Who knew that it is crazy expensive to drive on the highways in France? Well, now we do… Broke and tired we changed the GPS settings to not allow it to take us through toll roads on our second day! So now we know how it is to drive in France and some of the rules they have. Here is our experience of driving through France!

Good to know when Driving through France

We had our site set on our destination, Toulouse so we drove all day to try to get there. Driving in France is very similar as to driving in Germany and at the same time, it’s completely different. There are some things that might be good to know in order to avoid tickets.

1. Make sure that you have high visibility vests in the car. In case your motorhome (or car) breaks down you need to put the vest on when you leave the car. We also heard that police often ask foreign cars to show their vests so don’t dismiss it!
2. Breathalyser kit. Ok, so we had no idea that we needed that and we got lucky because we didn’t get stopped by the police. Apparently, you will use your own kit if the police want to check for alcohol. Note to self – make sure that you buy one.
3. To drive on the French highways can be an expensive experience. Make sure that you know your GPS and how to avoid these roads or be prepared to pay up.
4. http://www.autoroutes.fr/index.htm?lang=en is a site where you can check in advance how much toll you will have to pay for your trip!
5. Their highways are nice and in very good shape. You have truck stops and rest stops with gas stations along the way. However, there are not as many restaurants along the highway as in many other countries.

France is expensive to drive in

We ended up spending 124:- Euro, yes 124:- euro for a distance of 692 kilometers. Is it us or is it crazy expensive? First, we paid 4,40 euro. That felt ok. After that, we only go a ticket. Since we had not checked how much it costs – we had no idea how much we would end up paying. And the next ticket landed on 77,30:- euros!!! We changed the settings on the GPS and entered that it was not allowed to take us on toll roads.

After that, we ended up heading for the mountains and the drive became beautiful!!! Often it is much better to skip the highway and drive on smaller roads. You will see so much more and the only downside is that it takes you longer to get to your destination. But at the same time – who is in a hurry?! During this day we spent a little over 8 hours in the car!

Bottles of piss or what?

Ok so this is not that fresh but there is one thing that I can’t get out of my mind. Along the highway in France, there are bottles thrown out and laying alongside the road. But the bottles are not empty – there is a yellow substance in them. And if you ask me I believe that it is piss. Yes, urine! My theory is that people that can’t stop along the highway, use the bottles to relieve themselves. And then they throw them out the window. Also, I believe that this is a “guy thing” because I’m not sure that woman can do that! :).

If you have any information or have seen this phenomenon yourself – please let me know and tell me what you think about it! Am I right about the content in the bottles? And one more thing – French radio is a lot of French-speaking and not so much singing!