Petty theft from cars in Provence and Dordogne
 

Guide books and some posts state that you should not leave anything of value in your car in southern France. That is easy to say but when traveling between nightly stops I would like to do some site seeing, lunch stops, etc..

Specifically driving from Toulouse airport to Rocamadour I am thinking of stopping at Pech Merle or the town of Rocamadour with a car full of luggage.
After a one night stay I will be driving to Sarlat. On route I would like to stop at Gouffre de Padirac and Carennac ( also select from Martel, Castelnau, Loubressac, Autoire ).
On another travel day I would like to stop in Carassonne for a few hours.
On another travel day I would like to stop at Pont du Gard and possibly Les Baux and Uzes on the way to our stay in the Luberon.

I believe some luggage for the 5 of us will be exposed in the van/wagon I am renting. Are public parking lots safe from theft? Street parking in towns, Uzes? Am I being paranoid to be concerned? Your thoughts. Advice.

We've vacationed for 34 weeks in Provence/Cote d'Azur, 8 weeks in Languedoc/Roussillon, 10 weeks in the Dordogne, and 3 weeks in the Auvergne. Plus another 1 1/2 years or so in other regions in France. Never had anything stolen.

When bags are in the trunk, we try to back the car up against a tree/wall/lightpost/rocks/etc so the trunk can not physically be opened.

Don't worry - enjoy your vacation.

Stu Dudley

We have not had anything taken from our car in all of our travels. This said, we do not leave suitcases or bags on the backseat.

No, you're not being paranoid, and if you have any luggage at all showing, you're a potential target, whether you're on the street, in a public parking spot, or wherever. It's just asking for trouble, as any thief will be able to tell it's a rental car to begin with.

So however you manage it, make sure no luggage is showing at all. Back your car up against a wall or something else if possible. Put a local newspaper or a baguette or something "local" on the dashboard of the car.

<i>Put a local newspaper or a baguette or something "local" on the dashboard of the car.</i>

That might make you feel good, but it spoils the baguette, particularly if it's in the sun; it's better to eat it. The thieves recognize the tourist cars, local newspaper notwithstanding.

Of course it spoils the baguette - it's not meant for eating. And it's usually partly wrapped in paper anyway. And yes, locals of course know it's a rental car, but if it's a rental car with a local newspaper or a baguette or a barquette of fraises or something on the dashboard, they probably figure it's Aunt Clémentine visiting from Paris, not a bunch of American tourists.

I don't think you will find any place in Europe where you will not see the telltale sparkles of broken car glass on the pavement in various places.

However, the Dordogne is not a huge crime area! Exercise reasonable precautions and you shouldn't need to worry here.

Far easier for thieves are all the cars from other European countries - much easier to spot than a rental car, so more vulnerable, and just as likely to have goodies in them.
We park our car backed up to a wall if we can, but still often have luggage on show. It has Dutch plates so is an easy target for thieves.
I don't know if it is luck or not but we have never had anything stolen. Take sensible precautions. Make sure you have your documents/money/camera with you just in case. Handbags, camera cases and jackets left in the vehicle, even if empty of valuables, will be more attractive than just some suitcases.

I can't even begin to imagine why thieves would ignore cars with local papers in. Are people who can read richer than illiterates?

As for the fatuous delusion that America tourists are more worth robbing than Germans or Britons or French people from the next department...

The three major ways of minimising the risk of robbery:
- ensure NOTHING is visible. If you've got too much luggage, get a bigger car or less luggage.
- ensure nothing of real value (passports, money etc) are anywhere in an unoccupied car
- a four-door car: all five-doors, and most two-doors, allow a very nimble thief access to the boot from the car interior.

We regularly drive round Europe with thousands of pounds of equipment to set up house and office somewhere else for a month or so. Our car obviously screams tourists. By obeying these rules, we've never been robbed.

I try not to leave anything of value or interest visible inside my car when I park it. That is my practice at home in the U.K., and also in any other country I may visit. It makes no difference if I am using my own car or a rented one.

Sometimes this is unavoidable, so I try to leave visible only items of no value - a pillow or bedding, for example. Reversing tight up to a wall is a good idea.

