them.

My wife's car got broken into and the contents stolen right in front of our house in a nice neighborhood.

Now, we always bring in every bit of shopping or anything looking snag-able each night.

In the case that taught us that lesson,...
It was trays and decor--all glass and too delicate for thoughtless pilfering-- in their Crate & Barrel bags.
that was purchased with the intent of using the items at a catered event the next day.

Hiding most everything from plain sight is still better than no attempt at all.

Bags from Picard are better than those from Le Bon Marché for your dirty clothes.
I still think daylight hours are much safer than the wee hours.
I do still leave some small tools under my seat all the time. But my car is much less attractive than my wife's.

Phred, you pinpointed one of the reasons Italy, France and Spain moved to centralised licence plates on cars with the Roma plates. Out of area cars were more likely to be victims of car crime than locals especially if registered in a rich(er) area. Though my first experience of a hire car in France it had Bouches du Rhone plates (13), if you know a bit of France you might understand why people got out of my way! That affected local residents and tourists alike.

My spotting here is they usually have a sticker, are like the LA ones in sellable colours, (dark and/or metallic), a no smoking sign on the window, and usually this or the last six months licence code. Usually they are registered in London and the SE of England as that is where the hire company and car company have their offices, but the plates don't change when the car moves, my car has 'West of England' plates (W) but lives in Scotland where the local code is 'S'. One of my colleagues has 'Y' for Yorkshire on theirs.

Most of the theft from cars is opportunistic, and avoiding the bling that attracts the magpie thief will reduce the risk drastically, and most cars now, esp the ones hired are relatively more difficult to break into than they were. The thief wants to know they can get in, get the stuff, get out in seconds. Out of site makes the car less attractive.

One thing though, is try to hire smaller, as long as you can all fit and so can your luggage. You will save on fuel costs, easier to park, but will fit in with the local fleet more than with a larger car. Easier said than done, if I was to go to North America I would want if could afford to to hire a big American muscle car rather than a Toyota because it would be more of the experience, but the larger the car, the higher the price, the richer the driver, the greater the pickings.

Given you do not have a hire car some of the advice you have received is superfluous. You have a leased vehicle and it will not have car rental bar codes, stickers or anything else on it that would indicate it is anything other than a regular vehicle.