Hi, jckcpv!

there are some regional variations, but supermarkets/hypermarkets are usually cheapest.

Tax differs between countries, eg between France and spain. On a recent trip to s/w france, we came across a spanish enclave near the border, where everything is spanish, including a lower tax on fuel - hence the long queue of french cars filling up!

so you might find a day trip to monaco worth while!

regards, ann

There is a point to the catch. In the U.S., it allows the driver to wash the windshield and windows of his car while the filling up. It's useful even when the car has a small tank.

flanneruk-

So where are the "sensible parts of Europe" ? I'd like to think about visiting them. I hope I won't be wasting my time in France next week...

Rick

On a recent trip to s/w france, we came across a spanish enclave near the border, where everything is spanish, including a lower tax on fuel - hence the long queue of french cars filling up!

Was the place Livia? :-)

Obviously it must have been Llivia. However, besides Spain, the very best borders to cross to buy fuel are Andorra and Luxembourg.

Obviously it must have been Llivia. However, besides Spain, the very best borders to cross to buy fuel are Andorra and Luxembourg.

Well thank you ! it is just that I didn't see the point in lining up for quite a long time in Llivia when Puigcerda is 5 km away and has lots of
gas stations. Though I live in the area, I was not even aware that Llivia had a gas station...
Was I wrong to ask?

Llivia?

Puigcerda?

What does that have to do with the price of gasoline in France? Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

rs899:

In a continent of 50+ independent nations, it's always dangerous to say "always" or "never". Whatever might be the norm in Switzerland or Denmark, who knows what lunacy some pressure group (in the civilsed countries) or straightforward lunatic or bunch of thugs (in the unaccountable dictatorships like Belarus or the beetrot republics like Transdniestria) might have got into law. For all I know, San Marino might have passed a Bill last week requiring fuel to be dispensed only to drivers in medieval doublet and hose.

There are countries (like Bulgaria) that had no self-serve petrol last time I drove through. Whether that's still the case - well who knows?

We are in Avignon right now. We've seen 95 octane gasoline for as little as as 1.19E per liter. The most we've paid is 1.27E per liter at a BP in St. Etienne. (Of course we found it for 1.22E right around the corner as soon as we filled up!) Total stations are always the highest we've seen.

We've had very good luck at the big stores such as Auchan that have a petrol station attached. Because we don't have a chip card we can't pay at the pump, but it's pretty easy. Pump the fuel, pull up to the pay station, tell them your pump number, hand them your U.S. credit card.

I can't tell you exactly what mileage our little Citroen C1 is getting, but we've driven from Paris to Tours to Avignon and around a bunch of places in Provence and have only spent about 45E on petrol so far. It seems to do quite well on fuel efficiency.

Klompen-

This is OT, but how's the Villages Hotel? Did you stay at one yet? We are booked in one in Orange , one in Rennes and one in Caen. We're right behind you guys..next week!

Rick

Hi, pv - yes, it was llivia - I was having a senior moment and couldn't remember the name.

it seemed to us a rather singular place - we stopped for a drink in a cafe, and the owner and customers were having 3 way conversations, that is in french, spanish and catalan, all mixed up together. the waitress in our hotel confirmed that that was what they did at home, just using the word/phrase that seemed most apt at the time.

the queue for the petrol was nearly all french registered cars; presumably locals who couldn't be bothered to drive the extra, admittedly very few, kms to Spain proper.

regards, ann

Ann
thank you.
I hope you did not miss the pharmacy which is said to be the oldest in Europe. :-))

hi, pv,

I'm afraid we did - it didn't feature in whatever guide book we had with us. However, after the exhaustive and exhausting tour we had round the old pharmacy in heidelberg with our german friends, It'll be a while before I eant to see any more.

regards, ann

oops, that should have been "yearn"!