Car crime will always happen. Taking a little care will help make it less likely that it happens to you.

By the way, are you supposed to buy a fresh baquette every day, or will a stale one work?

>>- a four-door car: all five-doors, and most two-doors, allow a very nimble thief access to the boot from the car interior.<<

Yep - but all I'm trying to do is to make my car harder to break into than the other cars in the parking lot - hoping that the thieves will pick the car that is the easiest to break into & not be noticed. Kinda like the two guys camping, who encounter a hungry bear & then they start to run away. One says to the other "we can't outrun this bear". Other replies "all I have to do is to outrun you" (old story).

Stu Dudley.

Thanks for the replies. My experience is that in my travel over a 50 year period only once was I a victim of a crime. While I was in England my home in California was burglarized.

On one trip with some friends, they had valuables, passports, airline tickets stolen from a hotel room safe of a high end US hotel chain in Budapest while we were out to dinner. An inside job. So a hotel safe is not the answer even after you are checked in.

Perhaps I will leave a dummy Aunt Clementine sitting in the back seat. Or park near telltale sparkles of broken car glass on the pavement( the odds of two crimes at the same location is very low). A stale baquette could be used to fend off robbers.

Last year we drove Croatia, Italy,Austria, Germany and did not have any problems except eating too much gelato. This year we are taking less luggage, but more guide books including Stu's itineraries to southern France. We are getting a larger car, but this does not get you more covered luggage space.I do not think the cover pulls over the 3rd row of folded down seats.If someone wants my underwear so be it.I will have my passport, ATM card, camera, Garmin GPS, and euros on my person. I just was not sure if southern France was better or worse than the rest of the world for this kind of stuff.

The big problem is getting a car that has a real trunk. Most rentals these days are only hatchbacks, unless you rent in the Mercedes class.

I have not come across a hatchback that does not have a cover. The idea is to keep the luggage out of sight.

I have been lucky through the years. Never had anythig stolen.
if on the road and we stopped for lunch or a pastis, we would stop at a place where we could see our car. We never let maps be seen.
kept a French paper on the seat, and a French book.
I was always amazed how many cars had their luggage showing on seats. if you have no choice, put them on the floor of the carand good luck.

While hatchbacks have covers, they are not as secure as a real trunk.

I agree that while the covers in hatchbacks are good, the OP stated that they will have luggage for five people, so in all likelihood the cover will have to be removed or will pushed up by the luggage.

Don't even think about leaving anything in your car. Thieves are specialised in rent a cars and break into them no matter if they can see your luggage or not. Unfortunately it happens rather often, I know of two couples who had that experience last summer, one in Marseille, one in Vacqueras.

Our tourists are dumber than yours. Here in Nantucket, visitors regularly leave Ipods, mobile phones, GPS, and expensive cameras on the front seats of their Range Rovers, with the doors unlocked and the windows down. They are surprised to return and find their property gone.

There is something about quaint cobblestoned streets and old buildings that make people feel like they are in a different and better world. It's true, it is a better world, but it isn't Eden.

Hire cars are invariably matriculated with departement numbers 60 or 76..........so car thieves can spot a hire car a mile off. Don't leave stuff in the car.
W

>>Don't leave stuff in the car<<

Which implies that you should drive from hotel to hotel and not visit anything along the way. So NO STOPPING at Pech Merle, Rocamadour, Gouffre de Padirac, Carennac, Martel, Castelnau, Loubressac, Autoire, Carassonne, Pont du Gard, Les Baux, and Uzes. That is not the way I would choose to explore Provence and the Dordogne. Just keep what you can out of sight & back the car up against a tree, rock, wall, lightpost, or anything else that would hinder a thief.

Personally, I feel safer with my bags secured in the trunk of my rental car, than in a perhaps not-too-secure storage room at a hotel if I arrive before I have access to my room.

Stu Dudley

Leave a Celine Dion CD playing.

"Leave a Celine Dion CD playing."

Over here, it's not unknown to steal the CD player but leave the CD.

