Would one of our France-based contributors mind telling me what a litre of gazole costs these days? We're heading that way tomorrow night and I've still got time to decide whether to travel with a full tank or an empty one.
Much obliged
WdB
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I've no idea but I have heard some forecourts are unmanned and require card payment at the pump and there have been issues with UK based cards not working - so you might want to have a reasonable amount on board, and perhaps check your card will work at the first opportunity.
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I've never had any problems with my cards in French pumps. Surely a Visa card is a Visa card where ever you are. I can't see what difference it makes who the issuing bank is.
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They generally don't work in US pumps (even American Express).
Actually, thinking about it, perhaps the issue in France was that the forecourts were frequently unmanned so there was no way to pay cash.
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A little bit cheaper, just enough to make a difference.
In late May I paid 0.91 euros per litre.
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Just to note that I never had a problem with my UK Visa debit and credit cards working in US pumps in the USA. If using a debit card, you still have to choose "credit" on the machine thanks to their antiquated banking system.
10 years ago you couldn't use a card from outside the state you were in, so things have improved a bit.
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What about petrol prices in France? I have a trip planned in a week or so..........
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If you speak (read) french and all else fails ......
www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr/
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Diesel ('gazole', sometimes even still called 'gas oil') is 99-102 cents at the supermarkets this week, and a bit more at ordinary service stations except Elf outlets, which are about the same as supermarkets.
95 unleaded is about 1 euro 26/29 at the supermarkets with 98 RON a couple of cents dearer and service station prices add about 10 cents to both.
Prices are creeping up weekly towards last summer's levels as the Euro slips back a bit against the Dollar and even the Pound.
By my convoluted and amateur arithmetic, using the figures I saw in the UK a few weeks ago, anyone eventually paying in Pounds will find prices are now higher over here.
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There is a good French site-zagaz, which will tell you where the cheapest fuel is.
You choose a Dept and then a town, and can find the cheapest stations,(often supermarkets), and zoom in on a draggable map to locate the street.
I did this for St Malo, found the position on my sat-nav,and added it to the itinerary.
Also memorised other stations we were likely to pass on the way home.
Its in French, but fairly easy to use with 50yr old schoolboy French.
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... 50yr old schoolboy French ....
What you get up to in the privacy of your home is up to you, of course :-)
I know just what you mean - reading / writing is usually okay, but speaking at la plume de ma tante level is very stressful!
Things are better now at filling stations in France, but I think there are still some isolated unmanned (at night) places where only a French bank card will work. I still remember falling foul of such a place when desperately low on fuel. A kindly French gentleman offered to use his own card in exchange for folding French francs (as it was, back then).
In the more remote areas, filling up on a Sunday can also prove quite difficult..
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Thanks all round. Looks like diesel is still cheaper over there.
If it helps anyone else, I found last year that a UK Maestro card did work at unmanned pumps. That was our first trip since the UK went chip-PIN in 2007, so I suspect that's what made the difference. They certainly didn't work in 2006 when we got badly caught in the Sunday trap - won't make that mistake again!
On y va!
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We found that one of the supermarkets automated pumps didn't like uk chip and pin (still the case late last year)
The one with the Cavalier/Musketer symbol, cant remember the name.
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the one with the Cavalier/Musketer symbol, cant remember the name.
Les Mousquetaires
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Until the last couple of years we were not able to use the automated pumps in France. This has now changed ( in our experience) and a credit card, with code has worked in all the stations we have used. Also, I recommend the esso express stations, their prices are usually the same- or slightly less than the supermarkets. Diesel appears to be 99cents at the moment, but , if £1=1.15euros you are essentially getting 15% off therfore 85p (approx) a litre. You probably know this but do not buy on autoroute unless necessary- its considerably more expensive. Have a nice trip.
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Maximus is right, of course. In my comparison above I was thinking in terms of 98 RON petrol, rather than diesel, which is what the majority of the French use and is therefore taxed much lower for political reasons. Cynical, moi?
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I paid 99 cents this morning at a place which is always cheap but never the cheapest - I use it because they have lots of pumps and never a queue and they keep the pumps and the concrete round them very clean.
You should find somewhere at 95 cents if you're prepared to look long enough.
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That is cheap, with the ? worth 85p according to R4 yesterday.
Just got to decide when to buy my ? notes for the French camping holiday next month.
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How I wish that the £1= e1.50 days were back- it was'nt long ago.
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Anyone know if Belgium is still cheaper?
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Normally very little difference between France, Belgium and Holland for diesel, in my experience.
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I was in Belgium 3 weeks ago. Diesel was 0.95 euro and petrol was 1.43 euro
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Back now. Great holiday with much cycling and - once we'd got there - very little driving. I successfully used my UK Maestro card at automated pumps at Leclerc, Super U and Intermarché (aka les Mousquetaires) in Normandy and on the Atlantic coast.
Lowest price was 0.935 ? at Leclerc; the others were all in the region of 0.98 - 0.99. Branded forecourts are typically 10 centimes more than the supermarkets.
We still got to try out a lot of forecourts because the Verso's small tank necessitates frustratingly frequent fuel stops. Despite that, an average of 41.2 mpg over 1200 miles, most of them at motorway speed with a box on the roof and four bikes on the back, seems pretty satisfactory.
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www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr/ If you put your route into this site it will give the locations of garages near the route and the price of fuel (select your fuel type) at each. I have just done this for a trip from Calais to Honfleur next week and, on average, diesel is 1 Euro a litre, less at supermarkets. At £1 = 1.1 euros diesel is clearly cheaper in France
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This is also a good site - you can easily find the cheapest in any town or department.
www.zagaz.com/index.php
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Hello WilllDeBeest,
When you use this link you can find ALL te prices of fuel in France.
www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr/index.php
It is sorten at department and you can search at places.
Good luck
CPsoft
SQ
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 18/07/2009 at 21:00
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I am currently in France.
Expect 95c to 1 Euro for diesel
and 1.10 to 1.25 for petrol and you won't go far wrong.
Prices seem to go up at the weekend when everyone leaves on holiday...
Avoid the autoroute filling stations if possible, which can be 25 cents more expensive.
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I have returned from Honfleur, on the way down, and back, I refuelled at Auchan at Boulogne - diesel price was 0.928 cents/litre and the rest of my journey passed town garages at about 1.08 and Autoroute servuce areas at 1.14.
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You can even have the details of prices emailed to you when they change for each chosen specific filling station along your route by using the itinerary menu on the prix-carburants website - I can get up to 6-7 emails a day letting me know what the price is at any given filling station I would use on my regular route through France which is very helpful.
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