Will be traveling in Provence in a week. I've heard that gasoline is very expensive in France. What can I expect?

jckcpv, gasoline is very expensive throughout Europe. In France and other parts of Western Europe you can expect to pay the equivalent of $5.50-$6.00 per gallon.

Diesel is about 1 euro per liter. Regular gas runs about 1.25 euros / liter.

One other thing to note on paying:

-if it is a filling station with an attendant on duty, then most US credit or debit cards will be accepted (not Amex)

-BUT if you are at a self serve pump, or at a filling station when no one is on duty, then your US credit and debit cards will normally NOT work in the machine. (Machines only take the French Visas and Mastercards etc that have a chip in the center of the card and require a pin).

I have seen lots of people get in trouble with this when running low on fuel.. Just remember the above and you should be fine.

In all of the major service stations (Total, Esso, BP, Shell, etc.) Amex is indeed accepted. I even get bonus points for using Amex in Total stations.

During store hours (since your cards won't work at automatic pumps), you will save significant amounts of money by filling the tank at hypermarkets in the suburbs of cities. The autoroute is the last place you want to buy fuel.

Hi J,

Get a Diesel, if you can.

Mileage is better, fuel is cheaper.

Fill up the tank on Saturday, when the stations are staffed.

You don't want to get stuck on Sunday with automatic pumps that won't take cash or your US magnetic strip CC.

Enjoy your visit.

Pay cash if possible. Or, at least have cash with you just in case. I do not like my cc number bouncing all over Europe.

Here's a handy link to the gas prices in Europe.

http://www.iru.org/Services/Fuel/Welcome.E.html

Gas = 1.182 Euros per liter X 3.8 liters to the Gal = 4.49 Euro per Gal X $1.30 per Euro = $5.83 per Gal.

Diesel - 1.025 Euros per liter X 3.8 liters to the Gal = 3.895 Euro per Gal X $1.30 per Euro = $5.06 per Gal.

Ergo -- Rental a diesel vehicle. M/PG will be better than gas vehicle + fuel is less expensive. It only makes sense. Just remember, don't put gas into a diesel tank. Diesel pump handle will black whereas a gas pump handle will be green. Maybe someone else can tell you the French words for diesel.

The French use 3 different words indifferently:
diesel (dee-ez-ell)
gazole (gaz-oll)
gasoil (gaz-wahl)

Ah yes, very important - sometimes "diesel" is labeled as such in France, but it is also called "gazole."

Here's an up to the minute, sort of, of the petrol / gazole prices in Europe.

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/

&quot;<i>Pay cash if possible . . . . I do not like my cc number bouncing all over Europe.</i>&quot;

Do you feel the same about your home country?? You cc is just as secure buying petrol in Provence as it is in Peoria.

<i>I do not like my cc number bouncing all over Europe.</i>

Any worse than bouncing all over the U.S.?

What exactly is the procedure tanking up in a hypermarche? Do you (1) pump first, then pay the attendant , or (2)see the attendant first , hand him your credit card, gesticulate wildly in the direction of your car and grunt something unintelligible?

Rick

TTT

You pump first and then drive up to the cashier in a booth like a tool booth, with a barrier that he raises once you have paid.

It is good if your language skills include being able to say &quot;num&eacute;ro cinq&quot; or &quot;num&eacute;ro deux&quot; or whatever to identify your pump.

Note: there is no button to push or lever to raise on the gas pump like in the U.S. Once it resets to zero, you can start pumping.

When filling your tank, make sure that the pump says &quot;gazol&quot; if you have a Diesel and &quot;essence&quot; for gasoline.

You absolutely do NOT want gasoline in a Diesel.

...nor do you want diesel in a vergasser.

I own both.

And you have to hold the nozzle while your are pumping. You cannot put a catch on so that you can leave the car filling and walk away, confident that the pump will switch off when the tank is full.

There must be some regulation against it in Europe.

Not that we can afford to fill our tanks, anyway!

&quot;There must be some regulation against it in Europe.&quot;

No. We just have cars with sensible-sized tanks (because they're energy efficient) so there's no point in the driver walking away. And since there's practically no attended serve, in the sensible parts of Europe anyway, there's no call for a widget that lets the attendant serve three cars at once.