It's called adding insult to injury.

When touring during the day with baggage in the car, I think I do the same as anybody else would do in the same "predicament" -- I park in the place with the greatest traffic (foot or vehicle) so that nobody can examine the car unnoticed.

At motels in the provinces, I bring in all the real baggage but leave all of the groceries from the hypermarket in the trunk. If I run out of wine or chips, I go back out to get them.

'Hire cars are invariably matriculated with departement numbers 60 or 76..........so car thieves can spot a hire car a mile off. Don't leave stuff in the car.'

Well, they are not in the Dordogne. I currently have a rental car parked in our driveway with a '40' registration. My understanding is that some years ago there were one or two departments which had cheaper road tax registration, and so the rental car companies liked to have their 'notional' headquarters there. This was made illegal, and later the road tax was eliminated. Now the department of origin is not even shown on the new license plates. People get to choose which one they want.

All this to say that it is not SO easy for someone to identify your car as a rental if it doesn't have agency advertising. (we were recently in Australia and were amazed to find some rental cars covered in advertising. We figured someone should pay us to drive one)

We never leave baguettes or even local newspapers in our car, even though we live here. We do exercise some caution, mainly because we lived for a long time in a major Canadian city. But we have neighbours who leave their doors open when they go shopping, and the police have campaigns to convince people to lock their cars when they leave them.

Exercise normal caution and have a good time.

"Carlux said Well, they are not in the Dordogne. I currently have a rental car parked in our driveway with a '40' registration."
I said invariably. Out of around 100 hire cars in our car park for the past year I would estimate that more than 95% were showing 60 or 76 number plates. Could you point me to the legislation making this practice illegal ? I cannot find it !
You also said "Now the department of origin is not even shown on the new license plates." You should look more closely, it is just a little different but the dept number is still there.
For S Dud and "don't leave stuff in the car" well you wouldn't Stud because as you suggest " One HUGE piece of advice I can pass on to you if you love travel & adventure like we do, is to SLOW DOWN and spend a minimum of 2 weeks in ONE SPOT" so your bags would be at "home" n'auraient-ils pas ??
W

>>For S Dud and "don't leave stuff in the car" well you wouldn't Stud because as you suggest " One HUGE piece of advice I can pass on to you if you love travel & adventure like we do, is to SLOW DOWN and spend a minimum of 2 weeks in ONE SPOT" so your bags would be at "home" n'auraient-ils pas ??<<

Typically, we have to drive to the first location, then drive from the 1st 2-week-stay location to the 2nd 2-week-stay location, then to the 3rd 2-week-stay, then to the last destination for 1 night. We spend 2 months in France most years. This June, we will be driving from CDG to Senlis for a 3 hrs visit with bags in the car. Then we will drive on and stay in Compiegne for 4 nights. Then we will drive to Rouen with the bags in the car & stoping at several locations along the way. Then we will be driving from Rouen with the bags in the car to our Gite in Normandy, and stopping along the way. Then after the Gite stay in Normandy, we'll drive with the bags in the car to our second Gite, also in Normandy - stopping along the way. Then after our second Gite we will drive to the 3rd gite north of Paris near Boulougne sur Mer - again with bags in the car & stopping along the way. I'm sure you didn't count the number of days we'll be driving with bags in the car - but it is 5 days. That's just for our spring/summer trip. We typically do it again in Sept - last year with "bags in the car" for 5 days too. That is 10 days per year with bags in the car - probably about typical for most vacationers to France. We have been spending 2 months in Europe (mostly France & Italy) since '99 - so that is about 12 yrs X 10 or 120 days with bags in the car - more than most US vacationers, I bet. We have been vacationing in Europe anually since '77. However, we didn't spend 2 months there until we retired in '99. Our normal visits before '99 would be 3-4 weeks a year. So if we had bags in the car for 10 days for our '77-'98 trips - that is 210 days. 165 + 210 = 375 days with bags in the car & stops along the way - and we've never had anything taken from the car.

Stu Dudley

Just a comment about the department of registration. What is shown on the new license plate is the departement you CHOOSE. Often that is where you live or where the car is registerd.

