My husband and I will be flying into Paris from Venice at 10pm and would like to pick up our rental car and drive towards Mont St Michel. We figure we can drive for a bit then pull over and sleep in the car that way not having to waste money on a hotel for one night. Is there any French laws about sleeping in your car? Thanks!

I don't know about laws, but lots of people suggest sleeping on a train, and frankly sleeping in the car sounds more comfortable. At least it isn't moving, screeching, and rocking.

Will your rental car be big enough to even consider this? Most wouldn't have room for two people to lay down comfortably.

If you're on a major highway you may be able to nap in a car in the rest stop parking lot.

If you simply try to stop by the side of a local road and sleep I imagine the police would investigate and move you on.

Separately, what size car are you renting? Are you both very small people? Suggeest going to a local dealer and spend a few minutes seeing what it feels like trying to sleep in the that category car (and do be realistic).

Question, have you ever slept in a car overnight while travelling where you live (which I will assume is in the US). It certainly wouldn't appeal to me unless it was an emergency. But that isn't your question, your question is about the legality of the situation. I have no idea. But I would wander about the comfort, the safety etc.

My sister and I ended up doing this for one night in October in Chartres. It was not by choice, since we couldn't find a hotel room in the entire town or surroundings after literally hours of looking for one, so we may be biased against it. Around midnight, we found a hotel parking lot (of course, no vacancy) and finally decided to sleep in the car in the parking lot. I don't know the laws either, but no one bothered us or even noticed we were there. Also, I felt a little safer in a hotel parking lot than I would have just pulling over on a road or highway. But that meant lighting, which also made it hard to sleep.

We had a Laguna, so it was a pretty large car by European standards. Even with the seats fully reclined, it was not comfortable and we could not straighten out our legs. I doubt the backseat would have been much better, even though it was roomy.

Also, consider the time of year. Our one night in the car was very, very chilly, even though it had been pretty warm during the day. I don't know how long you would plan to pull over, but I wouldn't want to leave the car running for hours to keep myself warm.

The only 'plus' was no hotel bill for our night in Chartres on the credit card, but I would not willingly do it again.

Will you actually be saving that much money?
If you pick up your rental car at the airport, will you be charged more for an airport pick-up?
And then, you'll pay for the first day rental on the car that you'll spend trying to sleep in the car.

If it were me, I'd priceline a hotel at the airport ansd pick up the car the next morning

I have done something like you propose once unwillingly and if I had to do it again it will also be against my wishes.

Another possibility would be to look for a cheap hotel at the side of the autoroute. Formule 1 and Premiere Classe are large chains that have cheap rooms. You'll normally see signs at interchanges. Very uncharming, and basic, but at least you have a bed and usually a bathroom - the whole room feels like extruded plastic. (Formule 1 used to have shared shower rooms and toilets, but I've heard that they are upgrading.) Often in this region they're about 40 euros a night. They have staff only during the day, one of the ways they save money. Otherwise you just put our credit card into a machine which gives you a room number and a code. Find the room, punch in the code on the numberpad by the door, and hey presto you're in. You can stay until checkout time next day, or leave earlier if you just want a few hours sleep. At least you are likely to get some sleep - which will be much safer for you and others on the road.

Donot do that, sleep in a hotel. Along the highways there are often hotels like Formula 1 Hotels.
Clean, very basic.
http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule...e/france.shtml
It can be very dangerous to sleep overnight in your car. (think about robberies etc., that can happen!)

Sleeping in the car is not fun. I did this once as a kid. If you don't want to waste money on a hotel, stay in a hostel that night. The dorm beds would be better than a car, and safer too. But either a cheap ETAP or Ibis or Formule 1, or Priceline is a better idea, in my opinion.

See http://www.accorhotels.com to look up ETAP, Ibis, Formule 1, and the other Accor brands at once.

We attempted to sleep in the car once. We were camping and there was a surprise snowstorm at a high elevation in Colorado in June that soaked all our sleeping bags inside the tent. I can tell you that no one slept that night.

(And we didn't have any issue of safety or legality to think about, as we were parked in our campsite.)

I would find a cheapie bed for the night.

It is not considered illegal but it certainly is very dangerous even in the rest stop parking lots.

You'd rather sleep in a car than "waste" money on a hotel? That says it all.

Yes, it does. Sort of like all the people who say they'll "sleep" on a train not to waste money on a hotel.

Note well: I did NOT say "who sleep on a train to save time or give them an extra day" -- that's different.

So nothing illegal about it then? Just a bad idea?

Two frineds of ours were sleeping in a rest sop in France in a hatchback car. Some guys came along and slashed the tires, smashed the glass on the hatchback and ran off with their bags. Thankfully they had their passports and money on their bodies. None the less, they were stuck there getting the car repaired and they were without clothes and other personal belongings. I would not recomend it here or there.

Why not pay 1 less night on the car rental and stay 1 night in the airport area? Here is a listing of hotels: http://degaulle.airporthotelguide.co...orthotels.html

You can at least get a good nights sleep too, before heading off.

Our days of sleeping in cars are long since gone! Eons ago we were forced to sleep in our car because we couldn't find a hotel (we always reserve ahead now to avoid this sort of thing) and decided to park next to the bus station (this was in Southern California) so we'd have a place to clean up in the morning. We had an MGA at the time and managed to get a few uncomfortable hours of sleep. If we tried that now: 1. We probably wouldn't fit in the car any longer; 2. If we could fit, we'd need a crane to extricate us from the car. LOL

I think you have been given good advice to not try to sleep in the car and swap the day's car rental for an inexpensive room. You'll be more comfortable and most important safer.