But if you come from Paris and don't want other people to know you come from the big city, you can choose 24, the Dordogne, which people might appreciate more. Or if you live here but were born in Brittany, you could choose their number. No longer does the license plate necessarily show where the car comes from.

When we first came here, in 1994, virtually all rental cars were marked '51', I think, as the road tax was lower there - specifically to attract their business. So rental agencies had an office there, registered their cars there, and then had offices all over France. The tax department obviously caught on, and put an end to this. Then a subsequent government put an end to the road tax, and the purchase of a 'vignette' every year.

Europcar has cars registered in 76. Hertz and Avis use 60. Europcar has even started putting stickers on their cars again, saying "Happy Europcar Driver."

> a subsequent government put an end to the road tax

I've been comparing prices for a car rental, and noted that some added a road tax. Can any of you help me understand?

The Vignette was only abandoned for private owners.

Rental cars here tend to be from 50.

Peter

In ten years, I've lost two things from my French-registered junky car (NOT a rental!). Once, left the car with the doors unlocked, overnight, in a public parking spot near my home. Someone went through my little insurance pocket and stole my current insurance tag.
Another time, my LOCAL car was parked until late at night in the public parking lot in Beynac; someone tried to prise open the door with a screwdriver, but didn't succeed. Just messed up the door lock enough that I couldn't get my key in.
Normal precautions apply, just as if you were in Sausalito, California or any other touristic spot.
Here in the heart of the Dordogne, I've had guests for eight years now, in tourist season, and I can't think of ONE who's ever had their rental car broken into.
But I'm sure it "could" happen, so I don't want to be the one to tell you otherwise.

I know better. I didn't find this thread until I searched "after the fact"

Someone broke into the rental car today! They didn't break the glass but rather took advantage of the fact that I left the window open about 1". They somehow pulled it out of the track and then must have used something to reach in and unlock the door. I didn't realize right away that the window was compromised until I tried to lower it and it wouldn't go down. They got lucky, sort of, as the ONLY (valuable) thing in the glove box in the car was my GPS. It was in there because it stopped working and both the US map and the French map (on an sd card) were AWOL. So, now we just have to deal with the window. The $24.95 insurance I bought with AMEX card is worth it's price. But merde anyway.

(We had gone into Bonniex just before lunch and we parked in the first parking area we came to, there were a few cars in the lot. Town was very quiet, we walked around and stopped for a lovely lunch. We walked around a bit more before returning to the car.)

So our mistakes were leaving the window open a crack, parking in a rather quiet lot. The GPS was NOT visible nor was there anything else in the car - at all. The car has a 76 plate and a lovely Eurocar sticker on the back window. They broke in, taking advantage of the mistakes we made, hoping that there would be something in the glove box. I had really forgot about it since it wasn't working and realize I should have taken it out but the reality is they broke in without seeing anything inside.

Today is our last full day in Provence, this will not dampen our love for the area.

Gotta love those Eurocar stickers that practically say "BREAK INTO THIS CAR!!"

<i>Gotta love those Eurocar stickers that practically say "BREAK INTO THIS CAR!!"</i>

No need for the sticker to attract a thief, the license plate itself is a give-away.

Sorry to hear this, Deb. Michael's right, though, about the license plate - I can't remember the statistics, but something like 90% of rental cars in France come from one département, and the département is always part of the number of the license plate, and thieves know that. I always scrape off the rental car sticker, but that doesn't deter any thief in the know about license plate numbers. Fortunately, I've never had a rental car broken into.

Enjoy your last day anyway!

IMHO - any car can be broken into at any time anywhere in the world.

Someone stole the BATTERY out of my father's car parked in the driveway of their house on a street one-block long in a very quiet middle class suburb. On a Saturday night. He went out Sun am to start the car to go to the bakery and nothing happened. Opened the hood - no battery.

We never leave anything in a car anywhere - and wherever possible park it in a garage. If not that - then on a busy street or in a guarded lot.

The problem with renting cars in Europe is that few still have an actual trunk with a lock; most are hatchbacks with a covered space for luggage.